Van Gogh comes back to life in Columbus exhibitions

Immersive Van Gogh, a 500,000-cubic-foot digital projection of some of Van Gogh’s most famous work, will open in Columbus this fall. Credit: Sarah Trombetti | Lantern Reporter

The work and inspirations of impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh will come to Columbus in two exhibitions this fall –– one showing life-size, digital works, and another with some of his original paintings.

Beginning in October, Columbus will take part in the digital reconstruction of Van Gogh’s 19th-century art, according to the “Immersive Van Gogh” exhibition’s website. The installment, which will be open Oct. 28 through Feb. 6, 2022, uses digital technology to project moving images of the paintings onto the walls and floors of a three-dimensional indoor space.

Previously held in cities across Europe and Canada, “Immersive Van Gogh” was created by Massimiliano Siccardi, a contemporary Italian artist, according to the event website. The exhibition was featured in the Netflix series “Emily in Paris” last year and received more than two million visitors while in Paris.

“It was nice to see so many people spending an extended period of time in the presence of Van Gogh’s imagery — far more than they would likely have spent in the presence of the paintings,” Lisa Florman, chair of the Department of History of Art at Ohio State, said.

The name and location of the Columbus venue have yet to be announced, but the exhibition will include paintings such as “Les mangeurs de pommes de terre” (“The Potato Eaters,” 1885), “Nuit étoilée” (“Starry Night,” 1889), “Tournesols” (“Sunflowers,” 1888) and “La chambre à coucher” (“The Bedroom,” 1990), among other works by Van Gogh.

As “Immersive Van Gogh” gains international attention, an entirely different exhibition of Van Gogh’s paintings will also be held in Columbus this fall. From Nov. 12 to Feb. 16, 2022, the Columbus Museum of Art will host a special exhibition titled “Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and his Sources,” Betsy Meacham, director of strategic engagement and communications at the museum, said.

Unlike “Immersive Van Gogh,” which emphasizes the technology used to reproduce Van Gogh’s paintings as much as it emphasizes the art itself, CMOA’s exhibition will include original works by Van Gogh and some of the artists who influenced him, such as Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Paul Gaugin, Meacham said.

“We’re going to be able to show 15 or so original works by Van Gogh from the span of his career in relation to over 100 works by artists that inspired and influenced him, and even early and first editions of books that he was influenced by,” David Stark, chief curator emeritus for the Columbus Museum of Art, said.

“Immersive Van Gogh” and “Through Vincent’s Eyes” offer strikingly different glimpses into Van Gogh’s art, Stark said. The former reconstructs his work in a modern way that emphasizes Van Gogh’s legacy, while the latter presents original paintings and other artifacts with centuries of history.

Florman, who visited the original version of “Immersive Van Gogh” in Paris two years ago, said she experienced the same sense of renewed public interest in the nineteenth-century painter.

However, she said visiting the exhibition and seeing so much public interest in digitized versions of Van Gogh’s work, as opposed to the originals, was somewhat sobering. 

“I was a little dismayed to think that the paintings themselves weren’t enough, that they needed to be dematerialized, exponentially enlarged and then animated — in short, turned into a spectacle — to draw the kinds of crowds that they did,” Florman said.

While the large-scale, dramatic features of “Immersive Van Gogh” contribute to the legacy of Van Gogh as one of the most influential artists in history, they may not be as informative about the artist himself as original work from Van Gogh and his inspirations in the CMOA can be, Stark said.

“You can compare the subject matter and style of other artists that preceded or were contemporary with Van Gogh, and I think that gives an added dimension to one’s experience,” Stark said.

Stark said as “Immersive Van Gogh” has become its own commercial industry, its for-profit characteristic starkly contrasts with Van Gogh’s life.

“Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, and he lived most of his life in relative poverty,” Stark said. “So it’s ironic, the difference between his life and the fact that he was so little recognized outside of the small circle of artists, art collectors and art lovers, that this commercial enterprise is spawned over a century later, and is so extensive.”

Florman said she sees a place for both exhibitions, as long as the immersive experience designed for a twenty-first-century audience doesn’t undermine the qualities of Van Gogh’s original work.

“If the upshot of all this is that people learn a deeper appreciation of Van Gogh’s art and do look to the paintings with a renewed intensity, then I’m delighted,” Florman said. “But if the result is that people henceforth lose their interest in or patience for painting — for that material object made by a particular person at a particular moment in history — then I think we will have lost something.”

Tickets for the “Immersive Van Gogh” exhibition are available on the website for $40-$100. Meacham said tickets for CMOA’s exhibition have yet to go on sale but will become available to CMOA members first.