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Vincent Van Gogh.
Self- Portrait. April – June 1887. Collection Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo,
the Netherlands. Authorised media selection, Didrichsen Museum.
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Van
Gogh Places and His Efforts
The
First Monographic Van Gogh Exhibition in Finland
By
Inna Rogatchi ©, October 2020
Corona
& Culture
Under any
circumstances, a new exhibition of Van
Gogh is a big event in any country. The format of Van Gogh exhibitions has been
varied during recent years, balancing between under- and over-performing, from
such under-expectation concept as the whole show built around just five works
of Van Gogh in New York, to the creation of that overblown cosmos based on Van
Gogh’ images but having very little in common with the artist himself, as those
kitsch Van Gogh Disneylands popular in
many countries.
Corona pandemic has
changed it all, making those who love art in its real dimension to become more
nostalgic and nervous than ever. Ah, that great Degas real exhibition at the National Gallery Washington DC, just so very
recently, just half of a year ago. It feels like six years, not six months now.
Ah, those countless visits to Van Gogh museums, that one in Amsterdam, and
another one in Otterlo, nearby the Dutch capital. How many times could one
visit it? Countless times. How many times was it done? So many times. When it
could be done again? Who knows. This
uncertainty unnerves, in a serious way.
Of course, corona is
not about our real culture’s deficiency only. It is about everything in our
lives. But when culture is deficient, that deficiency not only suffocates those
who love it. It poses a fundamental threat to those who did not get to love it
as yet. Culture is a vitamin of civility, and this vitamin is of a
life-depending category. Civility itself is too.
So, when we heard that
there will be a full-size real exhibition
of Van Gogh in Helsinki, during corona restrictions world-wide and despite of
it, we, the Van Gogh devoted admirers, were exalted. Knowing the organisers, we
were not surprised. If somebody could do
it, they could. The Didrichsen family is known as people who conduct their
family museum and its art collection to the best, being focused, devoted and
able.
Inna Rogatchi (C).
Becoming Van Gogh exhibition at Didrichsen Museum. Helsinki, Finland. September
2020.
Van
Gogh recent exhibitions
As it is known, Van
Gogh additionally to becoming a super-commodity, in those endless subjects with
printed images of his, from stickers to sandals, has also become a top artist
for all kinds of exhibitions world-wide, from the ones built on just a few of his works to the serious
undertakes as the last international big Van Gogh show in Frankfurt in
2019-early 2020 featuring more than fifty of his works. The pace of Van Gogh
shows was breathtaking and over-galloping, providing us with up to ten Van Gogh
exhibitions annually during the several last years. One cannot devalue Van Gogh by the number of
his exhibitions, except those kitsch
Disneylands in his name, but the theme of Van Gogh has certainly become
over-exploited due to such race with his exhibitions.
And then corona
stroke. Several important exhibitions
were planned for this year in the USA, two in Japan, several in Europe, most of them had been rescheduled for next
year now, with no clear understanding on when it will happen. In another mighty
set-back, 60 precious paintings from the National Art Gallery in London,
including Van Gogh works, had been stuck in Japan after the major exhibition
there, due to the world-wide travel restrictions caused by the covid pandemic.
When the priceless works would reach home is unclear. The only clear thing is
that the public won’t be able to see them for a long time from now.
With regard to Van
Gogh works which we used to have in public domain in numerous exhibitions all
over the world in progressing abundance during
recent years, now, due to the pandemic, we have Van Gogh’s abrupt
disappearance, in a shocking contrast.
Maria Didrichsen (C).
Becoming Van Gogh exposition. Didrichsen Museum, Finland. 2020.
This is against these
unbelievable-but-true realities of the current art exhibition world that The
Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland, brought to public 39 large works on
paper of Van Gogh and two special oil works in their so very timely BecomingVan Gogh exhibition ( 5.09. 2020 – 31.01.2021). It is the one of just
three Van Gogh exhibitions this year world-wide which is a sobering contrast
and change in comparison with the international culture realities before
corona. It is also the first ever monographic Van Gogh exhibition in Finland.
The
Didrichsen Van Gogh show
The Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki celebrates
its 55th anniversary this year, and the Van Gogh exhibition was
planned as an exquisite celebration of
the date. The preparation for this exhibition took as long as eight years which
is not that unusual for the monographic exhibition showing over forty Van Goghs.
