CLEVELAND (February 21, 2014) – The Cleveland Museum of Art presents a ground-breaking exhibition exploring Van Gogh’s répétitions—the term the artist used to describe his practice of creating additional versions or variations of his own compositions. As the first exhibition to focus specifically on this crucial aspect of the artist’s creative practice, Van Gogh Repetitions seeks to make a valuable contribution to Van Gogh scholarship while giving audiences a deeper understanding of his working methods. The exhibition brings together more than 30 paintings and works on paper from some of the world’s most renowned collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Among the featured works are two versions of The Arlésienne (1888) and five versions of The Postman Joseph Roulin (1888-1889). Van Gogh Repetitions will be on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art March 2 to May 26, 2014.
Van Gogh Repetitions was initially inspired by the study of the close relationship between the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Large Plane Trees and The Phillips Collection’s The Road Menders, both dating from late 1889. The exhibition reunites the two masterpieces to invite deep, focused study of the similarities and differences between the first version, an étude d’après nature (study from nature), and the repetition. Two teams of curators and conservators subsequently conducted comparable analytical studies on repetitions in museums on both sides of the Atlantic.
“Our research reveals that Van Gogh was a far more complex and nuanced artist than the popular stereotype suggests,” observes William Robinson, curator of Modern European Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. “By comparing works painted from life with the repetitions produced in the studio, the exhibition challenges the popular caricature of Van Gogh as an artist who always painted in a flurry of overheated emotion. Extensive technical analysis of the artist’s paintings, combined with a thorough reading of his letters, offers new insights into an artist who has been widely misportrayed in books, plays and films.”
Currently, there is considerable debate even among experts over how Van Gogh produced his repetitions. What has become clear is that Van Gogh’s practice of making repetitions was more extensive and vital to his creative process than is commonly recognized. He made these works from his early years in the Netherlands to his final months at Auvers-sur-Oise. While occasionally making them for practical reasons, such as producing additional versions to give to friends and fellow artists, he often exploited the opportunity to develop an idea or motif more fully. Over time, Van Gogh came to regard this activity as a creative endeavor in which the artist may adjust, refine or intensify a composition’s visual and emotional impact—a process comparable to a musician inflecting a score with personal interpretations, producing an original work of art with each new performance.
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated, scholarly catalogue, published by Yale University Press in association with the Cleveland Museum of Art and The Phillips Collection. The catalogue features 125 color illustrations, including numerous examples of Van Gogh’s repetitions, related works and technical studies. Essays by CMA Curator William Robinson, CMA Senior Paintings Conservator Marcia Steele, Phillips Chief Curator Eliza Rathbone, Phillips Head of Conservation Elizabeth Steele, H. Travers Newton, independent conservator and Galina K. Omsted, CMA research assistant consider the many unresolved issues and controversies surrounding Van Gogh’s repetitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art is publishing a supplement to the catalogue, Van Gogh: New Research and Perspectives, on its website.