I’m pleased to share one the projects that has consumed much of my 2018: illustrations for the riveting book Killing Vincent: The Man, The Myth and The Murder (you can find it for sale on Amazon here). It is written by Dr. Irv Kaufman Arenberg, a Colorado doctor who uses 21st-century forensic evidence to challenge the century-old legend that famed artist Vincent Van van Gogh committed suicide.
Artist Darrell Anderson illustrated Dr. Irv Dr Arenberg’s book, “Killing Vincent: The Man, The Myth, and The Murder.” They appeared at a book signing together.
Dr. Aerenberg, a retired ear surgeon and author of several medical books, has studied and written about van Gogh for more than three decades. In 1990, he caught the attention of the art history world when the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a special article in which he posthumously diagnosed van Gogh with the inner ear disorder, Meniere’s disease. It was a challenge to the long-held belief that the artist had epilepsy. Meniere’s, Dr. Aerenberg maintained, more correctly explained van Gogh’s misdiagnosed “attacks.”
Similarly, Dr. Aerenberg has never believed the legendary account that van Gogh took his own life in 1890.