Located at One Yonge St with over 600,000 cubic feet of exhibition space, the show is the mastermind of director Massimiliano Siccardi
TORONTO: The pandemic has starved most art lovers and artists of enjoying the beauty of art. This, in turn, has created a whole new way of appreciating art digitally and virtually.
Producers, artists, musicians, all have developed new ways of expressing and appreciating art in new forms.
One of the most innovative presentations is the Van Gogh Immersive experience, now in Toronto. It is town after enjoying super successful showings in Chicago, NewYork, San Francisco and many other North American cities. The world premiere of the show in Paris drew over two million visitors.
This is a real treat for Van Gogh fans as well as younger generations being introduced to one of the most influential figures of Post-Impressionist art.
Located at One Yonge St with over 600,000 cubic feet of exhibition space, the show is the mastermind of director Massimiliano Siccardi and written by Siccardi, Guidotti and Longobardi.
It is a combination of colour, music, light, digital maneuvering and movement all displaying the masterpieces of Van Gogh but not necessarily in chronological order. The technique could be compared to the literary stream of consciousness style as seemingly random images float into sight but are intrinsically connected to one another.
It is visually mind-blowing as it is like a kaleidoscope of colour, brush strokes, and pieces of images and music all moving together in a carefully orchestrated movement to form his paintings one by one.
Van Gogh’s art is special as he started out with drawings in black and white or minimum use of colour. It was only much later when influenced by artists like Gaughuin, Pissarro,and Monet that he started to use more vibrant colours. This can be seen in the projection of the artist’s letters (100s of them with descriptive drawings in black and white or muted tones) written to his brother Theo, who supported him throughout his life.
The projections all evoke a deep sense of you actually being there amidst the scene. In one particular projection (what Van Gogh actually saw while he was in Arles), one can actually feel the pain and suffering as the workers toiled in the fields as the scene gradually unfolds from sunrise to sunset.
HIs artistic intensity can be seen in the depiction of his well-known painting “The Siesta” where it shows a field worker at rest in the field. Though seemingly calm, it was painted at the time when Van Gogh was interned in a mental asylum at St. Remy de Provence. Scenes from the countryside and fields complete with a moving train and crows in the wheat fields with peasant farmers working, fill the wall as you see scene after scene being transformed and come to larger than life right in front of you.
Later in the show we see one of his most famous works of art “Sunflowers” come to life all around you in a 365 kaleidoscopic dance. In total, he had created 12 in the series paintings of sunflowers in all their glorious shades of sunny yellow to orange hues in the two years he had spent in Paris and Arles.
Of course, no Van Gogh exhibit would be complete without “Starry Night”. The scene of stars in the dark blue luminescent skies swirls and dances into view in time to the music (put together by Lombardi).
“Starry Nights” was amongst his later series of paintings done from the asylum at St. Remy de Provence in Southern France.
Van Gogh was also influenced by Japanese style and he created one of his best works “Almond Blossoms” in the last year of his life. He said in a letter to Theo the blossoms and style made him much happier and cheerful and made him return to nature in a more grounded manner.
The singer Don Mclean also pays homage to this great artist in his song “Vincent” as he says “Now I understand what you tried to say to me ….how you suffered for your sanity they did not listen, they did not know how, perhaps they will listen now”
Many new fans will be created by experiencing this Van Gogh show and understand the man behind the art. I left the hall humming “Non, je ne regrette rien” (No, I don’t regret anything) by Edith Piaf; one of the theme songs of the show.
What I have described is but a soupςon of the grandiosity that awaits you, so better “Gogh” while you can to this wholly immersive mind and soul exhibit and experience it in person!
MORE BY NITA BALANI: Mind-blowing Museum of Illusions opens in Toronto
