Take a Journey Inside Vincent Van Gogh’s Paintings with a New Digital Exhibition

Vin­cent van Gogh died in 1890, long before the emer­gence of any of the visu­al tech­nolo­gies that impress us here in the 21st cen­tu­ry. But the dis­tinc­tive vision of real­i­ty expressed through paint­ings still cap­ti­vates us, and per­haps cap­ti­vates us more than ever: the lat­est of the many trib­utes we con­tin­ue to pay to van Gogh’s art takes the form Van Gogh, Star­ry Night, a “dig­i­tal exhi­bi­tion” at the Ate­lier des Lumières, a dis­used foundry turned pro­jec­tor- and sound sys­tem-laden mul­ti­me­dia space in Paris. “Pro­ject­ed on all the sur­faces of the Ate­lier,” its site says of the exhi­bi­tion, “this new visu­al and musi­cal pro­duc­tion retraces the intense life of the artist.”

Van Gogh’s inten­si­ty man­i­fest­ed in var­i­ous ways, includ­ing more than 2,000 paint­ings paint­ed in the last decade of his life alone. Van Gogh, Star­ry Night sur­rounds its vis­i­tors with the painter’s work, “which rad­i­cal­ly evolved over the years, from The Pota­to Eaters (1885), Sun­flow­ers (1888) and Star­ry Night (1889) to Bed­room at Arles (1889), from his sun­ny land­scapes and nightscapes to his por­traits and still lives.”

It also takes them through the jour­ney of his life itself, includ­ing his “sojourns in Neunen, Arles, Paris, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and Auvers-sur-Oise.” It will also take them to Japan, a land van Gogh dreamed of and that inspired him to cre­ate “the art of the future,” with a sup­ple­men­tal show titled Dreamed Japan: Images of the Float­ing World.

Both Van Gogh, Star­ry Night and Dreamed Japan run until the end of this year. If you hap­pen to have a chance to make it out to the Ate­lier des Lumières, first con­sid­er down­load­ing the exhi­bi­tion’s smart­phone and tablet appli­ca­tion that pro­vides record­ed com­men­tary on van Gogh’s mas­ter­pieces. That counts as one more lay­er of this elab­o­rate audio­vi­su­al expe­ri­ence that, despite employ­ing the height of mod­ern muse­um tech­nol­o­gy, nev­er­the­less draws all its aes­thet­ic inspi­ra­tion from 19th-cen­tu­ry paint­ings — and will send those who expe­ri­ence it back to those 19th-cen­tu­ry paint­ings with a height­ened appre­ci­a­tion. Near­ly 130 years after Van Gogh’s death, we’re still using all the inge­nu­ity we can muster to see the world as he did.

via MyMod­ern­met

Relat­ed Con­tent:

13 Van Gogh’s Paint­ings Painstak­ing­ly Brought to Life with 3D Ani­ma­tion & Visu­al Map­ping

Van Gogh’s 1888 Paint­ing, “The Night Cafe,” Ani­mat­ed with Ocu­lus Vir­tu­al Real­i­ty Soft­ware

Near­ly 1,000 Paint­ings & Draw­ings by Vin­cent van Gogh Now Dig­i­tized and Put Online: View/Download the Col­lec­tion

Down­load Hun­dreds of Van Gogh Paint­ings, Sketch­es & Let­ters in High Res­o­lu­tion

Down­load Vin­cent van Gogh’s Col­lec­tion of 500 Japan­ese Prints, Which Inspired Him to Cre­ate “the Art of the Future”

Watch the Trail­er for a “Ful­ly Paint­ed” Van Gogh Film: Fea­tures 12 Oil Paint­ings Per Sec­ond by 100+ Painters

Based in Seoul, Col­in Mar­shall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His projects include the book The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les and the video series The City in Cin­e­ma. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­book.