The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibition has made its big debut in the Madison area, and if you didn’t know that, you’ve likely been living under a craggy rock like the ones in the famed painter’s 1888 work, “The Rocks.”
Marketing for the multi-city exhibit that opened in Madison on Nov. 24 has splashed across billboards and other media leading up to the 53-day run at 1700 Deming Way, Middleton, where it will end on Jan. 15.
Produced by Lighthouse Immersive, the show has previously been hosted in more than 20 cities, including Toronto, Chicago and New York. The show is about 30 minutes long, featuring projected and animated Vincent van Gogh works designed and conceived by Massimiliano Siccardi, paired with music by Luca Longobardi. “It’s not a narrative production, so if you come in at the middle point, you won’t be lost,” says Nick Harkin, a spokesperson for Immersive Van Gogh. He says its opening weekend in Madison was “an incredible success, selling out multiple time slots and days across the weekend.”
I visited the exhibit the Monday following the opening weekend, excited to experience a show I’d seen pictures from in other markets featuring people silhouetted by dreamy, ceiling-to-floor art. After I joined the more than 5 million people in the world who have also taken in the immersive show, I have a few tips for how to make the most of your visit.
Don’t go into the main exhibit space right away. My date and I agreed we were wholly underprepared to fully appreciate the experience or the art we were about to see. I came equipped with a single van Gogh piece of trivia — but knowing that the artist was 27 when he started painting and only lived to be 37 didn’t help me out a ton in appreciating or understanding the show’s featured artwork. Before you dip between the curtains into the main exhibit space, head past the gift shop to the back left corner of the Deming Way building to check out the large placards on the wall that provide notes on the art featured in the show. The light show and corresponding soundtrack toggled between colorful, cheery and very dark, moody imagery that left me wondering. The recognizable “Non, je ne regrette rien” by Edith Piaf would play, then the melancholic “Dawn Chorus” by Thom Yorke, then a trippy “Kyoto” by Longobardi. Van Gogh’s almond blossoms and irises would stretch and grow across the walls, then you’d see the recognizable swirls and eddies of wheat fields and starry nights, but then big, menacing flies fluttering and darting. The placards outside the exhibit helped paint a bigger picture about Van Gogh’s troubled life story and what inspired his art. If you’re like me (that is, an inexperienced art appreciator who likes a road map), the placards are a must-stop before the experience. There’s also a half-hour audio tour on the free Lighthouse Immersive app that will help prep you beforehand. Or you can find lots of Van Gogh art guides like this one online.
Move around. One thing that left me a little underwhelmed with the Middleton exhibit was the actual venue. Having looked at photos from shows in other cities, I was ready for a grand room with at least a few corridors or built scenery. One city had a balcony element. In Middleton, the bones of the building’s most recent tenant, DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, were still showing. I couldn’t help but remember that it was in that back right corner of the building where I once bought an uncomfortable pair of glittery heels I was expected to wear as a bridesmaid. So my advice: Make the most of the exhibit space by switching up your spot throughout the show. As you walk in, it’s natural to want to stake your claim and settle in, like many others have already done. Only a few benches are placed throughout the space, so the majority of folks were sitting on the ground. My legs went numb after a while from sitting in one place for too long, which took away from the experience.
Take a few drops of CBD beforehand. If you’re into that sort of thing, of course. My date was convinced it would have been a much better experience had he leaned into the “psychedelic” nature of the show. I could have also benefitted from trying to find a sense of internal calm. After a hectic, stressful Thanksgiving weekend and then a busy Monday at work, I don’t know if I was in the right state of mind. For a ticket that costs anywhere from $39.99 to $60 (with a VIP offering of about $100), you’ll want to make sure you’re in a good headspace to fully enjoy the show.
Try to visit during off-peak hours. It can get busy, which is a common bit of feedback for these exhibits. On weekdays, the exhibit offers time slots from 1:30 to 7:30 p.m.; on weekends, the time slots are from 12:30 to 7:30 p.m. I’d suggest a weekday in the early afternoon. The advertising clips you see of a handful of folks, or even a couple that looks to have the entire room to themselves, is not the norm. The entire Middleton venue can hold about 200 guests. My visit was just five days after the opening, so I expected it to be busier than it might be later in the run. It was a pretty full room. We picked a spot toward the middle of the space, so our art experience included a foreground of other spectators.
Really look around, not just at the art. Having a room full of other spectators wasn’t all bad. I was just as inspired by the people in the room as I was by the artwork. Young and old. Intense and casual viewers. A young woman on crutches, an old couple sitting close on a bench. I enjoyed seeing soft smiles when a bright, goldenrod sun dipped below the horizon in “Sower with Setting Sun” — and furrowed brows when a lantern slowly lit the scene of “The Potato Eaters.” At one point in the Monday show I attended, a young boy, maybe 2 years old, ran up to the screen to try to grab the skirts of a towering woman. But before the boy could tilt his gaze to her face high above, the projected woman disappeared. I know this exhibit-turned-worldwide-phenomenon has received plenty of criticism and critical review — is it art? Or is it a profitable, Instagrammable stunt? — but my take is that it’s a wonderful way to get people excited about art in an approachable, fun way. As previously stated, appreciating art isn’t one of my strong suits. But being a part of this really lovely human experience was much appreciated.
An exhibit showcasing the works of Van Gogh opened in Middleton Sunday