What is it that makes Vincent Van Gogh's paintings so great?

Question

Answer without bring up his mental illness, his ear or any of his crazy stories. I am talking paintings themselves. Whats so great about them? What makes them so special?

Answer 1

Honestly there isn't anything that makes his paintings stand out any more than any other artist.  IT was because of his life and his problems that made his paintings sought after.  many of his paintings along with other notable artists look, quite honestly, as though a preschooler made them.  They can call it surrealism, Impressionism, or any other "ism", but they just don't have that much appeal.  His early work was true art, after he grew older he slipped away to make some horrible paintings.  

Personally I would rather look at art from Rembrandt, Monet, Degas, or Seurat.  Seurat's creations using Pointillism is an amazing feat.  To use nothing more that dots to blend and define a work is art.

Answer 2

Two of the most important things are his treatment of paint and his choice of subject matter. Van Gogh was one of the first to use paint in the way he did. Traditionally, painters applied paint very thinly, partly because paint was expensive and they wanted to economize. But this also had the effect of presenting a painting as, not a thing, but an image. The physical characteristics of paint were not as important as the picture that the paint was used to create. Van Gogh, in contrast, applied paint so thickly that one cannot help but notice its physicality, its materiality. In looking at one of Van Gogh's paintings, one goes back and forth between noticing the paint and looking at the image portrayed, and thus becomes aware of the painting's status as a thing created by a person, not just a thing that exists. One begins to consider the fact that Van Gogh made particular choices as he painted the work. He was not simply trying to replicate how things really look, but rather, presenting a subjective vision of the world. This ties in with the subject matter. Without trying to explain individual images (which I would not presume to do anyway), I would say that his choices of subject matter (his bed, a starry night, peasants, his favorite bar in Arles) also present a personal vision, the things he thought were worth noticing and presenting to the world.

Answer 3

It helped having a sister-in-law who promoted him. In his life Vincent only sold one painting for which he never even received payment.

That said, I love his use of colour, the thick layers, the sheer energy in making them. The paintings convey feelings which are impossible to put into words.

Answer 4

His choice of colors, his heavy, expressive brushstrokes, and the volume of his work, from sketches to paintings.  

Answer 5

He was the first to approach painting the way he did. His approach to bold brush strokes, his content, use of color, even impressionistic style, all of this was a first when we look back as his work historically.

No one was working or approaching art the way he did. We must also look to the stories, the messages within the paintings too. These also reveal much about the story teller, this was not a common impressionist. It is his point of view that makes his work powerful, emotional, and impactful (if one can coin a phrase).

All of this lumped together is what makes a Van Gogh painting powerful, and moving. They are compelling when we actually look at them in context, remembering when they were created. If we simply look at them from where we are in 2008, from a typical consumerist American point of view, then they are just simplistic thickly brushed paintings. Which is a very sad statement indeed.

Answer 6

They are very intense in sense of light and color, they strike you visually right away, in very raw kinda way, they catch patterns in nature that not many people see, his altered perception was the main reason for that, not in an ill way, its just altered, seen differently.