Van Gogh Alive Experience Festival Square Edinburgh 29th April 2022 Review
Image by Gemma Parker Photography
Van Gogh Alive is at Festival Square Edinburgh from 17th March to 17th July, but many of you reading this review probably know this already as the advertising/promotional budget for this exhibition “experience” has been large and wide-spread. Many of you might already have visited the exhibition, and many more may still be planning your visits in the months ahead.
What exactly is this “experience” and why is it different from simply going to a major exhibition of Van Gogh’s paintings at any major gallery in the world? Many of the answers to this question are easily available on the “Experience” website at https://vangoghaliveuk.com/edinburgh/
Just telling people to visit a website of course makes for a very dull review, there has to be more to all of this than just that, surely? Well there is.
Vincent Van Gogh is now in the 21st century, despite all contemporary expectations one of the most famous and posthumously commercially successful artists in the world. His paintings are known and loved by many millions of people and some of his most iconic works have consistently broken all auction sale expectations when offered for sale. The millions of people who have seen original paintings at The Van Gogh Museum and other major art galleries around the world are small still in number to those who know his works only through books, prints, postcards, merchandise and of course the internet. What then can the Van Gogh Alive Experience possibly add to all of this existing, almost mass immersion of us all in the world of Vincent Van Gogh and his paintings?
To answer the above question, we need to look at exactly what this “experience” is. The first thing it is not is an exhibition of paintings, there are no original works of art here, and I doubt if major galleries would ever loan so many paintings at one time to ever allow an exhibition like this to tour. Here GRANDE Experiences/SENSORY4 have created a new environment for viewing and experiencing art (not just Van Gogh’s). The main “immersive space” here is a large room filled with cutting edge technology that allows the display of a large selection of the most well known paintings onto screens that are carefully made to look like art canvases. Screens of different sizes and shapes are strategically placed to wrap themselves around the viewers so that at any place you stand, you are immersed in the changing paintings, and often carefully animated parts of paintings (Starry Nights, landscapes and railroads, to name but a few). This sensory experience is also enhanced by music and at times delicate aromas that accompany some paintings.
The time and expense required to bring this level of imagery to these huge screens is impressive and you can photograph yourself/friends (for personal use only, and without flash) now standing almost inside many of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings. The detailing of the images/paintings is superb and for myself it was fascinating to be able to see in minute detail how Van Gogh had actually applied his paint and brush strokes to many of these paintings.
The main “art experience” room is actually a 45 minute display, so if you are going to visit this event, do not be put off by the 30 minute booking time slots, it will take you longer than that to experience everything. In this “experience room” we get a short, but comprehensive chronological story of Van Gogh, his main periods of art (starting with his far darker in colour Dutch period) through to some of his later paintings full of so much colour and life, and of course his far too early death.
Other areas of the exhibition give a lot of information about his life and works and a favourite of pretty much everyone visiting is the recreation of his bedroom from his famous painting, and of course you can step into this space and take again as many personal photos as you want.
The Van Gogh Experience is impressive visual technology at work and it is obviously a hugely successful commercial project with over 8.5 million visitors across 75 cities worldwide already having visited it. It is not, however, perfect and there is for me still some room for improvement. For some reason I was expecting at least some level of VR technology here to allow me to actually walk into and around some of these paintings. Seating is minimal and low bench style here, and yes I noticed that staff were getting very basic seats for anyone who asked, but the addition of some comfortable seating around the display space so that those who wanted/or required it could use them would have been a good idea. A nice comfy, swivel chair to turn in and watch many screens would have been appreciated by me. Here we have of course one of the problems in a display space such as this. There are so many screens here, and even with everything changing in a carefully timed sequence, you cannot see every screen here, and many have different visual identities of their own. A few real sensory experiences, some real wild flowers, some of Vincent’s favourite drinks, and a few other very low cost things would have added much to everything.
The Van Gogh Experience quite rightly touches upon the at times very fragile mental health of Vincent and his eventually rapid decline into serious health issues that ultimately resulted in his suicide. It is good that Van Gogh Alive has a new partnership with Scotland’s leading mental health charity, the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH).
Could Vincent have been better looked after in a world with better insights into the complex issues of mental health? Perhaps has to be the answer to that question. I often wonder though was it perhaps that Vincent so often saw the world around him with different senses to us that ultimately gave his paintings, his art in general, so much colour, vibrancy and life. Did Vincent really see what all too many of us miss all around us every day in our more monochrome lives?
The one thing I do wish this “experience” had done though was taken the time to give Vincent’s younger brother Theodorus van Gogh his rightful place in this story. Theo was not only an important and well respected art dealer who played a part in bringing other artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas to a wider public attention, he also introduced Vincent to many other artists of the time, Paul Gauguin being just one of many. It was of course Theo (and other members of his family) who gave Vincent so much emotional support during his lifetime. It was also Theo who at many times supported Vincent financially, allowing him to buy paint and canvases for what were often many months of little but creative painting. Theo died at age 33 only six months after Vincent’s death. Without Theodorus van Gogh the story of Vincent Van Gogh might have been a completely different one and we would possibly have lost, or never even known so many of these wonderful works of art to treasure and enjoy today.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
https://tomkinguk.weebly.com/
What exactly is this “experience” and why is it different from simply going to a major exhibition of Van Gogh’s paintings at any major gallery in the world? Many of the answers to this question are easily available on the “Experience” website at https://vangoghaliveuk.com/edinburgh/
Just telling people to visit a website of course makes for a very dull review, there has to be more to all of this than just that, surely? Well there is.
