Colors of the Night Opens!

MoMA's "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night" opens this Sunday the 21st and runs through January 5th. Reviews have already appeared with the New York Times,theNew York Post, and the New York Sun. The Times calls the show an "anti-blockbuster," not the typical van Gogh exhibit that goes on for miles and seems intended to overwhelm the senses. This is a more focused show in its theme and goals; a good recent comparison might be the excellent "Van Gogh and Expressionism" that was shown at the Neue Galerie in New York in summer 2007.

One of the exhibition's primary goals is clearly to show the familiar in new ways. As I've said many times, the popular image of van Gogh is not the measure of the true man, and the works chosen for the show say this too. I especially like that the show includes a display of books read by van Gogh that fit the 'night' theme; one of the things about Vincent most people probably do not know is that he was a voracious reader and quite erudite in multiple languages. This exhibition is an opportunity both to admire some of the most beautiful paintings he created -- one of my favorites is there, the "Starry Night over the Rhone" -- and to get to know him better.

To control the crowds, MoMA will have a timed-entry system for the exhibit (unless you are a member, in which case timed tickets are not required). You can read more about the exhibit and purchase online tickets at MoMA's website.

New Van Gogh Cultural Center

Over the weekend a new van Gogh-themed cultural center opened in Zundert, the small town in the southern Netherlands where Vincent was born. The former pastor's house, built on the site of Vincent's birthplace, has been converted into an exhibition space and documentation center. (Note: none of Vincent's paintings are displayed here, at least not yet.)

Vincent possessed a strong emotional connection to Zundert his entire life, even as he moved to many different places. Particularly during his illness, memories of his childhood there comforted him. I wanted to visit both Zundert and Nuenen during my trip to the Netherlands last year, but alas, there was no time.

You can read about the new center here.

Let's Make Conferences More Fun!

I am refraining from discussing politics on this blog, but this thought I've got to share. I did watch the conventions, I've been watching the speeches, and I've decided academic conferences must be reformed. Wouldn't the conference of any professional organization be more fun if...

-Speakers used TelePrompters. No more looking down at your paper to read your talk. No more monotone. Head up, voice strong, let's put some emotion into it! Clapping and cheering after key lines encouraged. ("And that's why I believe we must RETHINK our perception of of fifth-century BC Athenian education! We must CHANGE our discipline!" [crowd roars])

-Attendees wore silly hats like the DNC/RNC delegates. Mine would have the ancient star of Vergina on the front and sunflowers sticking out the top.

-Musical interludes were played after every talk. Let's rock the casbah!

-Two words: Balloon Drop.

Now *that's* a conference worth attending.

A Tough Act to Follow

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has chosen a new director to replace Philippe de Montebello next year: not surprisingly, they played the process close to the vest, and not surprisingly, they chose one of their own. Thomas Campbell, curator of tapestries at the Museum, will take over the post January 1st. You can read more about Dr. Campbell and the challenges of the position in the New York Times. I suspect the choice was something of a surprise, and I also suspect some folks were weeping into their Wheaties yesterday at missing the post for themselves.

Dr. Campbell, whose degree is from the Courtauld Institute, certainly has big shoes to fill. Philippe de Montebello has been Director for 31 years and presided over any number of successes and controversies. During my ten-month fellowship at the Met back in 2000-01, I met Dr. Montebello only once, at a luncheon he hosted for the Fellows. The word 'patrician' is routinely attached to him, and with good reason: he's one of those people that makes you sit up straight in your chair and wish you'd gone to a Swiss finishing school. He oozes a certain je ne sais quoi beneath his very gracious manner. Lord of the manor, more like. I think I said five words during the whole luncheon, intimidated into silence (= a rare thing). I've not met Dr. Campbell, but the buzz about him is positive.

The Met will be honoring Dr. Montebello with an exhibition of 'greatest hits' acquisitions from his time as director, from 24 October to 1 February.

A Blogging Award!

Thank you to Margaret at The Earthly Paradise for giving me & VGC a blogging award! Very much appreciated!

I'd like to pass this one to some blogs that I hadn't discovered yet on the last pass. Here they are...

Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker: Graduate student Amanda takes on the big city, reads a bunch of books, and shares it all with us.

Art Blog by Bob:Bob's an artlover, and it shows!

My Marathon Mommy:my sister Chantel blogs about life as a toddler's mom, owner of a franchise of Baby Boot Camp, and someone who's preparing for her first marathon. She makes me look lazy. ;-)

Congratulations to all!

