I recently had a chance to visit Regina's Beyond Van Gogh immersive show at the Viterra International Trade Centre, and that experience went beyond my expectations.
I don't remember the last time when I felt so inspired and fulfilled.
This beautiful show gave me goosebumps, made me laugh and made me cry, made me feel like flying, made me feel happy, took me on an adventure and filled with colours and emotions.
I usually don't expect much from contemporary interpretations of classical artists. I guess when it comes to any kind of art, I'm pretty conservative: it was once perfected and then survived hundreds of years, thousands of critics and millions of readers/spectators/viewers, so it must be indeed unique and perfect. And attempts to modify or rediscover it, to my taste, are usually less impressive than the original piece of art.
Besides, often when people work with pieces by influential classical artists, the name in itself is enough to attract a crowd. But since the artist is not here, there is usually not much exhibitors can do to make it different.
Well, Beyond Van Gogh is very different. It's alive. It takes you on a journey through his art, it picks you up in the air and then submerses you into the universe of stars the way he saw and felt them.
I've been to a Van Gogh virtual show before, where instead of paintings guests were surrounded by big digital lit-up copies of his art. The space was filled with his works, but it was a steady display. It was beautiful (especially keeping in mind that it's impossible to see the most impressive works of any big-scale artist in one place), but that show was nowhere close to what I experienced in Regina.
The exhibition starts by taking guests through his life. Don't get discouraged in that first area; it's going to get way more interesting in the second space, but it's important not to skip this introduction. It allows guests to learn about Vincent Van Gogh's life journey, his vision and feelings, and his struggles, which helps to understand and sense his art deeper.
His bio strikes a chord. This Dutch post-impressionist painter has never found success during his life. Today, even those who have zero interest in art, would at least know The Starry Night and probably have seen reproductions of his Sunflowers. He had a remarkable and tremendous talent, and very little security. He signed his paintings "Vincent", as he was worried that Van Gogh would be too difficult for French people to pronounce.
He lived in poverty and struggled with depression. With no money to hire models, he painted whatever was around him. And that world, filled with colours and reproduced with confident solid brush strikes, is like a parallel universe he visualized.
He created over 2,000 unbelievable pieces within 10 years with a third of them being oil paintings. People in his portraits are not just individuals, they are prototypes, they are characters with a ready-to-be-told story hiding in their eyes. His still-lifes and landscapes are dramatic and impulsive, and also carry their own stories to share.
He was only 37 when he took his own life. What always struck me was how a person struggling with severe depression could create this beautiful full-of-colour world. Most of his paintings I've seen in museums and art books felt happy to me. Not absolutely happy, and not careless, but happy. The exception would be most of his self-portraits with that sorrow in his piercing glance.
Van Gogh started as an art dealer, and even though he was painting since his early years, he didn't turn to it full-time until later in life.
Throughout his life, he was commercially unsuccessful; he was considered a madman and a failure. His misunderstood genius was discovered only when it was too late. That sense of injustice was something that stuck with me since I saw his painting for the first time in St.-Petersburg's Hermitage (along with fear caused by his ear episode).
Today, Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings to have ever sold.
His story is a lot to take in, his art is much more.
Beyond Van Gogh takes you through his journey and brings his art to life, wrapping you with it and allowing you to feel it. So if you haven't done so, I do recommend such an outing.
P.S. A life hack I learned when it was too late for me, but it still may help you: it's about $10 cheaper to go on a workday, and it's also a bit cheaper if you buy your tickets online.
