Van Gogh Alive, an immersive exhibition that lets visitors step into massive projects of the post-Impressionist Dutch painter’s work, opens this Saturday at The Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Florida.
“Those familiar with Van Gogh will see his works in a brand-new way,” says Hank Hine, the museum's executive director, adding that the exhibition “explores the underlying changes in Van Gogh’s state of mind and shifting emotional states through sound and movement, something that may not be as easily understood through a painting alone”.
Curated and produced by Grande Experiences of Australia, which creates transformational environments using projection mapping and music, the exhibition feature more than 3,000 images of the artist's most famous paintings displayed on 360-degree screens, including Starry Night, Almond Blossoms, and Sunflowers, as well as Tree Roots, the final canvas Van Gogh worked on, painted just hours before his suicide in 1890 at the age of 37. Viewing the artist’s paintings at such a large scale underscore his distinctive thick brushstrokes, bold use of colour, and emotional undertones.
The show, which has travelled to more than 50 cities around the world, takes over the third floor, 5,000 sq. ft Hough Family Wing of the museum, which is devoted to the work of the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. It houses more than 2,400 of his works, including 96 oil paintings, donated by the late collectors Eleanor R. Morse and her husband, A. Reynolds Morse. In the past, the museum has largely hosted exhibitions tied to surrealism, although with even with this show, Hines sees a link between the two artists. “Van Gogh, like Salvador Dalí, used painting to capture a vision of the world beyond what is seen with the eye, revealing the wildness and instability of the world but also its beauty,” Hine notes. “And beauty, in spite of current fashions, is always moving and inspiring.”
• Van Gogh Alive, 21 November-11 April 2021, Salvador Dalí Museum, One Dalí Boulevard, St Petersburg, Florida