The Problem of Truth in Van Gogh’s Painting: Some Different Theoretical Interpretations

Abstract

The article raises the problem of the relationship between art and truth, reviewing the interpretations of V. Van Gogh’s famous painting A Pair of Shoes (1886–87) in the works of famous theorists and art critics. Raising the question of what truth is revealed in the artist’s painting, the most important disputes on this topic between M. Heidegger, M. Schapiro, J. Derrida and F. Jameson are briefly discussed. This artist’s painting also caught the attention of the famous Lithuanian philosopher A. Šliogeris, who considered it as a diagnosis of the death of Western visual art itself. Along with the dispute of famous theoreticians about this, an attempt is made to consider the point of view that the death of art itself and the rise of civilisation of technology are revealed in van Gogh’s paintings.