Van Gogh and the Art of the Future

Life & the Arts Column by Eric D. Lehman

At the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, I stare in wonder at Sprig of Flowering Almond in a Glass, so delicate in both form and color. There is something so sad about it, so fragile and broken. White flowers and knobbly branches are set in a dirty glass of water on a yellow-green table. A red line crosses the painting behind the sprig and the glass, in the…