The choice of the subject was dictated by the fact that Van Gogh is favourite
artist of the Museum’s long-term previous director Peter Didrichsen who along with his wife, the Museum’s current
director, Maria worked very hard in
order to make it happen. They did it very much in the family motto: to
formulate the objective and to get it done. In this, both Peter and Maria
Didrichsen are continuing the line of Peter’s parents, legendary patrons of
arts, Marie-Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen who have established this notable art
institution based on their interesting and worthy art collection of modern
art.
Inna Rogatchi (C).
Maria and Peter Didrichsen. Didrichsen Museum, Helsinki, Finland. September
2020.
The
museum and its anniversary
The Didrichsen family
was very friendly with Henry Moore
and has amassed the second largest private collection of his works in Europe outside the UK. They were also
friendly with Sonya Delaunay who did
sign one of her works to Gunnar and Marie-Lousie Didrichsen warmly. In their
collection, one can find exquisite artworks by Picasso, Dali, Giacometti,
Miro and many others, plus they brought
to Finland and Scandinavia impressive heritage of the culture of Maya.
The Museum itself is
known to the public for their pioneering exhibitions of Munch, Moore, Malevich,
Dali, three unique exhibitions of Maya culture, among almost 90 major
exhibitions organised by them from 1965 onward.
The current Van Gogh
exhibition is an undoubted crown in the Didrichsen museum’s activities. The
exhibition has become possible due to the Didrichsens sharply-thought concept
of the exhibition and their unmistaken choice of the partners.
Partners: Kröller-Muller Museum and Ateneum
The Museum’s director
Maria Didrichsen has told me that after deciding back in 2012 that the
exhibition celebrating the Museum’s 55th anniversary would be of the works by
Van Gogh, the next step for them was to figure out the correct partner. “ Of course, majority of the monographic
exhibitions are completed on the principle of loaning the works from different
museums and collections, but there is also the other way of doing it, namely,
to find out the partner who would become your main co-author of the exhibition,
thus exploring more coherent approach, especially when we are talking on not a
giant museums” – explains Maria.
The Dutch
Kröller-Muller is a unique - and very
good - museum indeed. It was established in 1935 and opened in 1938 by the
Dutch state after the couple of Helene
Muller, the daughter of a prosperous German industrialist, and Anton Kroller,
large-scale Dutch entrepreneur, bequeathed their incredible art collection
which was created by Helene, to the people of the Netherlands. The museum is
situated in an hour drive from Amsterdam. With 100 Van Gogh’s paintings and 180
of his drawings which are actually large works in mixed technique on paper,
this special museum has the second largest Van Gogh collection in the world,
after the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It is worth to note that the Amsterdam
museum which was opened in 1973 after the Van Gogh family bequeathed their
family collection to the state back in 1962, with their 200 Van Gogh’s
paintings, started to function 35 years later than Kroller-Muller, meaning that
Kroller-Muller was the museum with the largest Van Gogh collection in the world
for 35 years.
Such an impressive
collection of Van Gogh was passionately collected by Helene Kroller-Muller who was one of the most enthusiastic Van Gogh
early devotees world-wide. Her attitude towards Van Gogh’s works was personal,
deep, and fine in her encompassing love for the artist.
What is also worth
noting is the similarity of the two institutions, two private art foundations,
the one in Finland and the other one in the Netherlands. Both are based on
family collections, both have quite similar understanding and feeling of how a
museum displaying a private art collection should function. Even the
architecture of two buildings, one constructed in the 1930s in the Dutch
Otterlo, and another built thirty years later in Finland, are very similar, as
well. It tells you why the several years of cooperation between these two
European art establishments went on so well, not only on a professional, but
also on a personal level. This mutual understanding has become a very important
factor of this successful endeavour.
The other partner in
the Didrichsen live Van Gogh exhibition in Helsinki is Ateneum, the Finnish National Art Gallery. They graciously loaned
for the exhibition their own gem, the only work of Van Gogh in Finland, the one
of the two oil works in this exhibition. The Ateneum work has an extraordinary
story of itself.
Concept:
Van Gogh’s places and his efforts
The concept of this
exhibition is logical and clear one: it shows the way of self-improvement of
largely self-taught Van Gogh via 39 of his large works on paper highlighted by
two oil paintings as ‘a resume’ of the viewing tour.
“What we call drawings in this
display, are not necessarily or only drawings, actually, – Maria Didrichsen
commented to me. – Most of these works
are executed by Van Gogh in what we now
call mixed technique, with several mediums used together, as pencil, coal,
gouache, ink, pastel, watercolour and
wash in various colours. These works are much more than mere ‘drawings’, they
are complex stages of artistic self-improvement of Van Gogh during the last
decade of his life” – said Maria.
Yes, this last decade
of that life of that man and that artist. How on earth during nine years an
artist can produce this amount of works of that quality, those 1300 drawings and those 850 paintings
that Van Gogh did? This is the one of the biggest mysteries in the whole
history of art, which adds the magnetism to the most magnetic artist humanity
produced.
Maria Didrichsen (C).
Becoming Van Gogh exposition at the Didrichsen Museum. Helsinki, Finland. 2020.
In her Opening Remarks
sent to the ceremony in Helsinki in September 2020, Dr Lisette Pelser , director of
Kroller-Muller Museum, has emphasised: “
This exhibition ( at the Didrichsen
Museum) offers a unique insight into Van Gogh’s decisive, formative years. Even
with us, in the Kröller-Müller Museum, this cannot be seen and experienced as
extensively in our Van Gogh gallery!” ( Speech by Dr Pelsers, 5th September
2020, Helsinki, Didrichsen Museum).
Top
level presentation
The execution of this
rare exhibition is quite compelling. It has been produced to meet the
world-class standards, in all details
and aspects, from the exhibition
composition till the classy catalogue. The exhibition scrupulously met all
highest and toughest standards of security and art work preservation. At the
time of corona, it also met all necessary requirements for the covid
regulations which are doable with such a responsible public and highly
organised country as Finland is, but still is a tough challenge.
I was very glad to see
growing queue to see Van Gogh’s works live, and to learn that this long queue
is a permanent feature of the exhibition which is visited by 600 people daily
which is a record among the very well attend top exhibitions at the Didrichsen
museum, not to speak about culture event in the time of corona in Finland and
elsewhere.
The visitors are
awarded for their queuing. This exhibition is the very rare one where one can
see Van Gogh’s works from quite close distance, to be able to recognise his
signatures in unparalleled live life experience, even to see the prints of his
fingers in a blue paint that he clumsily left on one of his drawings while
signing it. The way in which Didrichsens
presented the exhibition is like to be privileged to get into the Van Gogh
studio, whatever small chamber it was
during different periods of those last nine years of his life, and to see the
details of his work as if emerging in front of your eyes, right now and here.
Amazing effect and truly extremely rare opportunity of possibility to see the
works from a fairly close distance.
The Didrichsen team
has produced not only a very good large Introduction panel which is a must at
serious exhibition, but also they were intrigued by Van Gogh’s Europe-trotting
in his unusually for that period so intense travel and changing the places of
living and being. As a telling element of the exposition, a large map has been
artistically and tastefully produced which has become a fresh and attractive
point of reference for visitors.
Highlights
Walking through the
exposition – and being lucky to have very thorough and well-prepared guides
commenting on every single work exhibited – the exhibition’s visitors are able
to follow the way of Van Gogh’s self-work as an artist, from one of his first
drawings onward.
That drawing is truly
touching one, and very personal too. It is known that when Helene
Kroller-Muller saw it, she was smitten.
She said that she ‘started to feel
physically the emotions that Van Gogh had” while drawing this simple but
very warm and reflective work.
Vincent Van Gogh.
Corner of a Garden. June 1881. Collection Koller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, The
Netherlands. Authorised media selection. Didrichsen Museum.
In so many works
exhibited in Helsinki, the hands of people portrayed by Van Gogh are the focus
of his works. In this, one can see the unmistaken echo of Rembrandt who was in Van Gogh’s thoughts permanently, even when he
was not drawing or painting. Rembrandt was a central planet of Van Gogh’s
cosmic system, so to say. In so many of his letters, the stream of his thought,
not necessarily directly or immediately connected to his own art work, starts
from Rembrandt who was a formatting part of Van Gogh’s both consciousness and
subconsciousness , which is not surprising given the fact that the unique
artist, Rembrandt who did revolutionised visual art, was a principle authority
for many star-artists before and after Van Gogh. What is interesting in this
exhibition is the fact that this major influence of Rembrandt is so visible in
the collection of Van Gogh’s works selected for the exposition.
In these works it is
also obvious that Van Gogh who started to be professionally familiar with art
from the age of 15 when he began to work as an art-dealer helping his uncle,
and who was largely self-taught, had no difficulties neither with light which is
an essential stumbling point for any beginning artist. His ability to paint
cloth yet in his early experimenting works are surprisingly convincing,
too.
