Londoners who stay out until dawn are normally shift workers or hardcore clubbers rather than your typical gallery visitor. However, this January, the National Gallery gave art fans the opportunity to experience night time viewing of the sell-out Van Gogh exhibition.
A rare opportunity to soak up nighttime ambience
The National Gallery’s Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition stayed open through the night for the final weekend on 17-18 January, in response to the unprecedented demand for tickets, with over 280,000 visitors.
This is only the second time in the 200 year history of the gallery that it has remained open all night. The first time was for a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition back in 2012.
Sir Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, London, says: ‘I am delighted that over 280,000 people have visited ‘Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers’ and we look forward to welcoming more people to the exhibition as it comes to its final weeks.”
“As part of our opening for the last weekend our visitors will have the rare and special opportunity to experience Van Gogh’s pictures during the night and early hours of the morning following in the footsteps of artists such as Freud, Bacon and Hockney who came here during those times to take inspiration from the Gallery’s collection.’
A smash hit exhibition
The Poets and Lovers exhibition featured over sixty works, some of which were loaned by museums or private collectors from around the world. It has been highly acclaimed by critics, and is the first time the gallery has devoted an entire exhibition to Van Gogh.
Visitors delighted in the opportunity to view world-famous paintings such as Starry Night Over The Rhône and Sunflowers first hand, alongside lesser known works. All of the works in the exhibition were painted between 1888-90, which is widely regarded as the artist’s greatest period before his untimely death at the age of 37.
The collection of drawings and paintings are described as being drawn from “a landscape of poetic imagination and romantic love on an ambitious scale.”
Visitors report on a rare opportunity
The response to the all-nighter has been largely positive, with some visitors stating that this was simply the only time they could get tickets for the hugely popular show. Others explained that the night time atmosphere lent their viewing of the works an extra dimension.
A wholesome experience for one visitor
The Times reports that Chloe Smith, a 26-year-old-Londoner, joked: “It’s giving Night at the Museum vibes, but without the haunting. I didn’t know much about Van Gogh before I came here, so it was nice to have a fresh perspective. It’s insane that he painted all of these in just three years. You can feel the rush in his brushstrokes.”
She added: “I think galleries should do this more often. The UK lacks night-time entertainment that doesn’t involve drinking. This was wholesome and refreshing.”
A mind-bending experience for another
However, The Guardian reports that not all the visitors had such wholesome experiences in mind. For a young visitor named John (or possibly something else), the night-time window of opportunity for psychotropic enhancement was the key to getting the most out of Van Gogh.
He explained: “The thing about having late opening hours at such an esteemed exhibition as this is that you’re able to take small doses of mushrooms that really enhance Van Gogh. That’s just not possible if you visit during the day.”
When questioned why this might be the case, he elaborated: “It doesn’t quite fit into the individual schedule. But the night provides a very safe atmosphere to savour this enriched way of seeing.” He added that the group of friends he was with were enjoying a similar state of altered reality.
Whatever the National Gallery team might think of John and his friends, maybe Van Gogh, who was driven to mental and emotional extremes during his short but passionate life, would tacitly approve of this way of viewing his work.
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