If Vincent Van Gogh was able to visit the future, Christmas Carol-style, he’d surely be unable to believe it: That the Dutch painter—and OG sadboi—could go from scraping by below the poverty line during his lifetime, selling only one painting (to a doctor who likely felt sorry for him) to being one of the biggest cultural touchstones of modern art. It feels like a story so far-fetched even Dickens would scrap it. And yet, it’s exactly what happened to Van Gogh, as countless films and books attest.
These days, his origin story teeters into the space between myth and fairytale, for it’s hard to imagine a time when “Starry Night” wasn’t well-loved to the point of ubiquity.
But our appetite for Van Gogh’s contoured forms, bold brushwork and lush colours is in no fear of waining—and now, two new, multimedia exhibits coming to Halifax in 2022 promise to be visual feasts.
The globally trending exhibit Van Gogh 360 lands in HRM at The Halifax Forum on May 27. The exhibit promises an immersive experience of 300 of the painter’s most famous canvases, projected in 360 degree panoramas on huge screens. Music and “a mix of different fields of art that only an immersive multimedia format can offer” round out the experience, the exhibit’s site adds. Tickets are on sale now, starting at $37.85 for adults and $24.47 for kids five to 15.
The second celebration of the father of Expressionism coming to town is an exhibit titled Beyond Van Gogh. Arriving at the Halifax Exhibition Centre from May 8-June 12 (after originally planning to be at the Halifax Convention Centre February 11-March 11), this immersive exhibit of 300 paintings promises “cutting-edge projection technology” and a mind-boggling “over 4 trillion content pixels” alongside an original musical score, delivering a higher-than-high-definition experience. Tickets for Beyond Van Gogh start at $35.99 for adults.
This article appears in Jan 1-31, 2022.
Be very careful when purchasing Beyond Van Gogh Halifax tickets. I have been battling with their customer service over rescheduling. An innocent mistype turned into a nightmare. Their customer service will not acknowledge that I corrected the mistype 2 days before the tickets were rescheduled. And now, after many emails, they are refusing to refund my money as they say i was already given my coutesy reschedule. They told me I can regift if I want, but they will not consider a refund. Theft disguised as company policy is what it really is. Buyer beware.