At the same time, from
an impressive and comprehensive selection of works on the wall in Helsinki, one
can easily detect Van Gogh’s struggling with anatomy in his works and invalid proportions of the human body all
over it. Interestingly enough, the exhibition’s organisers have selected the
works which shows both Van Gogh’s problems with his art works, and his progress
as he was working frantically. This is a
rare and interesting line in curatorial thinking.
Vincent’s
chair: his logo
Rare Van Gogh’s
exhibition avoids his famous chair, if only because of the fact that he was
drawing and painting it almost everywhere in his works. Only the exhibitions
covering his Sunflowers and landscapes are chair-less ones. The exhibition at
the Didrichsen museum is full of that chair, completed, not completed, but so
often present. I have always thought that this chair of his
was Van Gogh’s logo.
There is a theory by
the ever-inventive prolific art critic Waldemar
Januszczak that connects that famous Vincent’s chair to the artist’s
fascination with Charles Dickens and that regard Van Gogh’s obsession with the
one and the same chair as his homage to Dickens, the one of the writers who did
impress him a lot.
Januszczak builds his
case on the popular at the time lithograph of Dickens’ study, with a chair in
the centre, that Van Gogh had decorated his London lodging with. With all due
respect to superb Waldermar Januszczak, this theory seems like an
over-stretched one to me. Van Gogh did like Dickens indeed, and writers did
influence him greatly, but there were several if not many writers in the
literary Panteon that Van Gogh has selected and built up, metaphorically, for
himself.
And Van Gogh indeed,
paid a huge attention to visual images of all kinds surrounding himself with it
during all his life, as a dutiful student which he actually was at any stage of
his life. That lithograph on his wall in London, in my view, was more like a
happy bell singing in unison with his own world, his own chair, the sign of his
inner inter-connection with one of his favourite writers via supposedly mundane
detail of a chair. Because for Vincent, his chair always was anything but
mundane. He was painting sitting on
it, you see, metaphorically too, that’s why it has become his ‘logo’. It was
his symbol of his belonging to artists, being an artist. That’s why the chair,
the one and the same, the symbol and the logo, is everywhere.
Vincent’s
Trees
Vincent Van Gogh. Road
with Pollard Willows. October 1881. Collection Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo,
the Netherlands. Authorised media selection, Didrichsen Museum.
The exhibition in
Helsinki shows just one work portraying Van Gogh’s famous trees, there are many
more people and some landscapes at this exhibition. But the early work in which
Van Gogh paints his poetic, as if speaking
trees, is selected very precisely. In his soulful perception of the
outside world, Van Gogh always firmly believed that trees in particular are
soulful creatures. He would go as far as to compare trees with people’s
characters, pointing out that every tree’s shape tells about its inner
character: he saw shy, nervous, unsure, contemplating, sure, boasting, and all
kinds of trees, projecting the features of human characters onto them.
To me, it sounds
perfectly correct, but we know that among his artistic colleagues, including
French Impressionists who loved and understood nature, Van Gogh was in solitude
in his perception of trees. I wonder on had he ever heard about Jewish Mystics’
understanding of the soulfulness of
trees and every other living creature? I won’t be surprised if he did. He read
the Bible feverishly during some periods of his life, knew the Old Testament
and Psalms extremely well, was the son and grandson of the Protestant priests
with their reverend attitude towards the Old Testament, and wanted to be a
priest himself at a certain stage of his life.
In any case, his trees
are a certified wonder of the world, and the early work shown at the Didrichsen
Museum exhibition proves it graciously.
Lessons
of Human Typology
In predominantly
portraits-contained Becoming Van Gogh show in Helsinki one can see quite
clearly Van Gogh’s efforts of infusing his depiction of people with
psychological rendition of it. Not only did he struggle with anatomic
proportions, correct depiction of features of human faces ( not to speak about
their figures), but admirably, since early stages of his express time-wise,
mostly self-taught craft-course, he was clearly occupied with conveying
psychological references in his portraits. There is no question that his
unusual immersion of the world of literature which was everything for Vincent
at any stage of his life, had to do with his sublime interest in the inner
depth of the human soul. At this exhibition, we can see it in Man with An
Eye-Bandage portrait and even in his colour Scene in the Church which many
experts interpret as ‘a caricature’. I disagree with such interpretation.
Vincent Van Gogh. Man
with Eye Bandage. December 1882. Collection Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, the
Netherlands. Authorised media selection, Didrichsen Museum.
