The latest lavish , exquisitely photographed film from Exhibition on Screen is directed by David Bickerstaff.

It is based on the 2018 exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, (and we also see a museum holding a Van Gogh exhibition in Japan) but there are also fabulous shots of landscapes in contemporary Provence and Japan,  a Japanese lady getting ready in full traditional regalia with white face makeup etc (as in The Courtesan), shots of the Yellow House , the asylum Vincent stayed in at one point and Vincent’s and Theo’s graves . Voice overs are used of letters Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo and some of his friends .

We hear from contemporary artists, including calligrapher Tomoko Kawao and performance artist Tatsumi Orimoto, who discuss the influence of Van Gogh on them and on art in Japan.

As is usual in this great series there are many comments and analyses by curators and other experts .We see the huge beautifully displayed exhibition and several of the works are photographed in great close up and scrutinised , looking at how Van Gogh’s style changed and was influenced by Japanese art , his use of colour and composition…

Van Gogh’s life and work is placed in context , looking at the rise of ‘Japonisme’ at that time that spread in Europe and how it influenced the Impressionists . (Manet , Monet etc ).Mention is made of Van Gogh’s huge collection of Japanese prints and books about Japanese art . As the Edo period came to an end in 1868 and Japan opened up to the West, Paris was inundated with a craze for all things Japanese, particularly in the form of decorative objects and colourful woodcut prints called ‘ukiyo-e’.

It also inspired books among other things and opera – think of ‘The Mikado’ and eventually ‘Madama Butterfly’ for example. Van Gogh never made it to Japan himself but he was fascinated by elements of Japanese visual culture and how they could be adapted to his own struggles to depict a new way of seeing.

He read descriptions of Japan and studied Japanese works carefully, learning from their bold and contrasting use of colour, their compositional fluidity of line and their unusual cropings of natural forms using it as a philosophical inspiration to develop his own work. .We see the intensity of swirling patterns of brushstrokes,  use of colour, attention to detail in costumes etc .

The links between Van Gogh’s thickly coloured, passionate, abundantly formulated paintings and the lively yet refined , restrained work he admired isn’t always obvious, but the interviewees go into considerable detail.

We see how Van Gogh copied several famous Japanese works ( for example ‘Bridge With Rain- After Hiroshige’, ‘Courtesan – After Eisen’) and was inspired by prints depicting Kabuki actors with their dramatic compositions and bold use of colour and how this linked to his other paintings .The Japanese depiction of nature can be seen in Van Gogh’s ‘Irises’ and ‘Flowering Plum Tree’ for example.
Not forgetting Van Gogh’s extraordinary portraits and self portraits and his concern for depicting ordinary people doing ordinary things.

A fascinating, at times extremely moving film .

Running time roughly 90 minutes no interval.

Van Gogh & Japan screens at selected cinema from 21 November 2019

https://www.dendy.com.au/dendy-arts/exhibition-on-screen