Van Gogh Writ Large

Photo from Discovery Place Museum

Vincent van Gogh seems to be everywhere I look these days. Here in my own North Carolina hometown, a local museum called Discovery Place has just opened a show called "Van Gogh Alive". The show comes to us from Moscow, and features larger-than-life projections of Van Gogh's paintings. The exhibit promises

a "revolutionary, multi-sensory experience." Hmmm. The multimedia extravaganza involves forty high definition projectors that will splash gigantic images around the exhibit hall. It also has a soundtrack featuring music by Bach, Handel and other classical composers. (As an aside, one wonders: Why didn't they choose music that was contemporary to Van Gogh's time?). If you're curious about how the multi-media show works, you can even see a video clip.

Photo from Discovery Place Museum

I am always suspicious of altering works of art. But perhaps if you can't see a real Van Gogh, this ersatz museum is better than none at all. Alas, we can't all go to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Or travel to Paris to see the Van Gogh exhibit now on at the Musee d'Orsay.  More on that later...

Photo from Discovery Place Museum