And certainly in two
stunning portraits of his Sien, the only woman in his life with whom he lived
together in an effort to build a family and home, even if shortly, for a bit
over a year. Sien, who was a hard working prostitute with children, was not a
beauty. Tellingly, Vincent’s perception of beauty with regard to nature was
drastically different with his regard to women, especially to the women in his
romantic life who all did look similar, actually ( his cousin, Sien, and couple
of more of those whom he had relationships with) : dark complexion, older than
himself, with powerful features of face and body. Vincent who was a very
wholesome person, evidently built up his own ideal of a woman that he felt
attraction to; or it was the chemistry that worked its way between him and his
type of woman.
Vincent Van Gogh.
Sitting Woman. April-May 1882. Collection Kroller-Muller, Otterlo, the
Netherlands. Authorised media selection, Didrichsen Museum.
When his relationships,
always difficult ones with all of them, were on a sunny side, he produced such
outstanding works as we have a luxury to observe at the exhibition in Helsinki.
On both of those portraits, Sien is depicted being much prettier than she
actually was. Not surprisingly. Vincent was incurable romantic, as we know.
Thank Heaven, he was, with such mighty, incomprehensible, unique talent. These
and alike works of Van Gogh show us what love in heart can do with talent in
hand, and more, these works are among the most expressive, charming and convincing evidences of how love can
transform its subject.
Millet
inspiration
Among the works in
Helsinki, there are many genre scenes and portraits of people while
working which were not only the cases of
perpetual self-master-class of Vincent to Van Gogh, but also an intentional
demonstration of his solidarity with the working class and people working at
all possible situations. He did draw them in such a prevailing number on
purpose. It was his way of expressing his solidarity and compassion with them.
Van Gogh was a very good man, importantly.
Vincent Van Gogh. Man
Near Fireplace. Collection Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Authorised media selection, Didrichsen Museum.
In all those works, a
giant influence of Millet is super-evident in the selection shown at the
Didrichsen Museum, and according to Maria Didrichsen, “it was done on purpose, in order to emphasise that special treat in the
very process of Van Gogh becoming a superb master”. People visiting the
exhibition are really gleaned to the works where Millet’s presence is strongly
evident, but where Van Gogh is very much mastering his own way. These are truly
gems of the exhibition, both historically and intimately as they are. They are inviting us into the inner world of Van Gogh
and explaining to us his way to artistic Olympus. One more work selected for
the exhibition has a historic reference, A Boy With Sickle (1881) is notably the first Van Gogh’s watercolour.
Clear
line of unhappiness
The exhibition in
Helsinki impacts its visitors in a powerful way not only because it succeeded
in bringing so many original works of Van Gogh in the genius’ first monographic
exhibition in Finland, and not only because it has been produced and presented
impeccably, but because it has its own line of thought, its own narrative, its
own essence of presentation. To me, this essence is a clear line of Van Gogh’s
palpable unhappiness, although I know that when developing the concept of the
exhibition, the Didrichsen Museum team was thinking on showing the stages of
the artist’s development in connection with the places of his sojourning during
the last decade of his life.
In this conceptual
blue-print, there are five parts of the
exhibition which are transferring each into the other consequently, with
showing 12 Van Gogh’s works from his almost a year in Etten (1881), the very
beginning of his concentrated artist effort, followed by 20 works from his two
years in Haag (from the end of 1881 until the Autumn 1883) when he tried to
build a home and family, unsuccessfully so; that is followed by 8 works from
his almost a year of a very unhappy sojourn with his parents in Neunen; a
couple of drawings and extraordinary self-portrait from Van Gogh’s famous, infamous and so dramatically
important two years in Paris (from March
1986 to February 1888), and a very special oil painting from the very end of
his life and career from Auvers-sur-Oise.
Somehow, through this
geography and time, there is one constant in all those 41 works exhibited at
the Didrichsen Museum: acute unhappiness of the artist. And this makes visitors
think. The genius who left us all those magnificent sunflowers, those
blossoming trees, those incredible skies, was such a deeply unhappy person
during all years of the last decade of his short 37 years old life, so wounded,
so melancholic often, so vulnerable.
From this prospect,
Van Gogh’s exuberant colours that he started to produce just four years before
his death, while in Paris, his authentic understanding of Japan and its fine philosophy and symbolism, his
poetic and flowering world created for us, all this richness and unparalleled
beauty which is his unique heritage, all this is seen even in bigger contrast,
from yet another perspective: how such
deeply unhappy man could create that incredible feast for eyes for us? The
efforts of Van Gogh the artist to overcome the depressing drama of Vincent the
man are seen yet more tangibly when we can see his permanent unhappiness during
that last decade of his life when he was becoming Van Gogh.
