Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Van Gogh’s Universe in the Crossways of Audiovisual Arts and Digital Technology: A Comparative Case Study from an Intermedial Perspective

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sight as Site in the Digital Age

Part of the book series: Digital Culture and Humanities ((DICUHU,volume 5))

  • 129 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter utilises a comparative intermedial perspective to examine a corpus of three artistic objects which reimagine Vincent van Gogh’s life and work: the film Loving Vincent (2017), written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, the immersive experience Van Gogh, La nuit étoilée (2019), created by Gianfranco Iannuzzi, Renato Gatto, Massimiliano Siccardi, and Luca Longobardi, and the virtual reality environment The Night Cafe: a VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh (2015), designed by Mac Cauley. The transcultural and interartistic nature of these works, coming from diverse geographical regions and drawing from multiple aesthetic traditions, calls for an exploration of their connections and contribution to Van Gogh’s Universe. After presenting these objects' key characteristics and the framework utilised for the inquiry, the chapter critically addresses these artworks’ material aspects, ranging from their technical features to their interweaving artistic languages. I first analyse their formal configuration focusing on technological devices, physical components, and digital features. Afterwards, I reflect on the role of visual, sonorous, and verbal materiality, as well as the intertwinement of painting, music, and poetry in connection to the Dutch artist’s pictorial and epistolary production. Overall, I underline the importance of these projects’ innovative nature as well as their defiance of generic boundaries and conventional categories in an effort to reassess and expand our understanding of Van Gogh’s artistic legacy in the context of twenty-first-century Western cultural production.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Change history

  • 02 April 2024

    A correction has been published.

Notes

  1. 1.

    In her anthropological study about the process of glorification and mystification of Van Gogh, Heinich points out that “around the beginning of the 1920s, three decades after his death, van Gogh became established for good as a major figure in the international art market, in the eyes of collectors, among painters (who recognized him as a pioneer of modern painting), and for the educated public, who had by then become familiar with the most dramatic themes of his biography” (p. 28).

  2. 2.

    “Since the third generation after his death, van Gogh has gradually been integrated into popular culture in its various forms. Today, his integration is greater than ever before. His popularity has been generated and demonstrated by a profusion of best-selling biographies, films (…), theatrical productions, ballets, operas, songs, advertisements, and images of all kinds—copies and pastiches, posters, postcards, T-shirts, and telephone calling-cards bearing the likeness of the most famous painter of self-portraits” (Heinich, p. 99).

  3. 3.

    “La expansión del Universo Van Gogh (UVG) en literatura, artes audiovisuales y tecnologías digitales: una propuesta en el marco de los estudios intermediales comparados”. Master Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Crossways in Cultural Narratives at the Universities of St Andrews, Santiago de Compostela and NOVA de Lisboa (2021).

  4. 4.

    In the context of a recent proliferation of the format both in Europe and the United States (and, more recently, in Latin America), I chose to focus on the one that operated in Paris between 2019 and 2020 following a tripartite criteria: (1) the fact that it is a “work of author”, following the idea that “it was the voice of the artist in particular –what he or she was trying to say– that he [Van Gogh] cared about the most” (Veldhorst, p. 87); (2) its “stationary” and “unique” nature, which others do not share as long as they have been conceived as itinerant corporate and serialised exhibits which primarily respond to commercial interests; (3) the fact that it is no longer operating, which makes it possible to conceive it as a more approachable and finished object. In this sense, a closer look at the commercial aspect surrounding contemporary cultural products based on Van Gogh’s art has yet to be developed.

  5. 5.

    The comparative intermedial perspective allows me to relate these projects without necessarily following the conventional “time of production” or “date of release” criteria. In line with this logic, I present the corpus shifting the focus from chronological linearity to technological progression paying specific attention to the immersive and interactive parameters and their degree of influence in the artworks. While I fully develop this aspect in my dissertation, here I present it linked to the material dimension of the objects in particular.

  6. 6.

    All references to this work, originally in Spanish, have been translated to English by the chapter’s author.

  7. 7.

    For a thorough explanation of the technique of oil paintings on glass sheets, see (Van Laerhoven et. al. (2011) The monumentality of the whole process could be summarised by a brief statement taken from a BBC report which aired a year before the film premiered: “Sarah Wimperis has painted more than 800 frames. That’s just 35 s of film” (BBC News, 2016, How do you paint 31–39s).

  8. 8.

