Vincent van Gogh, The Wheatfield, 1888. Oil on canvas, Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Richard A. Cooke and Family in memory of Richard A. Cooke. Credit: Courtesy of the Columbus Museum of Art
The latest exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art shows how one of the world’s most acclaimed artists was inspired by the work of others.
“Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources,” open Friday through Feb. 6, 2022, displays over 15 of Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings, as well as more than 100 works of art that fed his creativity, according to the exhibition’s website. David Stark, chief curator emeritus at the museum, said the exhibition encapsulates Van Gogh’s lifelong interest in a wide variety of art, as documented in correspondence between him and his brother, Theo.
“It’s a very good strategy, I think, to help us understand the unique and groundbreaking style of Van Gogh and where it came from,” Stark said.
“Through Vincent’s Eyes” features the art of several popular contemporary impressionists and post-impressionists, such as Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin, as well as the works of earlier French artists like Eugène Delacroix, Stark said. It also features 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints by Hokusai and Hiroshige, which Stark said help to illustrate the diverse set of influences present in Van Gogh’s life.
The exhibition also highlights works by 19th-century artists who are lesser known today, which Nannette Maciejunes, executive director and CEO of the museum, said she hopes will help viewers discover a new favorite artist.
“I think there’ll be a number of artists in this exhibition that people discover that they didn’t know about, and that they would then go and find out more on their own,” Maciejunes said.
Van Gogh took inspiration not only from 19th-century artists, but also from famous authors of the period, Maciejunes said. The exhibition will include early editions of well-loved novels by authors such as Charles Dickens, Guy de Maupassant and Emile Zola, according to the exhibition’s website.
“It’s logical for people to say, ‘Oh, of course he looked at other artists and he learned from them,’ ” Maciejunes said. “But to realize that, also, it was the books that he read, the stories, the novels and how those literary experiences inspired and fired his imagination of what he was painting.”
Van Gogh’s art has stood the test of time, which Maciejunes said she feels is due partially to the way his art and life story have become inseparable.
“I think the merging of that narrative with the work has a strong popular appeal to people. It has just this sticking power; people remember that,” Maciejunes said. “The power of the work itself is incredibly expressive. People feel this kind of emotional connection to not only the story of the artist, but to the work itself.”
“Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources” is not the only Van Gogh art exhibition on display in Columbus this fall. The “Immersive Van Gogh” exhibit, which opened Oct. 28 at the Lighthouse ArtSpace, uses 500,000 cubic feet of projections to surround visitors with an animated film of Van Gogh’s work, according to the exhibit’s website. Maciejunes said she feels the two shows are complementary.
“They complement each other and I think that, you know, what I think matters is connecting in some way to these creative experiences,” Maciejunes said.
The museum aims to provide an experience that connects with and impacts its viewers, and Stark said he hopes visitors to the exhibition walk away with a deeper connection to Van Gogh.
“I think people will come away, hopefully, with a lot of new perspectives and having acquired more information — visual information — on a period of the world that they might not be very familiar with,” Stark said. “I hope they’ll come away being moved by looking at the works by Van Gogh, thinking about his story, his life and the way that Van Gogh expressed and depicted his world and his life with his art.”
Ticket prices for “Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources” vary, and more information can be found on the exhibition’s website.