Drama
in oil
After observing those
40 large works on paper, visitors are coming to two last works of the Helsinki
exhibition ending that classy show. Those are just two oil works, a small
self-portrait of Van Gogh and the one of his very last paintings from the south
of France.
One can think that
after seeing various images of many of Van Gogh’s self-portraits million times
in all possible ways, there can be nothing new in yet another one. The thing,
however, is that Van Gogh belongs to the category of artists who are
incomparably better in life than in reproductions. Any of Van Gogh’s works,
especially oil paintings, is a revelation when seeing live, in comparison with
its reproduction. The same goes for this small portrait on display in Helsinki.
Maria Didrichsen has told me that it was the idea of their colleagues from Kroller-Muller
museum to include that self-portrait into the show. A highly professional idea
it was, indeed.
Vincent Van Gogh.
Self- Portrait. April – June 1887. Collection Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo,
the Netherlands. Authorised media selection, Didrichsen Museum.
That portrait created
by Van Gogh in the period when he was self-portraying himself frantically is
one of 36 known self-portraits of the artist. It is small. But it is magnetic.
It just speaks pain in its special technique of hundreds if not thousands of
very small brush strokes that Van Gogh constructs his image with. These eyes
are completely magnetic. They are getting you closer and closer and you do not
know how to express your own compassion towards the man in the portrait. It is
beyond one’s understanding how pain can be created on canvas so palpably. And
any reproduction would never relate the real sensation of seeing this small
Vincent’s self-portrait in green. That’s why nothing in the world cannot
replace live art exhibitions. Ever.
Unfinished
Skies
Next to the small
green self-portrait at the exhibition at the Didrichsen Museum, there is another
oil painting of this exhibition. It is the only Van Gogh painting in Finland
and it has been on loan to Didrichsen Museum from Ateneum, the Finnish National
Art Gallery, for which is a cordial thanks to this important institution and
its director Marja Sakari who is a
known expert on French culture.
Vincent Van Gogh.
Street in Auvers-sur-Oise. 1890. Finnish National Gallery, Ateneum Art
Museum/Antell collections. Authorised media selection. Didrichsen Museum.
That large enough oil
painting is important because it is the one of the very last ones that Van Gogh
did. It is also special because it happened to be the first Van Gogh ever
acquired by a museum in the world.
Contrary to the established understanding that it had happened in 1908
for Städel Museum, actually it did happen in Finland five years earlier, under
quite uneasy circumstances.
At the time, Van Gogh
was regarded as largely unknown and certainly obscure Dutch artist, was clearly
under-appreciated and completely misunderstood by many people on the top of the
art museums world who were deciding on the acquisitions. After serious efforts
and with involvement of several major figures who were backing the acquisition,
not as much for its artistic merits but in order to help the seller, the work
was finally acquired for the Finnish National Art Gallery for 2,500 marks , the
sum which corresponds to 11.300 Euro today. Director of Ateneum does not want
‘even to speculate’ on possible evaluation of the work today, because as she
said in a recent interview on the matter, the work will never leave the
country. Quite justly so.
Another peculiarity of
the work is that during a long period of time, it was debated among the experts
on whether the work was completed by Van Gogh, or its skies are not finished.
Given the circumstances of Van Gogh’s last few months in Auvers-sur-Oise,
either interpretation is plausible. In any case, it is just very telling skies.
These skies as if speaking with you. Especially when you are seeing the work
live.
Love
as a Special Feature
As the intellectually
charged and fully emotional experience of this unique exhibition ends, and one
is analysing one’s impressions, it all deduces one special feature, love. The
exhibition Becoming Van Gogh at the Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki
demonstrates love and attention in full measure. Love to unparalleled artist
whom Maria and Peter Didrichsen regard as the most important artist in the
world, and attention in the way of the exhibition’s producing, the way of
telling the story , in effort to highlighting Vincent’s movements, both
physical and geographical ones, the stages of his artistic development during
that last and only artistic decade in his short life.
This exhibition
succeeded in abolishing the distance between us today and that genius man who
was creating so incredibly 140 years ago. It is a very warm story told in respectfully intimate way, if intimate means
attention and understanding despite the distance of time.
Actually, for myself,
after seeing the exhibition in Helsinki, I started to call it Loving Vincent. A
good deed by the good museum and its able team, so much needed by all of us at
this depressing time of restrictions spreading into anything and everything.
The exhibition is on
display until 31.01. 2021.
