Eternal Star, Vincent van Gogh Media Art

2022.12.23. - 2023.02.19.

 In commemoration of the 11th anniversary of the opening of the Yangpyeong Art Museum, Eternal Star, Vincent van Gogh Media Art Exhibition will be held, a representative genius artist who went ahead of his time. This exhibition carefully selects van Gogh's major works by period, and uses digital morphing and face animation techniques to infuse the depth of space and emotions into objects without damaging the original work, realizing Van Gogh's masterpieces to near perfection. In 2020, the Masterpieces of Light, a media art exhibition, realized the harmony between IT technology and art, presenting great masterpieces from da Vinci to Matisse, who were masters of the era. Following 2020, this exhibition focuses on Vincent van Gogh, the ‘painter of the soul’ and the ‘painter of the sun’ that Koreans love the most. 

Van Gogh is a Dutch painter who was born on the basis of Impressionism.

Van Gogh represents Post-Impressionism, which expresses the world uniquely with light and color based on an artist’s subjective experience. With a passion for painting, he moved to Paris, Arles, Saint-Remy-de-Provence, and Auvers-sur-Oise, France. In accordance with the tradition of early Dutch painting, his screen often presented dark nuisance, but as he interacted with contemporary Impressionist painters in Paris, the city of art and under the influence of Japanese Ukiyo-e (浮世繪), his artwork activities started expressing his inner world with splendid colors. Expanding from the color expression of nature and objects designated as 'unique colors', the artist's individual sensuous colors are applied and expressed 'green sky', 'pink clouds', and 'dark blue road'. In particular, Van Gogh's later works influenced German expressionism and remained as a 'great painter' who directly influenced the birth of modern abstract painting.

“If the colors I use work well in my paintings, the question of whether they are the same color as the object is no longer so important.”

- Vincent van Gogh

From the early works of Van Gogh, who entered the artist's path at the end of his wanderings, to the works of the period when madness and desire for art exploded, as moving through the exhibition halls along the trajectory of each period and place, you can see the masterpieces that Van Gogh created with his passionate artistic spirit in a short period of 10 years. At the same time, you can look into his life where he had to remain as an 'outsider', sinking inward in a fierce struggle against the reality of poverty and desperate solitude. This exhibition will be an opportunity to recharge your humanistic sensibilities, feeling his warm gaze as he observed marginalized farmers and workers even in his solitary life, and the passion and persistence of his creative soul who did not give up even in poverty. It is a commentary program suited to the eye level of visitors of all ages, which will enhance the quality of appreciation with deep and wide knowledge. In addition, an interactive media art experience section will be operated to provide a more intimate understanding of the work and an encounter with Van Gogh that transcends time and space.

“The world of Van Gogh's art, which has changed with the times, will be presented as a replica work produced with projection mapping technology, sound, and 3D printing which vividly conveys the emotion of the original work expressed even with brush strokes.”

In the history of art, new media have emerged along with the development of science and technology, and new art genres have been created by utilizing those media. The social background in which ‘tube paint (1824)’ and ‘camera (1839)’ were invented became the basis for escaping from reproducibility and started ‘Impressionism’, which contains ‘instantaneous light and moments’. He began paying attention to how the color and light of objects change from moment to moment, revealing the tendency of art to value subjectivity over objectivity and emotion over intellect under the influence of painters who have been painting outdoors for a long time. On the other hand, media and new media that appeared in the 21st century inevitably experience the harmony between technology and art, and the distance between the public and art became closer. Media art brings individual globality into one frame. At that time, the audience moves their body between the works of art and experiences being a part of the art.

By vividly encountering Van Gogh's rough brush strokes and feast of vivid colors embodied in the museum space through lively moving images and sounds unfolding in front of your eyes, this exhibition will communicate with the inside of an audience. The world of encounters with Van Gogh, who will be remembered for eternity, a star that shines brightly in our hearts, unfolds here and now.

- Department of Exhibition Planning, Yangpyeong Art Museum