Let's Van Gogh to the Show Vincent!

Look up! - 2021 digital Illustration.This illustration is my homage to Vincent Van Gogh”s ‘The Starry Night’. What better way to experience the great outdoors than camping under a star-filled sky? Whether you're in the desert, on a mountain, or at the coast, nature at night is a powerful way to connect with mother earth.

Joanie and I recently went to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit at the Ford Center in Charlotte, NC. First off, I have to tell you I am a Vincent Van Gogh nut. I love the man and his work. I've been a fan of his for as long as I can remember (or as long as I can remember wanting to be an artist myself).

If you are unfamiliar with the artist, he's a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. During his adult life he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life.

The show is held in the historic Ford building at Camp North End. Architect Albert Kahn designed this factory here for the Ford Motor Company in 1924. 300,000 Model T and Model A cars were built here while the Ford Factory was active prior to the Great Depression.

I thought the space was a little funky for this type of show. It was choppy with a lot of corners blocking the view. I have seen pics and video of this exhibit held in other spaces around the country and they looked to be better suited, mostly because they were basically enormous rectangles. There were lots of short benches and some chairs, and you could rent small cushions to sit on the floor.

Our exhibit was during COVID mandates for indoor events, which stressed social distancing (there were circles throughout the entire floor where your group should stand or sit) and you were required to wear a mask. The event organizers had plenty of retaliation too. It was actually a little windy inside the huge space and a little cool too.

I think the cost (ours was $36/adult) for some may be a little high for a 30-minute show, but you are allowed to stay for as long as you like (or even exit for a while and then go back in to watch and listen again), which we did. When we walked in for our given time, the show started almost immediately. I discovered that it runs in 30-minute loops, with the next showing starting right away.

Rather than distinctly framed works mounted on walls, images of Van Gogh’s art are projected onto the walls and, at times, on the floor. Some wall sections in the middle of the space were mirrored, so you could see the show everywhere. This gives you that immersive feeling of becoming a part of the paintings.

To me, the most impressive images were his flowers and landscapes. I wished that some of them would have stayed up longer on the screens — that's why we stayed for a second showing. Overall, the colors were stunning and you really got to see Van Gogh’s signature heavy brush strokes. I thought the show was incredibly imaginative. Paintings were not only animated but also had new components.

The soundtrack that went along with the visual projections was a pleasant surprise. The presentation starts with Mussorgsky 'Great Gate of Kiev' to get things moving toward the dramatic. The “Sarabande” by George Frideric Handel, recognizable from the film Barry Lyndon, tastefully accompanied “The Yellow House.” Similarly paired, the sun from “The Sower” rotated around the room to the French song, “Non, je ne regrette rien” by Édith Piaf (While all were recognizable to me, I still had to Google all this music). The most familiar to me and the most moving was Adagio for Strings Musical piece by Samuel Barber. Most will know it as the sad melancholy score from the movie Platoon. It seemed fitting as it was paired with self portraits of Van Gogh ending with the portrait he did after he cut off his ear to give as a present to French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin.

One disappointment for me was the continued notion of Van Gogh as the "brand". And a commercial brand at that. The forces that be pushed the attendees out of the show space and into a gift shop filled with way over-priced knick-knacks and other items (t-shirts, pillows, coffee mugs, coasters, key chains, etc.). Ironically, Van Gogh is thought to have sold only a few artworks in his life. His work was unconventional for the time, and he struggled with poverty and mental illness.

In summary, I would think hardcore art lovers, set in their ways of viewing art in museum setting, might hate this show. Younger folks will see it as a great event to post a clever Van Gogh pun like “Gotta Gogh see this" or “Gogh this way" into their Instagram. The exhibit is making its way across the country, with the Immersive Van Gogh experience coming to about 20 cities. If you’ve gone or are planning to go, be sure to add a comment below to let us know what you thought.