When Friends Move Away

Last week, I submitted the revised manuscript of "The Sunflowers" to my editor at Avon/HarperCollins. It will be poked and prodded (aka line-edited & copyedited), sent back to me after that, but essentially it's begun its journey to publication. When I hit the "send" button -- nowadays one does it simple as that -- I didn't dwell too much on it, but the next morning I woke up feeling quite listless. Melancholy, even. I felt the same way, I remember, when the I submitted the final version of my nonfiction book to Cambridge UP a few years ago, but that was more of a "now what" feeling after years of working on it (and the dissertation before it). This was different. I pondered it and realized the problem.

My friends had moved away.

Vincent, Rachel, and all the characters of my story had been with me every day, even if just in the form of a thought, for 2 years and 3 months. I'd gotten to know everything about them, I listened to their hopes and fears, I struggled to do them justice on the page. Like a faithful scribe I set down the voices I heard in my head (which, granted, felt a bit spooky) and more than once was moved to tears by the emotions the story conjured in my heart. Their world was my escape-world, and I loved going there. To suddenly *not* be going there any more felt ... sad.

I didn't expect to be that subsumed into my story when I began. In my other life I am an academic writer, after all, and in that world, one remains somewhat detached from one's subject. Nothing I'd written before had ever made me cry (well, except when I got snarky peer reviews in the journal submission process). I didn't expect my characters to become my friends -- I even begrudgingly like Paul Gauguin, whom you'll see someday Rachel does not like at all. I tell myself, maybe they aren't spending time with me any more, but in time my friends will be introduced to all kinds of people, and maybe, just maybe, folks will like them as much as I do.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll find new friends I like just as much. Or at least close to it.

New on the Bookshelf

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I am an obsessive-compulsive book-buyer and could probably use a twelve-step program. The arrival of my birthday last week and the resumption of regular paychecks as the academic year began meant a flurry of Amazon activity and multiple visits from the nice UPS man. My Van Gogh library got a particular boost with two new books that were released this week...

Bogomila Welsh-Ovacharov, "Van Gogh in Provence and Auvers" (Universe 2008): This is actually a reprinting of an older volume that had been out of print for a while. A fairly large coffeetable-type volume with text written by one of the top van Gogh scholars, this is a fabulous addition to my VvG shelves. The layout is handsome, the illustration quality top-notch. I love the inclusion of illustrations of vintage postcards from Arles, Saint-Rémy, and Auvers-sur-Oise, some of which I'd seen before, some I had not. Vintage photographs of some of the people Vincent knew, including Dr. Félix Rey, the postman Joseph Roulin, and Roulin's wife Augustine, are also featured. This is not a 'scholarly' book with footnotes, etc. -- it is accessible to any reader interested in van Gogh.

Sjraar van Heugten, Joachim Pissarro, and Chris Stolwijk, "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night" (Museum of Modern Art/Van Gogh Museum 2008): the English-language edition of the exhibition catalogue. A slim but very handsome volume, designed and produced by the Van Gogh Museum's publications staff (my graphic design colleagues on campus tell me the Netherlands is a mecca for graphic design, and it's true that anything the VGM produces is absolutely stunning). The book features essays on the themes of the exhibition, authored by MoMA and VGM curators. The essay I read last night, for example, concerns "The Formation of Crepuscular [I love that word, try saying it out loud] and Nocturnal Themes in Van Gogh's Early Writings" by Joachim Pissarro and is incredibly interesting. A checklist of the works included in both the MoMA and VGM venues of the show appears at the back in the form of a list of illustrations (with an asterisk by the exhibited pieces). For all the sound scholarship of this catalogue, I have to say, I miss the days of exhibition catalogues that have individual entries for each piece in great detail. The tendency now is to have catalogues that don't seem so much like catalogues, I presume so they will find a broader audience. Even so, this book is first-rate and adds a great deal to the Van Gogh literature. It also makes me wish I could go see the show: my plan was to fly up for a day to NY, but the airlines have cut the early-morning flights out of Tampa (eg the 6 am, my past flight for such a venture) and raised the fares so much that it's just not possible. I take consolation in the fact that most of the paintings in the show I have seen before in their original homes; many of them are from the Van Gogh Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum. The drawings and letters, though, I'm bummed to miss!

Speaking of VGM produced books...they got me good last week by sending out an email offering 20% off everything in the online shop for three days only, for their online newsletter subscribers. Sometime probably in this next week, the nice US Postal Service man will bring me Volumes 1 and 2 of the VGM's catalogue of their van Gogh drawings, which will complete my set (I have 3 and 4 already). Even with the exchange rate and shipping costs, it was far cheaper to obtain these books from the VGM than Amazon, *and* proceeds go towards VGM acquisitions. It's an altruistic thing to buy them, I told myself. Hooyeah!