Big Van Gogh Celebration Planned

If Vincent van Gogh were alive for his 150th birthday celebration Sunday, he probably wouldn't know if he should laugh or cry.

Having sold only one painting in his lifetime, van Gogh would be astounded by the thousands of fans who are expected to flood the Dutch museum dedicated to his now-priceless work.

Special buses adorned with images of his paintings will take tourists to the Van Gogh Museum, where they will enjoy free entry and birthday cake. A new five-euro coin, bearing van Gogh's portrait, will be unveiled and visitors can compete for the best-drawn birthday card.

The museum attracts more than 1 million people each year.

Although he is known for expressive, emotional paintings such as "Starry Night," van Gogh is equally known for his tormented psyche, revealed in letters to his brother, Theo, and others.

Van Gogh once wrote, "I would like to paint in such a way that everybody, at least if they have eyes, would see it."

Almost a century later, a van Gogh painting of a vase of sunflowers electrified the art world when it was auctioned for $39.5 million, smashing previous records. In 1990, a Japanese collector purchased the artist's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" for $82.5 million; it remains the highest price ever paid for a piece of art.

"He said he wanted to paint pictures people would go on looking at for a long time," says Judy Sund, a van Gogh scholar at the City University of New York. "It's a weird fulfillment of that fantasy."

Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in the southern village of Groot Zundert. After failing in early careers as a teacher and preacher, he began painting in 1880, at age 27. His talent quickly blossomed, but his life was increasingly troubled by a strange mental illness, which modern scholars suggest may have been epilepsy.

In a fit of rage, he cut off part of his own left ear in 1888 and gave it to a prostitute after an argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin. After several stays in French mental asylums, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest in 1890. He was 37.

Van Gogh's best work came in the last three years of his life, when he produced a wide-ranging body of work, characterized by thick brush strokes and use of color to intensify emotions.

His importance in art history — which is not as great as his fame — is due to his ability to merge himself into his work, presenting a subtly altered version of reality, Sund said. Later painters, such as Kandinsky and Picasso, took these ideas much further, creating truly abstract art.

The Van Gogh museum is currently showing a collection called "Vincent's Choice," which features works that van Gogh liked or that influenced him. Later this year, it will exhibit "Van Gogh Modern" — works that were influenced by van Gogh.

By Toby Sterling