Overview
You could trawl every art gallery and every private collection on the planet and you'd only find 800 paintings signed by Vincent Van Gogh. That's the sum total of what remains of the Dutch genius's output.
So, it's insanely, insanely exciting that 60 of his masterpieces will be travelling to the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017. Set to open on April 28, the blockbuster exhibition will be titled Van Gogh and the Seasons and is expected by NGV to draw one of the gallery's biggest audiences yet.
You can expect around 40 painting and 25 drawings, collected from some of the world's top-shelf galleries, including Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum and Otterlo's Kröller-Müller Museum. The curating is being taken care of by Sjraar Van Heugten, author of a genuine bucketload of books about Van Gogh and ex-head of the Van Gogh Museum's collections section.
What's more, you'll also get to see a bunch of Van Gogh's letters, as well as some of the artworks he collected during his 37 years on Earth. These will be arranged to give some insight into how various artists have responded to the seasons.
"It's a huge coup for the NGV and another reason why Victoria is the creative state," said Martin Foley, Victoria's Minister for Creative Industries, when announcing the exhibition on Friday 16 September. "Van Gogh is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable and famous names in art history. His incredible work laid the foundation for modern art and influences artists to this day."
Van Gogh and The Seasons is the 22nd exhibition in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series, which the former Labor Government set up in 2004, to treat Melburnians to the best art in the world at least once a year. Also in the 2017 series will be the NGV's inaugural Festival of Photography, featuring works from William Eggelston (US) and Melbourne's own Zoë Croggon.
Van Gogh and the Seasons opens on April 28 at NGV International. It's part of the gallery's Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition for 2017.
Image: Vincent van Gogh, Dutch 1853–90, Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses (1888), oil on canvas, 64.9 x 81.2 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, © Kröller-Müller Museum.