The name Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) invariably invokes a legend -- the legend of a wild, creative genius, out of sync with the stilted, repressive atmosphere of Victorian Europe; who exploded in passionate art and self-destructive disregard of the banal parameters of everyday life; who followed his muse unswervingly, like a moth to a flame; whose madness was the flip side, and possibly the source, of his uncompromising genius. To those of us saddled with responsibilities and borne down by petty rules, this is an immensely attractive legend.
It is also the legend that is drawing Tokyo's art lovers out from their homes, cafes and petit galleries, in their hordes, to the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MoMAT), to see an exhibition that, perversely, seeks to destroy the crowd-pulling legend.
Van Gogh is thought of either as a genius or a madman, curator Kenjiro Hosaka complains.