When I give, I give myself

Insightful exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam of contemporary artists responses to letters from Van Gogh.

The work was scattered around the galleries and provided some useful insights into Van Gogh’s work and life as well as producing interesting new work inspired by it. I must admit I was there to ‘do’ Van Gogh I didn’t pay all the works a lot of attention but some caught my eye and made me try to find out more. It was also a good way of getting more of the letters into the displays.

I didn’t realise at the time that an interesting sphere on the wall with a grey middle which was saying something about colour was by Anish Kapoor! I liked Maria Barnes comment on fame, four black dripping trophies, reflecting on the fact Van Gogh wasn’t famous in his life time and yet here we were in a huge museum dedicated to his work.

The show also included work by writers imaging a letter to them written by Van Gogh which could be read or listened to.

My favourite pieces were the glittery skulls by Jan Fabre. I didn’t realise at the time that there were made of beetles’ wings. I’m not too sure what they were saying but they were pretty and unusual. Were they some sort of comment on Damian Hurst’s diamond skull?

 

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