I miss the old days when Van Gogh was pronounced Van Gogh and not the proper way of Van Gogh. You can do so many puns with Van Gogh, but Van Gogh, well, it’s limiting. The purists are to blame. “It’s Van Gogh not Van Gogh,” they say in that haughty know-it-all attitude that brings out the inner violence buried deep within. Does the art lose its value? Does mozzarella taste different if it’s pronounced mozzarella? Now, I’m not asking for a reversal from Van Gogh to Van Gogh, that would be rude. It’s undoubtedly better that future generations pronounce Van Gogh correctly as Van Gogh than the incorrect Van Gogh. However, to be remembered for art, isn’t a minor mispronunciation of a name a small price to pay? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, to quote Shakespeare…who some mispronounce as Bacon. Sadly, it is the curse of those with foreign names. Van Gogh is Van Gogh and not Van Gogh. Sade is Sade and not Sade. And yes, even Rimar is Rimar, not Rimar.
