Through my eyes

living my life without regrets

Saturday, November 28, 2020

A Visit with Van Gogh


A Visit with Van Gogh

He started painting when he was 28 years old.  He died when he was 37 years old…. He painted 900 pictures in his life time.  So let’s say he painted 100 paintings a year, or roughly finished painting a picture every 3rd day…. Wow!  Relentless, very different, almost possessed he was so focused. If you met him face to face you would have found him paranoid, you would not have understood this man… this man Vincent van Gogh.

A Tortured Soul
For years now I have seen his works, I even went to Holland to see his pictures up close, very close… my nose almost touched the paint.

Wow!  It is incomprehensible to me how this pile of colors, this piled up paint, thick and so pressed onto the canvas, makes any sense. When you look at his paintings up close, especially really close, it’s just a pile of colors, which have no relation to each other. The colors don’t go together, you think… but when you step back, when you stare at the whole… Wow!

Images on the Car Beside Us, the Floor and Walls. 
Pipes and Wall Indentations Can Be Clearly Seen.

Vincent was pure genius, albeit a very troubled soul. I often wonder if man has to pay the price of insanity to be a genius. Not just in Art, but in many other aspects of living such as Science, and Life. What made his brain see like that, comprehend like that, explain himself like that?

Toronto had a well published show, a show in 2 segments… one was a drive-in situation where you experience the paintings covering all the walls and floor while you sit inside your car. The venue here was not ideal. 

Wall Indentations and Fire Alarm Distract
Such a Shame to Have These Distractions







Indentations in the wall produced a line across Van Gogh’s self-portrait and many of his other paintings. A large red fire alarm distracted the viewer in some scenes. It might have been better if we had been facing a different wall but we had to park where we were told.

Love the Sign
The other presentation was a walk in… not set up like a traditional museum but more hip in that a display ran via computer, along with piped in music that was like a performance, like a movie, but not really. The two shows were very similar but not exactly the same. Again the images covered all the walls and floor. The transitions from one image to the next in both presentations were very creative. You could sometimes see the paintings come to life before your eyes.

Due to Covid-19 we had some restrictions, there were circles on the floor where you could stand or sit in order to maintain appropriate distancing and masks were required. But all in all it was worth our visit.

The Master At Work

Just look at all the stuff below… no, I can’t describe each part… you just have to see it yourself in a city near you if this performance ever gets near you.

Wonderful! 


Van Gogh Painted 12 Canvases of Sunflowers

Some of the music was very modern like Luca Longobardi’s music.

Or some classical pieces:

Handel: Sarabande (HWV 437) in D Minor   

Bach: BWV 1007 in G Mayor (Suite#1)  

Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings

The Picture Grows Before Your Eyes

 
The next 3 videos should be viewed in sequence as they were all part of a much larger video accompanied by the song "Non, je ne regrette rien" sung by Edith Piaf
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  2.

  3.

Windmills on an Ominous Day
Circles on the Floor Show Where to Stand












From a Bamboo Forest to Japanese Prints













Shot Taken Into Corner of the Room











The next 3 videos are all part of a much larger video.
  1.

  2.

  3.



Creation of a Chair  

As Many Flowers on the Floor as on the Walls
Flowers Everywhere








  Love the flowers

Video of one of his Starry Night paintings

                                               A Series of Starry Night Paintings















            He did many paintings of Irises   

 The Prison Painting










Watch the candles go out 1 by 1   



Watch this beautiful video of Starry, Starry Night written and sung by American Don McLean