The three best Van Gogh exhibitions of the year all open in May

Luckily, Van Gogh’s three “exhibitions of the year” open next month. Together, they will present a fresh look at the artist’s work in France in his last years, when his powers were at their peak. Separate exhibits include a total of over 100 paintings by Vincent.

Many Van Gogh exhibitions aim to give a broad overview of the artist’s career, borrowing paintings (both major and minor) that are available on loan. But these three exhibitions all shed light on particular aspects of his career – images made during his ten weeks concentrated in Auvers-sur-Oise, works painted on the banks of the Seine by Van Gogh and four radical colleagues, and representations of a of his favourites. grounds, cypress.

These types of exposures create particular challenges for curators, as specific paints are required and substitutes are often unsuitable. Securing loans requires great effort and lenders need to be reassured that they are based on thorough scholarship. But for visitors, the three exhibitions should prove very rewarding.

amsterdam

The first of the shows is Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: his last months at Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum,(May 12-September 3). Later in the year, it will be presented in Paris, at the Orsay Museum (October 3-February 4, 2024).

Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise will include 48 of 74 paintings which he finished in the village, which lies 30 kilometers northwest of Paris. The artist arrived in May 1890 from the asylum in Provence and remained there until July, when he died two days later. shoot oneself. The show includes his haunting Wheat field with crows (July 1890).

This will be the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to the artist’s latest works. Visitors to the Paris presentation should also try to get to Auvers, an hour away by train, where the inn where he was staying can be visited, as well as the double tombs of Vincent and his brother Theo.

Chicago

Two days after the Amsterdam opening, the spotlight turns to Chicago. Van Gogh and the avant-garde: the modern landscape (May 14-September 4) will open at Chicago Art Institute. It will then be presented to Van Gogh MuseumAmsterdam (October 13-January 14, 2024), with a slightly different title (Van Gogh along the Seine).

Attracted by the landscape and the new rail access from Paris, the artists went to Asnières to paint on the banks of the Seine. The exhibition takes a new turn, confronting the way the river has been represented by five avant-garde artists: Van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard and Charles Angrand.

Van Gogh’s scenes by the Seine have never been shown as a group before. It will also be revealing to compare his work with that of his progressive colleagues.

new York

The third show is Van Gogh’s Cypresses (May 22-August 27) at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the only place. An exhibition in Dallas in 2021 explored the theme of Van Gogh and the olive grovesand now the focus is on cypress.

Although cypress trees began to appear in the background of some of Van Gogh’s Arles paintings in 1888, it was while living in the asylum outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence that they became a main focal point in the compositions, rising into the sky. Major exhibition loans will include Wheat field with cypresses (June 1889), the best version which is in the National Gallery in London, and Starry Night (June 1889), from the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

It is surprising to think that these two masterpieces were made a few days apart, while the artist was living in a mental asylum. Wheat field with cypresses And Starry Night really captured the imagination of the public, a demonstration that creativity can come in the most trying of circumstances.

Individual reports on Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: his last months, Van Gogh and the avant-garde: the modern landscape And Van Gogh’s Cypresses will be published on this blog in the coming weeks.