Van Gogh

I spent a week reading Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith's Van Gogh: The Life (reviewed here), and though it's nearly 1,000 pages I was very rarely bored. Reminded me of other terrific biographies, like Robert Caro's three books and counting on LBJ -- the forthcoming volume of which I'll be reviewing for The Millions -- and Claire Tomalin's recent book on Charles Dickens. Every page of the book really moves, and the art criticism struck me as very astute and interesting.

I had a great conversation with Greg Smith yesterday. I'll be publishing the interview in about month (in the issue preceding Naifeh and Smith's Jan. 20, 2012 lecture at the Columbia Museum of Art), and I will likely post more chunks of the interview here, in the land of unlimited space.