Photography, Art

The Van Gogh Immersive Experience

A sneak peek

Although we all know his name and think of him as one of the most important of the post-impressionist painters, would you be surprised to know that Vincent Van Gogh only ever sold one painting during his lifetime?

He would probably be utterly amazed to find that entire museums dedicated to his work exist today. And I think that he would have loved the new Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit which is traveling around the world right now.

The creators of this innovative way to experience Van Gogh’s works have set his paintings into motion across huge walls and reflective floors and mirrors. You can almost feel his very brushstrokes across the canvas as images appear and disappear and melt and morph into larger and smaller and more detailed perspectives.

Stars appear above city scapes and then twinkle out again. Windmills churn in front of gathering gray clouds.

A farmer walks across a golden field towards a hay bale while the sun behind him rises higher and higher into the sky.

The use of a highly reflective black floor greatly enhances the visual experience.

And irises explode into being amidst a field of flowers.

The Starry Night is, perhaps, my favorite of Van Gogh’s pieces. The knowledge that he painted this while in an asylum near the end of his life, in 1889, adds a certain poignancy to the piece. His work from this period of time is full of swirls and heavy brush strokes. You can only wonder what he saw and what he thought while peering out from the window of his room there. He was only allowed out for brief periods of time, but this view would have been one he saw often.

This image, a self portrait, with candles which slowly flicker out on his hat brim, seemed, to me, to represent the brevity of his life. Such genius only flickers to life occasionally. And his life ended far too soon, at the age of thirty-seven.

One can only wonder at what direction his art would have taken had he had more years on earth.

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem, or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

Thank you for reading. I hope that you enjoyed my musings and photos.

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.