Van Gogh Alive

I wish I could say I have pretty cool taste when it comes to the world of art and, specifically, painting, but, alas, no. In my teens, I liked Dali, which was pretty much de rigeur for a young New Romantic / Futurist. I went through a predictable phase of thinking perhaps I liked cubism, but, really, the only artist whose worked I've ever truly loved is Vincent van Gogh.

It gets worse, actually. My passions are not for some obscure or even niche aspect of his work: my favourite pieces are 'Café Terrace At Night'; 'The Bedroom'; and 'Starry Night (Over The Rhône)'. You’ll know them all.

Consequently, when my daughter, Hannah, said she had two tickets for the 'Van Gogh Alive' exhibition at Media City, and would I like to go along with her, it was an immediate and emphatic "Yes!" (And "Thank you".)

And so, this morning, after grabbing us a couple of coffees and pastries from Brew-tang at the School of Electronic Music, I met Hannah outside her flat and we took the bus across to Media City.

The exhibition is wonderfully put together, consisting of a room that is a kind of 'Van Gogh 101', a mocked up room of the bedroom, where you can pose (see today's post), and then an amazing gallery of floor to ceiling screens on which the pictures are displayed in a (kind of) chronological sequence.

I must say, I found it profoundly moving and at times I was on the verge of tears. He may not be the coolest artist to like, but van Gogh is the artist whose work I love the most.