In collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum, the National Gallery of Canada opened its exhibition Van Gogh: Up Close on May 25, which, along with 100 works from other artists, features 47 works from Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh.
The paintings encompass a variety of still lifes and landscapes that demonstrate the thoughtful approach in which Van Gogh represented nature through a variety of daring techniques, from the dramatic cropping seen in the Tree Trunks in the Grass (1890) to the intricately rendered details of the Sunflowers (1887).
Cornelia Homburg, renown Van Gogh scholar, and Anabelle Kienle Poňka, associate curator of European and American art at the National Gallery, co-curated the exhibition from a new perspective of Van Gogh’s close-up view.
“We have looked at his decision to paint nature almost lying in it with his knees in the grass,” Homburg said.
Van Gogh has not been represented in Canada on this large of a scale in over 25 years, according to the gallery’s website.
This innovative thesis on the artist’s relationship to nature that allowed Homburg and Poňka to borrow works from lenders around the world.
National Gallery director Marc Mayer said that most of the paintings in the exhibition had never been to Canada before.
“It’s a fresh academic perspective. This is van Gogh’s relationship with nature. It s never really been studied before, certainly not with the depth that our curators have given it,” Mayer said.
Iris (1890), and Bowl with Zinnias and Other Flowers (1886), are Van Gogh works that can be found in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Poňka expressed a desire that viewers may see the pieces from the permanent collection in conjunction with other works in the exhibition painted from the same garden, offering different viewpoints.
“Therefore we can appreciate it even more so as a magnificent work that is part of our national collections and something we should be incredibly proud of.” Poňka said, referencing the Iris.
The acquisition of Van Gogh works was “no easy feat,” but Homburg and Poňka rose to the challenge. Almond Blossom (1890) was one of the more renown pieces from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam featured in the exhibit.
“I remember my first discussion with them about this loan which is sort of like a no-no, you do not ask for this picture. When I explained what we were doing they said, ‘Well if there was one exhibition where it actually made sense, this would be one of them,’ ” Homburg said.
“It is the only one where Van Gogh actually looked up and not down.”
Poňka said she felt like every one of the paintings they acquired was “like a mini victory in itself.”
Van Gogh: Up Close was a five-year project and one which each department at the National Gallery contributed to.
Also inspired by nature, the featured works by other artists include Japanese prints and 19th century photographs that provide context for Van Gogh’s approach to art.
“Getting up close to Van Gogh and studying some of his most radical and innovative paintings of nature has also given me a renewed appreciation for him as one of the most versatile and complex artists one could have the pleasure to work on,” Poňka said.
Van Gogh: Up Close runs from May 25-September 3 at the National Gallery.
