Three
years in the works, the Fondation
Vincent Van Gogh Arles will open to the public on Monday April 7th with an
inaugural exhibit called Van Gogh Live!
The Fondation will
underscore and celebrate the inseparable link between the paintings of the
Dutch artist and the city of Arles, by showing his work alongside the work of
contemporary artists. The museum says its goal is to "showcase and promote
van Gogh�s artistic heritage while also asking questions about the resonance of
his oeuvre in art today."
The museum is located at the H�tel L�autaud de
Donines, a 15th-century building
elegantly restored by Guilaume
Avenard and Herv� Scheider of the architectural firm Fluor, who say that the light of Arles was
their �guiding thread.� It's located in the heart of Arles' historic center, a setting classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Fondation comprises more than 1000 square meters of exhibit space
spread over two floors.
For the city of Arles this is
huge and everyone is all abuzz. It does seem like the perfect way to honor the
beleaguered artist, who, it is said, never sold a painting in his lifetime and
yet, "elevated this town and its surrounding countryside
to icons."
The first show, which runs until August 31st,
juxtaposes two separate exhibits. Colours of the North, Colours of the South was curated by Sjraar van Heugten, former director of collections at the Van Gogh Museum in
Amsterdam. It retraces the
evolution of Van Gogh's palette from darkness towards "southern brightness"
and presents a dozen van Gogh pieces alongside those of his contemporaries who
influenced him: Courbet, Pissarro, Monet, Monticelli and others.
The second part of Van Gogh Live! is an exhibit of
nine contemporary artists paying homage to Van Gogh. The artists and the works
were selected by the museum's artistic
director Bice Curiger.
Also to be unveiled on April 7th are permanent
installations specially commissioned for the museum's entrance.
Friends who've already been in to see the museum report that it's fabulous...and that the views of Arles from the upper terrace are magnificent.
***
After living for two years in Paris, van Gogh arrived in Arles on
February 20, 1888. During the 14-plus months he spent there, he created a
multitude of paintings and drawings, many of which are now considered masterpieces
of late 19th-century art.
Tired of the busy city life and the cold northern climate, Van Gogh had headed
south in search of the warmth, bright light and colors of Provence. According
to his brother Theo, he went "first to Arles to get his bearings and then
probably on to Marseille." Van Gogh found in the beautiful countryside of
Arles what he had been looking for and never moved on to Marseille.
Around Arles he found the light, color and harmony that he knew and loved from
Japanese prints...and he started to paint Japanese-inspired blossoming trees
and the Pont de Langlois. In summer he drew and painted harvest scenes.
Painting the human figure had always been one of Van Gogh�s most important
artistic goals and he had a special love for peasant paintings. In Arles, he
decided that he wanted to modernize this genre by choosing the subject of the
sower. He painted portraits and still-lifes as well, confessing to Theo :
"I am painting with the gusto of a Marseillais eating a
bouillabaisse."
In May, Van Gogh rented the famous Yellow House
(Maison Jaune), where he lived and worked. He had hopes of establishing a collective
studio in the South, were other painters would join him and in October, 1888,
Paul Gauguin came to Arles. The two artists lived and painted together for two
months. It was a time of great mutual inspiration but eventually their artistic
temperaments clashed. On December 23, 1888, Van Gogh suffered a breakdown and cut off part of his left ear. (Actually a recent theory by two German
art historians has it that it was actually Gauguin who cut off the famous
ear.) Gauguin left and Van Gogh�s dream of a studio with other painters was
shattered. He was hospitalized twice in Arles, in the 16th and 17th-century H�tel-Dieu;
he painted and drew its beautiful courtyard, which you can just wander easily
into today. (It's now called the Espace
Van Gogh.) Finally he had himself voluntarily committed to the Clinique
St. Paul in St. R�my on May 8, 1889.
During his time in St. Remy, Van Gogh painted another roughly 150
canvasses. But, writes Van Gogh expert Sjraar
Van Heugten, "his style grew less
contrasted. His oeuvre would never again reflect the bedazzlement he had
experienced in Arles, faced with light and the colours of the South."
In St. Remy, the Clinique St. Paul is a lovely and very-popular tourist site. The sections where patients are treated
remains closed to the public but you can visit Van Gogh's rooms, read his
letters, buy art made by the current patients, enjoy the flowers in a beautiful
cloister and see the van Gogh paintings reproduced on panels on the grounds, as
part of a larger Van Gogh trail.
In May 1890, Van Gogh
left St. Remy to be closer to his physician Dr. Paul Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise
and also closer to Theo. He died in July of that same year, 1890, at age 37. He is believed to have shot himself with a revolver
although no gun was ever found.
Writing
in his 1984 book Van Gogh in Arles, Ronald Pickvance said: �Vincent Willem van
Gogh...lived in Arles...almost 15 months, over 63 weeks, precisely 444 days.
During his stay, he produced some 200 paintings, made over 100 drawings and
watercolours, and wrote some 200 letters. The vast majority survive � a
prodigal and quite astonishing outpouring, sustai�ning a pace that no other
artist of the 19th century could match. This period in Arles is frequently
called the zenith, the climax, the greatest flowering of Van Gogh�s decade of
artistic activity.�
***
The connection between the famous Dutch artist and
contemporary art was inscribed in the principles of the Fondation Vincent Van
Gogh right
from its conception, when, in 1983, Yolande Clergue (wife of photographer Lucien Clergue) , founded
the "Association
pour la Cr�ation de la Fondation Vincent Van Gogh en Arles" and set out to
create a collection of contemporary art in Arles
which would "pay homage to Van Gogh�s universality."
In 1988, the collection was presented
publicly for the first time, during celebrations for the centenary of the
arrival of Van Gogh in Arles. Its development then intensified quickly, both in
the quality of its exhibitions (Picasso, Bacon) and in its publications. Today
the collection contains major pieces from the worlds of literature, poetry,
music, photography, theatrical costuming (Christian Lacroix) and much more.
In 2008, the mayor of Arles offered to lodge the collection
in a museum at the H�tel L�autaud de Donines;
the organization finally received state approval in 2010. Work started
in 2011 and Bice Curiger, a world-renowned art critic and exhibition
curator, was brought aboard as artistic director the
following year.
Finally, next week it's all
opening, ''under the high patronage'' of President
Francois Hollande.
Highly instrumental in
bringing the museum to life was board president Luc Hoffmann, the grandson of the founder of the Swiss
pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La
Roche, who bought a large estate in the Camargue near Arles in 1947. A world-renowned environmentalist and
philanthropist, Luc's lifetime's worth
of achievements includes co-founding the
World Wildlife Fund, establishing the Parc Naturel R�gional de Camargue (which
he ran for many years) and authoring some 60 books.
Luc's daughter Maja Hoffmann--Fondation board
member and president of the artistic committee-- grew up between Switzerland
and the Camargue. She has devoted her life to continuing the family's
philanthropic and environmental legacy but is known above all for her passion
for contemporary art. She's currently president
of the International Council of the Tate (London)--and one of the Tate's
trustees--and sits on the boards of scores of other top art museums worldwide. She's
also a developer and co-owner of a number of popular Arles area hotels and
restaurants.
The
new museum is at #35, rue du Docteur Fanton in Arles. For all the info, click here or go to: fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org.
If
you'd like to see the Fondation press kit in English, click here.
For
info on the self-guided Van Gogh walking tour in Arles, click here.
If
you'd like a guided walking tour in Arles, with or without a visit to the
Fondation, contact me.
For general Arles info, the Tourist Office site is here.
Finally, if you want to read a fascinating article, Van Gogh's Ear: The Christmas Eve That Changed Modern Art, by Adam Gopnik from the New Yorker, click here.
Photos: (1) This is an architect's rendering as the facade is still getting its finishing touches in advance of the opening this week. (2) Museum interiors. (3) The logo and other elements of the museum's visual identity (signage, website, etc.) were designed by Studio Marie Lusa in Zurich. (4, 5) Van Gogh's Autoportrait avec Pipe et Chapeau de Paille, 1887 and Guillaume Bruere's Untitled are both in the opening exhibit. (6, 7) Van Gogh's La Maison Jaune ('La rue'), 1888, and his April, 1889 painting of the courtyard at the 17th century H�tel-Dieu (Espace Van Gogh), where he was hospitalized twice.
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