Displaying items by tag: sunflowers

Two versions of Vincent Van Gogh’s venerable ‘Sunflowers’ have been reunited for the first time in 65 years at the National Gallery in London. One painting is in the National Gallery’s collection and the other canvas is on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The works are being exhibited side-by-side along with the results of scientific research into the two paintings carried out by both institutions. The findings allow viewers to better grasp the paintings’ relationship to each other by shedding light on Van Gogh’s artistic process and the materials he used to paint ‘Sunflowers.’

The two paintings on view are among the five versions of ‘Sunflowers’ that are spread around the world (the other three reside in Tokyo, Munich and Philadelphia). Van Gogh started the series in 1888 after he left Paris for Arles in the South of France. Van Gogh had invited his friend Paul Gauguin to join him in Arles and he painted ‘Sunflowers’ as a welcoming present for the artist. Van Gogh and Gauguin worked together throughout the fall of 1888 until Van Gogh’s mental state began to deteriorate.

‘Sunflowers’ will be on view at the National Gallery through April 27, 2014. Admission is free.

Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum is partnering with Fujifilm Belgium to debut museum certified editions of Vincent Van Gogh masterpieces. Collectively known as the Van Gogh Museum Edition, the collection includes ‘Almond Blossoms’ (1890), ‘Boulevard de Clichy’ (1887), ‘The Harvest’ (1888), ‘Sunflowers’ (1889) and ‘Wheatfield under Thunderclouds’ (1890). The works will debut at the LA Art Show on January 15, 2014 as part of Tribute International’s booth.

Visitors will preview the most advanced technique used to replicate Van Gogh’s art in full three-dimensional detail. Developed by Fujifilm Belgium, Reliefography combines a precise three-dimensional edition of the painting’s actual surface texture with a high-resolution print. Each Van Gogh piece has been produced as a limited edition of 260. The starting price for each piece in the edition is $35,000.

The Van Gogh Museum will keep 50 pieces from each edition to be used for educational purposes and potentially to provide a new way for visually impaired people to experience art.

Sunset at Montmajour, a recently discovered painting by Vincent van Gogh, is officially on public view at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Axel Ruger, the museum’s director, said, “We are pleased to be able to show this exceptional painting to our visitors, because a new discovery of this magnitude has never before occurred in the history of the Van Gogh Museum.” The work will be on view through January 12, 2014 as part of the exhibition Van Gogh at Work, which shows how in ten years’ time van Gogh developed into a unique artist with an impressive oeuvre.

On September 9, 2013 officials at the Van Gogh Museum announced that after extensive research, they were confident that Sunset at Montmajour was an authentic work by van Gogh. The canvas, which depicts a dry landscape in Van Gogh’s characteristically thick brushstrokes, had been stored for decades in the attic of a Norwegian home before becoming a research subject at the Van Gogh Museum. Scholars were able to trace the earliest history of the provenance of the painting while Oda Van Maanen, the museum’s restorer, used x-ray photos and computer analyses to determine the type of canvas and pigments used, which were consistent with the materials regularly used by Van Gogh. Museum officials had previously deemed Sunset at Montmajour as inauthentic because the artist had not signed it.

Along with Sunset at Montmajour, Van Gogh at Work includes some of the artist’s best-known works including Sunflowers and The Bedroom.

On Monday, September 9, 2013, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam announced that after extensive research, they were confident that the painting Sunset at Montmajour was an authentic work by Vincent Van Gogh. Alex Ruger, the museum’s director, said, “A discovery of this magnitude has never before occurred in the history of the Van Gogh Museum. It is already a rarity that a new painting can be added to Van Gogh’s oeuvre. But what makes this even more exceptional is that this is a transition work in his oeuvre, and moreover, a large painting from a period that is considered by many to be the culmination of his artistic achievement, his period in Arles in south of France.” Sunset at Montmajour was painted in 1888 around the same time as Van Gogh’s seminal works Sunflowers, The Yellow House and The Bedroom.

The canvas, which depicts a dry landscape in Van Gogh’s characteristically thick brushstrokes, had been stored for decades in the attic of a Norwegian home before becoming a research subject at the Van Gogh Museum. Scholars were able to trace the earliest history of the provenance of the painting while Oda Van Maanen, the museum’s restorer, used x-ray photos and computer analyses to determine the type of canvas and pigments used, which were consistent with the materials regularly used by Van Gogh. Museum officials had previously deemed Sunset at Montmajour as inauthentic because the artist had not signed it.

Sunset at Montmajour will be on view at the Van Gogh Museum starting September 24, 2013 as part of the exhibition Van Gogh at Work.

Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum is gearing up to re-open to the public after closing earlier this year for renovations. Masterpieces such as Sunflowers, The Bedroom, Irises, and The Potato Eaters were returned to the museum on Friday, April 26, 2013 after seven months on view at the Hermitage Museum. The museum is slated to re-open on May 1, 2013 with the exhibition Van Gogh at Work inaugurating the newly updated space.

Updates to the Van Gogh Museum began in 2010 after intensification in fire safety regulations. Most of the recent refurbishments centered on the replacement of the museum’s air conditioning installations. The museum is now equipped with a modern and sustainable air conditioning unit that allows the right climatic conditions to be set for each room. The structure’s roof was also replaced and outfitted with extra insulation, the floors have been replaced, and the walls are newly repainted.

The Van Gogh Museum, which opened in 1973, houses the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh’s (1853-1890) paintings and drawings in the world. Van Gogh at Work will coincide with the 160^th anniversary of the artist’s birth and offers an extensive overview of Van Gogh’s oeuvre. The exhibition will be on view through January 12, 2014.

Energy efficient LED lighting, which is widely used in museums across the world, has altered the color of Vincent van Gogh’s (1853-1890) famous Sunflowers (1888). Once a vivid yellow hue, van Gogh’s masterpieces are darkening; scientists have discovered that certain yellow pigments from the 19^th century become unstable after exposure to LED lights, turning them a brownish green over time.

Researchers in France and Germany sampled 14 works dating from 1887 to 1890 and tested for the reaction, which affects the oil paint color chrome yellow. A popular pigment at the time, artists such as Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) often used chrome yellow in their paintings. Upon their discovery, researchers suggested that museums avoid using LED lighting on certain works and switch to a safer illumination alternative.

Van Gogh painted his sunflower series as a welcoming present for his friend, Gauguin, and planned to hang the works in the room where he was to stay while in Arles. A copy by van Gogh from the original series is on view at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

This past Sunday, 75 Van Gogh paintings including Sunflowers, Irises, and Bedroom, were pulled off the walls of Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum and transported across the city in an armored car. The masterpieces will be on view for the next seven months at the Hermitage, an Amsterdam dependency of the Russian state museum, while the Van Gogh Museum undergoes renovations.

Moving irreplaceable works of art proved to be no easy task. Each painting was loaded onto felt-covered trolleys and taken to a workshop where they were wrapped in protective insulation and then packed into hard-shell carrying cases. The cases were then assigned code numbers to keep the paintings’ identities under wraps. The decidedly huge undertaking went off without a hitch.

The Hermitage’s Van Gogh exhibit opens on Saturday, September 29^th and will run through mid-April. The revamped Van Gogh Museum is slated to re-open on April 25, 2013.