Anyone who's taken a basic art class knows of Vincent van Gogh, the 19th century post-impressionist famous for his vivid colors and broad brush strokes. His painting "The Starry Night" is one of the world's most famous artworks. As familiar as folks are with the Dutch artist, however, it's safe to say most of us have probably never seen his work in person because much of it is housed in museums across the world.
Now though, locals have the opportunity to further explore his work in Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, which invites viewers to physically interact with his art in Spokane for the first time.
"We want to immerse you from the time you enter from the time you leave," says John Zaller, executive producer of Exhibition Hub, the company behind these immersive art experiences. "We do that through a series of different methods, which looks like starting with a museum-style series of galleries with in-depth information about the artist."
As visitors wander the initial space, they'll see large informational boards about van Gogh's life alongside replicas of some of his most famous works, like the aforementioned "The Starry Night." While there are no actual van Gogh paintings in the exhibition, Zaller says his team worked hard to ensure the reproductions match the scale of original pieces.
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, which first opened in 2017, has been well-received, landing on top experience lists from national news outlets like USA Today and CNN. The entire experience is backed by a custom score (which sounds similar to soothing spa music) accompanied by a narrator reading quotes from letters that van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo.
"You get to hear his voice essentially sharing some of his innermost thoughts and philosophies," Zaller explains. "You really get to know him in an in-depth way that his paintings alone can't convey."
The first immersive element guests see when entering the exhibition is a large bust of van Gogh's head with alternating projections of his self-portraits illuminating the statue's features. As the projection alternates through his paintings, it creates a fluid motion that a still portrait can't quite mimic.
"You see all this movement that's implied in his work actually displayed with today's technology," Zaller says.
Further into the exhibition there's another statue that Zaller calls "van Gogh's many vases," onto which many of the artist's vivid floral paintings are projected.
"Wherever he was, there was always a vase of flowers, so he painted dozens and dozens of still lifes of them through his career," Zaller says. "When we think about van Gogh, we don't think about these paintings so much, but they were a huge part of honing his craft."
Next, visitors enter a room where they can interact three-dimensionally with van Gogh's art. A few of his paintings were actually "built" to life-size scale, including a rendition of the artist's bedroom, which he painted a handful of times. Attendees can literally interact with a replica of the bed he slept on.
Afterwards, guests enter the centerpiece of the entire experience: a giant room where a moving projection of paintings blanket all four walls. More than 400 of van Gogh's paintings are shown in about 35 minutes. For an extra $5, folks can also use a VR headset to see the world through van Gogh's eyes, effectively completing the immersion experience.
"This really is revolutionary in terms of our exhibitions," Zaller says. "This level of projection and this level of quality displaying such a famous artist — it's really the first time that van Gogh's art has been seen this way." ♦
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience • Through Sept. 30; Mon and Thu from 10 am-7 pm, Fri from 10 am-8 pm, Sat from 9 am-8 pm, Sun from 9 am-6 pm • $18-$60 • All ages • Exhibition Hub Spokane Art Center • 808 N. Ruby St. • vangoghexpo.com/spokane
