Van Gogh: A Retrospective

""He did not paint his pictures; it was like he exhaled them in a gasping, boiling breath,'' one German critic aptly wrote of Van Gogh. Reminiscences of the artist by friends and passing acquaintances, letters from his brother Theo and appreciations by critics and artists make up the text of this handsomely packaged potpourri. For Margritte, the blind force of Van Gogh's obsessions made the tortured artist an unfree man. To Kokoschka, the tension in the painter's famous sunflowers and undulating cypresses speak of the fragility of an easygoing lifestyle in a mechanized age. Each artist seems to confront his or her own concerns when analyzing Van Gogh. Jean Renoir, Francoise Gilot, Gauguin and Klee are among the commentators. One hundred twenty-five superior color reproductions and 103 halftones remind us that Van Gogh could do a very formal Still Life with Coffeepot, a street scene ablaze with fauve-like color or the solemn, biblical Raising of Lazarus. (November 12)