Thursday, January 13, 2022

Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience

 by Patricia Frischer

One of the entrance images with faux fur and paint.


 When I was teaching art in London, I was able to take my class to an important landscape exhibition. Their assignment was to imagine that they were actually in the painting and design what activities they would do there for a day… a picnic, a swim, a stroll, a rock concert, a masked ball. They had to place themselves inside, wandering around, noticing their surroundings. Twenty-five years later, this experience would be made much easier for them with Beyond Van Gogh. But instead of our own imagination, we are invited inside the creative mind of Vincent Van Gogh.

Fanny Curtat, the Art History Consultant for this show, believes events like this might lead reluctant museum goers to seek out the original works that inspired so much effort by her team. Normal Studio with the Paquin Entertainment Group and Primo Entertainment  who put together Beyond are just one of several conglomerates that have packaged the Van Gogh legacy. This one has a large educational component and calls upon it own creative tech artists to imagine the works and words coming together with music and animation for a truly impressive presentation.


Ms. Curtat was careful to emphasis that the Beyond Van Gogh does not concentrate on his self-mutilation, but instead takes you from darker days to huge burst of joy and color. There is a room of lighted text, followed by a space filled with a moving  waterfall of color to accustom you to the final large room with about a 35 minute sequence of images. You can come in at any stage and you might want to repeat parts by quietly sitting on anyone of the benches that seem to be lifted from the style of a Van Gogh room.

Outside entrance to the Wyland Center at the Del Mar Fairgrounds

It would be great for every child in San Diego to have the chance to be awed by this display

Boy genius

Words from his trove of letters are brought to life.

Waterfalls of color are created by the artist techs.








Fanny Curtat, Art History Consultant




In November, Van Gogh had his most successful auction month ever, also leading to a yearly record. One outstanding lot was his Young Man with Cornflower, which sold for $46.7 million - having been estimated at only $5 million - $7 million. You can buy your own little bit of Vincent memorabilia in the extensive gift shop at the end of the show. 

Young Man with Cornflower

Many, many, many t-shirts1

Warm feet!

Too bizarre, even for me. 


Van Gogh: The ImmersiveExperience, presented by Keurig
WHEN: JANUARY 14th – MARCH 6th
Monday - Thursday: 11am - 10pm
Friday: 11am - 11pm
Saturday: 10am - 11pm
Sunday: 10am - 10 pm
Final entry 1 hour before close.

WHERE: Wyland Center at Del Mar Fairgrounds: 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar, CA 92014

TICKETS: www.vangoghsandiego.com




Trifecta: Art, Science, Patron at La Jolla Historical Society

 By Patricia Frischer

Xuchi Naungayan Eggleton
Dr. Reuben Shaw
Elegant simple shape, complicated materials and construction

Marcos Ramírez ERRE, the De La Torre Brothers, Siobhan Arnold, David Adey, 
Xuchi Naungayan Eggleton, Debby and Larry Kline,
Mely Barragan, Christopher Puzio,
Cesar and Lois Collective and Wendy Maruyama.  
Now that is a major line-up of talent and they do not disappoint. Curated by Chi Essary and with an absolutely stunning catalog, we were pleased to see this show before it closed. Hopefully this report and the catalog will be a permanent memory of such talent coming together.

The show is a trifecta because these artists were each assigned to a different endowed chair scientist recipient at the Salk Institute. The endowment ($3 million for each chair) is the patron part of the title. These scientists are working on cures for disease and asking those important questions like why do we age, how can we save the planet? What the artists (even ERRE) all discovered was that answers did not come in black and white. The research has shown that finding one answer might lead to more complications. So thank goodness we have these beautiful  visual  images to remind us that life is good and with that beauty comes hope. 



Xuchi Naungayan Eggleton (detail)

Wendy Maruyama
Dr. John Reynold
Ripples of memories reflected in the mirror like surface, more distorted as the piece progresses.

Wendy Maruyama

Wendy Maruyama (detail)

Mely Barragan
Dr. Kay Tye
Trying to connect biologically or culturally.

David Adey
Dr. Jan Karlseder
Dolly the cow  entangled in loops of knowing and unknowing,

Cesar and Lois Collective
Dr. Joanne Chory
Proposing an artificial intelligence that learns from nature not from humans. 

Marcos Ramírez ERRE
Dr. Clodagh O'Shea
Trying to make a black and white world that we can control,

Marcos Ramírez ERRE (detail)

De La Torre Brothers
Dr. Gerald Shadel
The good changes to the bad changes to the good changes to the bad.

De La Torre Brothers

De La Torre Brothers (detail)

 
Christopher Puzio
Dr. Geoffrey Wahl
Metaphors within metaphors,


Christopher Puzio (detail)



Siobhan Arnold
Dr. Susan Kaech
A secret little message inside of every lymph gland.

Siobhan Arnold (detail)


Debby and Larry Kline
Dr. Thomas Albright
Truth hidden and revealed and hidden and revealed.



Trifecta: Art, Science, Patron
La Jolla Historical Society Wisteria Cottage Gallery
780 Prospect Street, La Jolla
HOURS: Wed-Sunday, 12-4 p. m. through January 16. Free admission.
(858) 459-5335

See also: Seeking Truth & Other Science-Inspired Installations at La Jolla Historical Society Picked RAW Peeled by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.