Beauty in Brokenness
As everyone from Detroit knows, one of the true gifts of culture for us is the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA). It is an awe inspiring maze to walk through the millennia of beauty and creativity from around the world. Amazingly, for locals, admission is free.
Occasionally, I will have a lunch meeting at the DIA cafe. When I do, I try to arrive a few minutes early just to go to one of the most beautiful rooms in Detroit. In this room, all within 20 feet of each other, are some of the most famous and beloved modern artist’s works – Monet, Picasso, Rodin, and for me the most beloved of all: Vincent Van Gogh.
Besides the beauty of Van Gogh’s work, I particularly appreciate Van Gogh because while painting masterpieces, he lived on the fringe of society. Van Gogh’s mind carried genius alongside mental trouble. He was an outsider who lived mostly in obscurity; not among the rich and famous. It was hard for him to make and keep friends, but below the surface was rare talent and the image of God. If not for the enormous love and belief of his brother, we may have never have known his name or the beauty of his brush stroke.
In one particularly dark time in his life, he famously cut off his own ear after a fight with his best friend and fellow artist, Paul Gogan. Shortly thereafter he checked himself into Saint-Paul-de-Mausole psychiatric hospital in southern France. It was here that he had some of his most productive time as an artist. In the confines of a psych ward his most beautiful works were painted, including one at the DIA called “The Diggers”.
Christiane and I once visited this psychiatric hospital in France and walked the grounds where Van Gogh stayed; now a tribute to his life and art. We looked out the window of his humble room to the sky where he painted “Starry Night”, one of his most famous works.
His work was not fully appreciated until well after he died of a gunshot wound at age 37. He never was recognized for his work while alive. He never gained wealth from his talent. Yet despite social and psychological shortcomings, somehow he knew of his innate value as a child of God and the gifts that God gave him. He said of himself when writing to his brother from this hospital:
“If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning”
In the midst of brokenness Van Gogh saw his value. This was not simply because he believed in his own talent and beauty of his paintings, it was because he knew no matter how deeply he was broken as a person, there was value given by God, Himself. This was a lesson taught by his father, a pastor, despite their tortured relationship.
One could say that he displayed the value of himself by the over 40 self portraits he painted (one of which is also at the DIA). A handful of these self portraits were painted in the weeks and months after he cut off his ear. He didn’t edit these paintings, instead painted in the bandaged ear for all to see. He knew he had value and beauty despite his many shortcomings. The painting, “Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear”, is now among his most valuable.
Van Gogh’s view of himself as reflecting the image of God is a core theological point in Scripture for all of us. We are are unique because we are created in the image and likeness of God:
