Vincent Van Gogh is alive
, he is in Buenos Aires and he speaks some Spanish.
Clarification: the Van Gogh who traveled from the Netherlands has a second name Willem, - although the original was also called Vincent Willem but hardly anyone remembers him - is a descendant of one of the most recognized painters in the history of world art, and keeps some resemblance to its distant relative.
Sitting on a bed that is part of a habitable reproduction of the famous painting
Bedroom in Arles
is
Van Gogh's great-grandnephew
.
He arrived in the country as part of Meet Vincent Van Gogh, an exhibition that mixes immersive elements, 3D objects, projections, scenery, interactive activities, screens, audio guides, videos, among other elements.
It is one more of the
immersive rage
, a cheaper and less risky resource than moving works around the world, although this cost reduction is not transferred to the price of entrance tickets.
It is fair to say that the rights for this type of event are not paid in pesos.
The exhibition that opened yesterday in a special venue set up in the Campo Argentino de Polo boasts of being the official one (last year in La Rural the producer of businessman Daniel Grinbank also set up an immersive exhibition on Van Gogh), the one designed and endorsed
by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
.
It was created as an experience from the letters he exchanged with his brother Theo.
Hence, his great-grandnephew, guardian of the heritage and curator, is in Buenos Aires.
Perhaps the greatest richness and difference with the rest of the immersive exhibitions lies in
the 3D reproductions of the works
.
Here
it is allowed to touch
and it is more than pertinent since
Van Gogh was characterized by thick, impastoed strokes
and the copy allows another sense to be brought into play in front of the work, always prohibited in front of the originals, such as touch.
Proof of this is the more than two-meter-high reproduction of a small fragment of
The Harvest
that allows us to observe how those strokes that seem completely superimposed are not, and the canvas sprouts between them.
Van Gogh's Sunflowers is one of the most famous works in the history of art.
Photo Juano Tesone.
Also noteworthy are the
touch screens
where you can see from microscopic photographs
the grains of sand impregnated in his marine works carried out on the shores of the beach
, and the iconic elements of his work, such as potatoes (present in
The Potato Eaters
) .
, the piles of alfalfa and the sunflowers that break into any part of the route.
Vincent Williem Van Gogh is descended from Theo
, the brother and main emotional and financial support of the original Vincent.
After the artist's death, the paintings, drawings, letters they exchanged with his brother and a collection of works by his friends, including names like Gauguin, passed into Theo's hands.
But struck by the loss of his brother, he died just months later.
The one that will give a real boost to the career of the disturbed painter will be Theo's wife, Johanna
, who had inherited all the material since Vincent left no descendants.
Theo's son, Vincent Van Gogh (yes, the same name), was just a year old when his father died.
He was the grandfather of Van Gogh who now speaks with
Clarín Cultura.
The touch screens are one of the highligths of the display.
Photo Juano Tesone.
- You call yourself Willem, but is your name also Vincent?
My name is Vincent Willem, but my parents made me call me by my middle name because if you introduce me as 'My name is Vincent Van Gogh', they will most likely think that the next thing I'm going to say is that I'm the brother of Pablo Picasso.
- He has one of the five most important surnames in the history of art. What was the most unusual thing that happened to you when he says that he is Van Gogh?
All kinds of reactions.
People ask you if you are really related to Van Gogh.
Many people I know have their own history with Van Gogh because I believe that he is the most beloved and influential artist in the entire world.
Everyone knows Van Gogh.
And they tell you that they had a reproduction of the work of sunflowers in their living room.
The most special story I have happened one day in the museum, when I saw a man who was proposing to his partner in front of the painting of sunflowers.
- Do you look similar to Vincent?
I am not a descendant of Vincent, but of his brother Theo.
Many people say that it often happens that you don't exactly look like your ancestors, but you do look like an uncle or great-uncle.
Williem Van Gogh is a descendant of Vincent's brother, Theo.
The artist had no children.
Photo Juano Tesone.
- You grew up seeing Vincent's paintings in your living room. What happened to you when those paintings went to the museum, how did you experience that?
My grandfather inherited from his parents, Theo and Johanna, the collection of 200 paintings (NdR many had already been sold to collectors or museums around the world), the iconic paintings that we see here in this spectacular Meet Vincent Van Gogh experience.
His dream was to keep the collection together and share it with everyone.
So he made an agreement with the authorities in the Netherlands whereby he would transfer everything involving Vincent and Theo to them to create a foundation and ensure that all the material would stay together forever.
And in return, the government built the Van Gogh Museum as a home for what used to be the family collection, but is no longer.
And I'm very proud of that because it's a great idea to share such an iconic collection with everyone.
We are celebrating the museum's 50th anniversary this year.
Since it opened we have received 53 million visitors from all over the world.
It is something to be proud of.
- Theo dies young, very soon after Vincent's death. The one left in charge of all this is his wife, Johanna. Is she the true promoter of Van Gogh's work?
Absolutely.
She dedicated herself to promoting Vincent's art and did so by organizing exhibitions of his collection.
Later, when Theo died, she and her one-year-old son, my grandfather, inherited 456 of Vincent's works, the letters she had sent to Theo, about 800, as well as the drawings.
And she agreed with Theo that Vincent was an important artist.
Vincent sold only one painting in his lifetime, she dedicated her life to his work.
- There is currently a boom in immersive samples. Why do you think there is a boom in this format?
I think there is a lot of demand and being proactive we developed this show to bring Vincent's work and his life to places where people cannot visit the museum in Amsterdam.
So they can learn from his life, his development as an artist.
It is a multimedia experience in which you can enjoy and learn a lot.
Williem Van Gogh: "The immersive format is a very avant-garde way of inviting people to enjoy Vincent's work and life."
Photo Juano Tesone.
- And what do we lose with this format?
I think we lose nothing, this format enriches us.
Because it's a very avant-garde way of inviting people to enjoy Vincent's work and life.
- How many works by Van Gogh are in museums around the world and how many are in private hands?
We know that there are 860 paintings by Vang Gogh.
250 are in private hands.
Some 600 are accessible in public places.
And 200 in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
- Vincent has been associated with the figure of the crazy artist, unstable artist. How do the descendants feel about that idea?
I understand very well what people think.
I think Vincent had the ups and downs of him, but he knew exactly what he was doing.
He wasn't crazy at all.
He had the ups and downs of him.
He knew what he was doing and his mission was the innovation of art.
If you look at the work up close to him, you can see that every paint dot is in the right place.
The show is highlighted by 3D reproductions of iconic Van Gogh paintings that can be touched.
Photo Juano Tesone.
- The Van Gogh archive is huge. There are 800 letters, more than 200 works in your possession. What is still to be done with that archive in the museum?
We are the center of knowledge about Van Gogh.
What we have is very rich and we can create material, exhibits, or write books from different points of view of Vincent.
You told me about his illness, well we wrote a book about him with a psychiatrist.
- Do you have children named Vincent?
No... no more Vincents.
look also
Another immersive, tactile and habitable experience on the life of Van Gogh arrives in Buenos Aires in February
Scandal at the Met in New York for a Van Gogh pillaged by the Nazis