Van Gogh & Japan

Seen at the Kyabram Theatre, Victoria

Bea says: Having really enjoyed our last Exhibition on Screen (Claude Monet), we were delighted to find this on at the historic Kyabram cinema in regional Victoria on a Sunday afternoon. 

We travelled out there in the car, attempted to find somewhere to have lunch (not easy on a Sunday in a small town), had to forgo our afternoon cuppa for a Cornetto in the cinema, but joined about 15 others to feast our eyes and ears.  
I knew about some aspects of Van Gogh's life prior to this, but not about his interest in Japan and how it influenced his work, so there was quite a bit of new information for me. 

I also didn't know about the circumstances of his death, so that was also new.  Beautiful cinematography and the hypnotic reading of letters made this, as with our last Exhibition, a relaxing and totally absorbing, experience.

The entire series is highly recommended.

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Cecil says: I love the way the Exhibition on Screen series allows you to enter the world (and even partly enter the mind) of the artists they portray.

I was less interested in how Japanese art influenced Van Gogh than in the general narrative about the life of this brilliant, but rather unbalanced artist.

I find it hard to relate to someone who is so influenced by a distant culture, but never had any interest in trying to travel over to see things for himself, so that was one of the most striking lines we heard from his correspondence narrated through this film.

I was fascinated by his close but volatile relationship with Gauguin, the guy he was with when he did the famous ear-cutting act in a frenzy of anger and passion. Apparently Gauguin wrote a diary with the only first-hand recounting of this episode, and I know the idea of the Exhibition series is to hear the voice of the artist through their correspondence and writings, but it would have been powerful to hear Gauguin's account narrated here too.

I had no idea Van Gogh lived in Arles for an extended period - something I wish I'd known when I visited. And nor did I know that he and his brother (another intriguing relationship the film mentioned but made me want to explore more) are both buried in a town (suburb?) very close to Paris.

I wonder what else we'll get to see from the wonderful Exhibition on Screen series down here in country Australia?

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