Van Gogh ‘Sunflowers’ reunited online

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Five versions of a Vincent van Gogh masterpiece reunited for the first time in a “virtual exhibition” in five galleries around the world on Monday.

Van Gogh painted his “Sunflowers” series in the south of France in 1888 and 1889. Five versions of the work reside in five different museums on three continents.

On Monday, they were streamed to a global audience in a Facebook Live broadcast.

The 1 hour- and 35-minute broadcast began in London’s National Gallery at 1650GMT. It then continued from Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Tokyo’s Seiji Togo Memorial Museum of Art.

Cameras are set to broadcast Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia on August 14, 2017. / AP Photo

A curator from each museum described, in 15-minute segments, what makes their version unique.

The museums launched a virtual-reality experience last week that showed viewers all five “Sunflowers” in one room. The paintings are so treasured and are such big draws it would be difficult to bring them together in real life.

“We’re at a moment in time where new kinds of experience are becoming possible for art galleries and museums all around the world,” Chris Michaels, the National Gallery’s digital director, said.

London’s version of “Sunflowers” is one of the museum’s most popular paintings.

It’s famous for its blue and yellow swirls, textured surface and a rare glimpse into the happy times of Van Gogh’s life in Arles, France.

More than 50,000 viewers watched a preview for Monday’s event online.

Michaels is hopeful his team will bring more of the National Gallery’s famous pieces to online audiences. It’s an added attraction and a way to connect with other galleries.

“But it’s not a replacement,” he said. “It’s another type of thing that art museums can do and an amazing one for us to explore in the future, in partnership with amazing museums around the world.”

Source(s): AP