반 고흐의 편지와 회화를 활용한 생태적 사고와 상상력 교육

Abstract

This study examines a proposal for the education of ecological thinking and imagination for university liberal arts courses, utilizing the letters and painting of the representative post-impressionism artist, Van Gogh. Of course, Van Gogh did not carry out his artistic activities from a ecological perspective with an understanding of nature, humans, and society. However, what we can definitely see from his letters is that despite his very desperate reality, he showed thoughts on nature and human symbiosis without compromising with the logic of modern capitalist society. Above all, Van Gogh’s view on nature has similar aspects with German romanticism, which emphasizes the organic relationship between nature and humans and can be connected to the traditional thinking of modern ecology. What draws our attention to his thinking are his criticism on hierarchical structure of capitalist society and city-based civilization, and his awareness on the greatness of simple life. We can see socio-ecological meaning in his actions of planning an artist community to solve the problems of artists who were living in economically appalling conditions. Van Gogh's such ecological thinking can be seen in his many letters and is reflected in his artistic works. Thus, his letters and painting can be regarded as effective material to put ecological thinking and imaginative education into practice.