I know. It sounds kind of ambitious to say that the media made Van Gogh the most famous artist of all time when we have names like Picasso and Da Vinci in our heads. But let's be honest: most people can't even name an artwork from Picasso. And Da Vinci is just the Mona Lisa for the average person. But what about Van Gogh? Ohh everyone knows The Starry Night. What about the damn Sunflowers? Or the selfportraits? Even the Bedroom In Arles (yeah the 3D trippy one) is more famous than any of Picasso's paintings.

But is there a cause for him to be the most recognized artist of all time? What does he have that the other artist doesn't?

An easy-to-recognize style, with appealing colors, an edgy backstory about a guy who was depressed and cut his ear off (the kids love to hear that story), and the help of media and marketing to skyrocket the prices of his work.

Let's think about the generic "Artsy Indie student who wears scarfs and wants to understand art". Of course, the only artist they think about is Van Gogh, because most of them are way too lazy to study the dozens of artists who have built the concept of art that we have today. Maybe they'll know about Banksy and Pollock too, and that's it.

So, now that we have the regular adolescent who tries to look artsy by posting "poetic" phrases with the Starry Night background. You have seen it, maybe you even did it in the past, but that's ok. You don't need to feel ashamed or anything. But it's very, very cringe. (oh god I'm cringe)

And then we have people seeing those posts, finding them beautiful (because Van Gogh has a very appealing art style), and searching for more. And then, in an addictive cycle, people consume more Van Gogh, talk more about him, and see more movies about him, and more documentaries, or advertisements using his image and UGH.

What happened to the other artists in the world? Why don't we talk about Michelangelo's sculptures more often? He is a very famous artist. Everyone knows who he is. But why don't we appreciate his work just as we appreciate the Dutch painter?

Don't get me wrong, he was a great artist. But we live in a generation that romanticizes depression, with people who only like what is famous, what is comfortable to the eyes, and have no understanding of art whatsoever. This is the perfect scenario to turn a humble, talented, and deep artist, into a design aesthetic for corporate ads, and an inspiration for sad 15-year-olds who want to feel important when saying "Oh, I'm not like the others... I like to appreciate art. Have you ever seen the Starry Night? It is so touching. I can feel the tears coming inside of me through the pixels of my screen".

Anyway, I hope you guys can understand my point on why Van Gogh is overrated. He is great, yeah. But Monet was also great. Haven't seen anyone outside the artistic community talk about him in a while.

Thanks for reading, and I hope I could illuminate you with my giant brain through my fantastic ideas.

Best regards; Stoots