Vincent Van Gogh is now in the 21st century, despite all contemporary expectations one of the most famous and posthumously commercially successful artists in the world. His paintings are known and loved by many millions of people and some of his most iconic works have consistently broken all auction sale expectations when offered for sale. The millions of people who have seen original paintings at The Van Gogh Museum and other major art galleries around the world are small still in number to those who know his works only through books, prints, postcards, merchandise and of course the internet. What then can the Van Gogh Alive Experience possibly add to all of this existing, almost mass immersion of us all in the world of Vincent Van Gogh and his paintings?
To answer the above question, we need to look at exactly what this “experience” is. The first thing it is not is an exhibition of paintings, there are no original works of art here, and I doubt if major galleries would ever loan so many paintings at one time to ever allow an exhibition like this to tour. Here GRANDE Experiences/SENSORY4 have created a new environment for viewing and experiencing art (not just Van Gogh’s). The main “immersive space” here is a large room filled with cutting edge technology that allows the display of a large selection of the most well known paintings onto screens that are carefully made to look like art canvases. Screens of different sizes and shapes are strategically placed to wrap themselves around the viewers so that at any place you stand, you are immersed in the changing paintings, and often carefully animated parts of paintings (Starry Nights, landscapes and railroads, to name but a few). This sensory experience is also enhanced by music and at times delicate aromas that accompany some paintings.
The time and expense required to bring this level of imagery to these huge screens is impressive and you can photograph yourself/friends (for personal use only, and without flash) now standing almost inside many of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings. The detailing of the images/paintings is superb and for myself it was fascinating to be able to see in minute detail how Van Gogh had actually applied his paint and brush strokes to many of these paintings.
The main “art experience” room is actually a 45 minute display, so if you are going to visit this event, do not be put off by the 30 minute booking time slots, it will take you longer than that to experience everything. In this “experience room” we get a short, but comprehensive chronological story of Van Gogh, his main periods of art (starting with his far darker in colour Dutch period) through to some of his later paintings full of so much colour and life, and of course his far too early death.
Other areas of the exhibition give a lot of information about his life and works and a favourite of pretty much everyone visiting is the recreation of his bedroom from his famous painting, and of course you can step into this space and take again as many personal photos as you want.
The Van Gogh Experience is impressive visual technology at work and it is obviously a hugely successful commercial project with over 8.5 million visitors across 75 cities worldwide already having visited it. It is not, however, perfect and there is for me still some room for improvement. For some reason I was expecting at least some level of VR technology here to allow me to actually walk into and around some of these paintings. Seating is minimal and low bench style here, and yes I noticed that staff were getting very basic seats for anyone who asked, but the addition of some comfortable seating around the display space so that those who wanted/or required it could use them would have been a good idea. A nice comfy, swivel chair to turn in and watch many screens would have been appreciated by me. Here we have of course one of the problems in a display space such as this. There are so many screens here, and even with everything changing in a carefully timed sequence, you cannot see every screen here, and many have different visual identities of their own. A few real sensory experiences, some real wild flowers, some of Vincent’s favourite drinks, and a few other very low cost things would have added much to everything.
The Van Gogh Experience quite rightly touches upon the at times very fragile mental health of Vincent and his eventually rapid decline into serious health issues that ultimately resulted in his suicide. It is good that Van Gogh Alive has a new partnership with Scotland’s leading mental health charity, the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH).
Could Vincent have been better looked after in a world with better insights into the complex issues of mental health? Perhaps has to be the answer to that question. I often wonder though was it perhaps that Vincent so often saw the world around him with different senses to us that ultimately gave his paintings, his art in general, so much colour, vibrancy and life. Did Vincent really see what all too many of us miss all around us every day in our more monochrome lives?
The one thing I do wish this “experience” had done though was taken the time to give Vincent’s younger brother Theodorus van Gogh his rightful place in this story. Theo was not only an important and well respected art dealer who played a part in bringing other artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas to a wider public attention, he also introduced Vincent to many other artists of the time, Paul Gauguin being just one of many. It was of course Theo (and other members of his family) who gave Vincent so much emotional support during his lifetime. It was also Theo who at many times supported Vincent financially, allowing him to buy paint and canvases for what were often many months of little but creative painting. Theo died at age 33 only six months after Vincent’s death. Without Theodorus van Gogh the story of Vincent Van Gogh might have been a completely different one and we would possibly have lost, or never even known so many of these wonderful works of art to treasure and enjoy today.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
https://tomkinguk.weebly.com/
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