    In other Van Gogh exhibitions, immersive multimedia additions can also be found, including auricular walks, decorations set according to the painter’s canvases, interactive artistic activities, fictional dramatic recreations, virtual reality experiences and participation through digital technology (e.g., motion capture or touch screens that allow access to information about Van Gogh life as well as his original works).

  9. 9.

    Something similar happens with the incorporation of the painter’s correspondence, which implies not only the transposition to various artistic languages of the textual subject matter based on an epistolary discourse imbued with aesthetic and biographical meaning, but also its assimilation as a physical device associated with a specific calligraphy, a type of paper, closing formulas, and even his signature.

  10. 10.

    As Veldhorst observes, “when Van Gogh arrived in the city, the whole of culturally minded Paris was in thrall to this German composer. With his trail-blazing music and revolutionary ideas, Wagner roamed around Europe like a god (…). Often it was Wagner’s bold artistic views, rather than his music, that inspired them. Wagner’s notion that he could reform not only the arts but the whole society by means of his “Artwork of the Future” appealed greatly to the artists” (p. 41).

  11. 11.

    “When the eye views two colors in close proximity, it adjusts to make them as dissimilar as possible in terms of tonality and hue” (Margulis, 2019, p. X).

  12. 12.

    “I tried to recreate the look of a brush used with oil paints using various alphas as my brush setting. For the most part I just painted in a very traditional way without using any fancy tricks to achieve the look” (Cauley, “The Making”).

  13. 13.

    “She was applying layers of painted color on top of people and objects and lighting them in ways that she could make photographs that appeared as if they were paintings. It was impressive what she could do without any fancy shades or post processing, just paint on 3d objects with the right lighting” (Cauley “The Making”).

  14. 14.

    The complete playlist includes: 1. The Night Café; 2. The Yellow House; 3. At Eternity’s Gate; 4. Portrait of Armand Roulin; 5. Marguerite Gachet at The Piano; 6. Still Life With Glass Of Absinthe & A Carafe; 7. The Painter On His Way To Work On The Road To Tarascon; 8. Five Sunflowers In A Vase; 9. Wheatfield With Crows; 10. Thatched Roofs In Chaponval; 11. Blossoming Chestnut Trees; 12. The Sower With Setting Sun; 13. Starry Night Over The Rhone. A reprised version of Don McLean’s Starry Starry Night interpreted by Lianne La Havas completes the soundtrack available on Spotify.

  15. 15.

    The complete list:

    1. 1.

      “Prologue” sequence: Jean-Baptiste Lully, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme LWV 43: Ouverture (1670); Luca Longobardi, White Room.

    2. 2.

      “The Provençal light” sequence: Janis Joplin, Kozmic Blues.

    3. 3.

      “The early works” sequence: Sofia Gubaidulina, String Quartet No. 4; Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt Op:23, NO 18. Solveigs sang (Solveig’s Song).

    4. 4.

      “Nature” sequence: Bedřich Smetana, Smetana: Má Vlast—2. Vltava.

    5. 5.

      “The period in Paris” sequence: Giacomo Puccini, Gianni Schicchi: O mio babbino caro.

    6. 6.

      “Arles” sequence: Miles Davis, Ascenseur pour l’échafaud; Moses Sumney, Doomed.

    7. 7.

      “Olive trees and cypresses” sequence: Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, V 315 “Summer”: III. Presto; Luca Longobardi, Mozart Recomposed.

    8. 8.

      “Saint-Rémy” sequence: Nina Simone, Don’t let me be misunderstood.

    9. 9.

      “The Plaine d’Auvers” sequence: Luca Longobardi, Elegie I.

    10. 10.

      “Epilogue” sequence: Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 2 in B Flat Major, Op. 83; Luca Longobardi, Elegie I (reprise).

  16. 16.

    What Vincent’s voice reads is an adaptation of one of his letters. The unabridged excerpt reads as follows: “But the sight of the stars always makes me dream in as simple a way as the black spots on the map, representing towns and villages, make me dream. Why, I say to myself, should the spots of light in the firmament be less accessible to us than the black spots on the map of France. Just as we take the train to go to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to go to a star” (Van Gogh, 1888b, “Letter 638”).

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Fernando Valcheff-Garcia

Authors
  1. Fernando Valcheff-Garcia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities and Social Science, Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

    Kwok-kan Tam

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Valcheff-Garcia, F. (2023). Van Gogh’s Universe in the Crossways of Audiovisual Arts and Digital Technology: A Comparative Case Study from an Intermedial Perspective. In: Tam, Kk. (eds) Sight as Site in the Digital Age . Digital Culture and Humanities, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9209-4_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9209-4_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-19-9208-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-19-9209-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation