Seen through the screen of a camera, heard through the audio tour and experienced via the gift shop.

The Van Gogh and the Seasons is at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) until 9th July 2017.

I visited the NGV on Tuesday 6th June 2017 around 1:00 pm, and I was glad I went mid-week and in the middle of the day, I can’t imagine how insufferably busy it would be on a weekend of public holiday.

I don’t know if I’m a traditionalist or what, but I like to appreciate the art for what it is, that thing on the wall. Yes, some context is nice, but I didn’t need, nor want to watch the narrated movie experience that everyone seemed to sit down and diligently watched at the beginning of the exhibition.

Next you walk through prints of art works which set the scene and tone for the Seasons exhibition. I have a somewhat narrow view of prints, that they’re good for your home, they may even be good for collecting, but if I’m out in a museum or art gallery context, I want to see the original. I understand the need to set context, but this seemed more like they needed something to pad out the exhibition, that this room was as much about buffering the crowds as it was information delivery.

Then finally past a mesh curtain and you’re into the main gallery.

Once in there I was struck by the somewhat surreal nature, not of seeing the art work, but of the people in there viewing it and how they interacted with the art work.
There were four different types of people in there seeing the art work.
Those following a guide who seemed to be explaining, with a little more detail what was on the placards beside the art works.
Those with headphones on, listening to the audio guide.
People taking photos, and seemingly viewing the art work long enough to take a photo.
And then there were the people that were doing none of these things, and were simply looking at the art work.

I was in the small last group, just looking at the art work, I admit, I did take a few photos, of the crowds, not of the paintings.

To the people taking photos, some I wanted to scream at, there was one guy, who had headphones on for the audio guide and was taking photos with a separate camera. It also made a noise when it took a photo, 3 seconds worth. <camera takes photo> ‘Click, Click, Click’. I was ready to scream, or at least ask him politely to turn off the sound effect, but instead I just studied the paintings for a little longer until he moved on to the next area.

The people listening to the audio guides, they perplexed me, it seemed like they were stuck on rails. I would guess that the audio guide allowed for a certain amount of time, or narration to explain the art work, during which time the people would stand in front of the art work looking at it for the set amount of time and then they moved off, as though on cart’s breaks had been let off carrying them on their rails to the next piece of art work.

Those with a guide, some inexplicably also had headphones for the audio guide, I don’t know why. These people with a guide were at least all contained within one group, so once they cleared away from one art work you could stand in front of it and appreciate it.

The people taking photos, with their phones and in one or two cases with an iPad mini or phablet, I just wanted to tell them ‘don’t use the digital zoom, it’s not going to improve the image, just move closer’, but I didn’t want to engage with them. I could sort of understand that they wanted to capture their experience of being there. But buying the book at the end of the exhibit would present them with much nicer photos than what they captured with their phone cameras. Also, they like the audio guide people seemed to spend enough time in front of the art work to frame it up and capture it on their phones before moving off. It didn’t even seem like some of them actually looked at the art works themselves, not with their own eyes. They took photos of the description placard, maybe even read it, then they looked at the art work, but just enough to...I dunno, see it for a moment.
I just thought, what’s the point of that.

I wanted to see the art work, to experience it in the flesh, with my own eyes. See it as a three dimensional object, see the paint blobs, the brush strokes, the passion that was in the paintings.

There were flat wood plinths in front of the art work so you couldn’t stand in front of the art works themselves. The plinths were maybe 800 mm wide, but they did have a gap underneath so I tucked my feet underneath and could lean forward and look at the art work close up, to see the blobs of paint, to experience the art works in person. This is what I wanted, I wanted to see, to experience them, not through a screen, filter or audio visual experience. Just with my own eyes, not curated into an experience.

I knew going into the exhibit that it was organised by seasons, it is after all what the exhibit is called. But I’m still not sure I really enjoyed it, presented like that. I think I would have preferred a linear experience, to see Van Gogh’s art work presented through a linear time scale; beginning with his early work and finishing with his later work so you could see a development in style. Rather than experiencing the exhibit through tone.
In presenting it through tone and setting it did make me look and appreciate Van Gogh’s style more, looking at the similar styles he used or composition through the different works. It also made me realise I’d missed out on a lot of Van Gogh’s work that isn’t colourful painting.

I’ve seen some Van Gogh art work before, in 2010, in Canberra at the ‘Masterpieces from Paris’ exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, https://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/MasterpiecesFromParis/ it wasn’t just Van Gogh, it was other art works from the Musee D’Orsay as well.

I rate that a better experience than at the NGV, perhaps in part there were fewer people, and there was definitely a lot less people taking photos (though it was 7 years ago, so a lesser acceptance of it). But it just felt like a more respected experience of the art work.
Also, seeing the art work there, gave me an emotional response, I felt moved by the art work I saw there. Especially The Starry Night which seeing in person just blew me away, it was a moving experience seeing it. It was just so different, so many textures, so much more depth than all the prints, reproductions and whatever of it. In fact all the art work I saw there, had depth, texture and reality to it.

The quote in the gift shop 'The way to know life is to love many things'

At Van Gogh and the Seasons, this too was the case, you could see the texture, the difference, the physicality to the art work that you do not get seeing it published in a book or presented online.
But none of it moved me, none of it gave me those pangs of emotion upon seeing the art work.
Some art work did give me window into Van Gogh’s earlier work that I hadn’t been aware of, in particular his drawings, these I found fascinating and an art style that I’d not seen from Van Gogh popularised much.

I think it’s a great opportunity to see Van Gogh’s works, especially as it’s in Melbourne, although even if it wasn’t in Melbourne I would likely make the effort to go and see an international art exhibition if it were within Australia somewhere, if it were of a notable artist such as Van Gogh.