Vincent van Gogh & the MFAH September 16, 2020

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As you take a virtual trip to top museums around the world through the Armchair Travel film series, don’t miss your stop in Amsterdam to explore the Van Gogh Museum via Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing.

“Van Gogh is an unusual combination of someone whose art has an instant appeal to people and a human-interest story that is astonishing,” said Van Gogh expert Martin Bailey, author of Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum. “You can see the enormous appetite for Van Gogh growing certainly by the decade and almost by the year.”

For proof, look no further than the popularity of the landmark 2019 MFAH exhibition Vincent van Gogh: His Life in Art, with long lines of visitors eagerly awaiting their turn to experience the show. At least nine other exhibitions about Van Gogh’s work are in the planning stages internationally.

Vincent van Gogh: His Life in Art is the only exhibition to trace Van Gogh’s entire artistic career, which began in 1881 when he decided to take up painting, and ended barely a decade later with his death, in 1890, at the age of 37. During that time, Van Gogh also wrote at least 800 letters, mostly to his brother Theo, leaving behind a great deal of material for understanding Van Gogh’s paintings in relation to what he was thinking, where he was living, and who his companions were.

The Armchair Travel film Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing is the perfect cinematic parallel to the exhibition because it, too, follows Van Gogh’s life in art. Watch the movie today, and don’t forget to use the special MFAH discount code (MFAHSUMMER678).

Learning and Interpretation programs receive generous funding from the Jerold B. Katz Foundation; Institute of Museum and Library Services; H-E-B; MD Anderson Cancer Center; Sharon G. Dies; Sterling-Turner Foundation; Houston Junior Woman's Club; Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; Susan Vaughan Foundation; and additional generous donors.