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metal prints vincent van gogh metal prints van gogh metal prints old shoes metal prints heidegger metal prints art interpretation metal prints art criticism metal prints derrida metal prints shapiro metal prints

paintings vincent van gogh paintings van gogh paintings old shoes paintings heidegger paintings art interpretation paintings art criticism paintings derrida paintings shapiro paintings

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There have been various interpretations of Van Gogh's painting Old Shoes. The most famous is German philosopher Martin Heidegger's essay "The Origin of the Work of Art." He interpreted the shoes as belonging to a peasant woman thus supporting his philosophy of Dasein. Meyer Schapiro criticized this essay by saying that Heidegger projected his own philosophy into the painting and missed one important aspect: "the artist's presence in the work." The shoes speak as "a portion of the self." This is very much in line with Van Gogh's letters, which reveal how he conceived and composed paintings. French philosopher Jacques Derrida defended Heidegger's interpretation, but to no avail. Reliability of equipment (shoes) could only be essential to the peasant woman, whereas Van Gogh's equipment was not the subject of the painting. He might have painted the shoes in bare feet for all we know.

I was a great artist in the fifth grade, at least that�s what my fellow classmates and art teacher thought. My parents thought differently, however, and transferred me to a Catholic school, and that was the end of my art career. By the time I got to college, I was convinced that the intellectual search for truth was far superior to the aesthetic. I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and hadn�t taken one course in art. None were offered, even though the college professed the "liberal arts." In a sense, I was on the same course as Robert Motherwell (philosopher to artist), but for me the end came in the jungles of Vietnam. Philosophy and everything that I had learned�all the teachers, priests, and professors�had deserted me. Except...