The Van Gogh reviews — for his blockbuster National Gallery exhibition — are in. Critics LOVE it!
It’s received five stars from all of Britain's critics, which is really-quite-unprecedented for an art exhibition. But as one review was headlined, you should “believe the hype.”
Yes Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers is now open and the National Gallery has been billing it as a “once-in-a-century” event.
It’s the Gallery’s first ever exhibition devoted to Vincent van Gogh, and it’s the first anywhere
to focus on the artist’s imaginative transformations.
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On display for the thousands of expected visitors are over 60 works and loans from museums and private collections around the world, with a particular focus on his time in Arles and Saint-Rémy in Provence in France.
It was in this beautiful French setting that he revolutionised his artistic style, was inspired by poets, writers and artists, and where he created some of the most loved of all Van Gogh’s paintings.
And the show is a masterpiece in itself according to the experts.
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers reviews
A “dazzling exhibition” was the Guardian’s verdict.
Jonathan Jones’ review of the new “daring" Van Gogh exhibit said it explored the artist “ with moving and addictive aplomb.”
“These paintings take you outside yourself” Jones writes. “Van Gogh, here, is the first completely rule-breaking modernist and he just gets ever more radical.”
And in some of the highest praise a gallery can want from critics when mounting a display on one of the world’s greatest artists, he says “this show loves him as he deserves.”
The Times’ Laura Freeman wholeheartedly agrees. Van Gogh is "about as bankable and blockbustable as they come" she writes. And while she admits she's "sceptical about 'once-in-a-century' exhibitions," in this London gallery you must "believe the hype."
It's "a beautifully put-together exhibition about a blisteringly original vision," Freeman says.
"The paintings don’t invite you to look at them, they ambush you and demand it."
She has a few tiny quibbles. The title is "is a stretch" she says. "It doesn’t really cover the vineyards."
But her smash review is clear: "Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers is a five-star firecracker."
"Mesmerising" is Time Out's verdict. "This is art as a reflection of life, as an expression of love, fear, hope, despair, pain" says critic Eddy Frankel. "How much light can you pack into a painting? How much love, despair, hope, anxiety? In the case of Vincent Van Gogh, the answer is: infinite."
Sunflowers from the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Telegraph's Alastair Sooke was surprised about what he saw.
While "the show may be strewn with paintings of individuals... as things progress, another, unbidden theme emerges: Van Gogh’s rhapsodic feeling for the natural world."
"The sense of rapture is breathtaking" throughout the exhibition he states. One of the seven sunflower paintings Van Gogh is famous for — here, an 1889 version on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the first time it's ever left the United States in 100 years — show the flowers resembling "mythical wild men, with bristly, unkempt hair, and dark cyclopean eyes."
"A sense of intense wonder at the magic and mystery of creation is his art’s essence" Sooke concludes.
For the i's Florence Hallett, this exhibition is an antidote to "universally appalling 'immersive experiences'" that have sprung up around the globe about the work of the Dutch master.
For Hallett, a highlight is the London exhibition's final space.
"The final room is an astonishing testament to the quality and sustained rate of work he achieved while at Saint-Rémy, and the scale of ambition that continued to motivate him."
The takeaway in her Van Gogh review is that the show "demands we keep looking and looking again at this rightfully popular painter."
And to put it even more simply, for potential visitors and for art lovers alike, the important question from Melanie McDonagh in the Evening Standard is clear. "If you haven’t already got your ticket to the Vincent van Gogh blockbuster at the National Gallery, what are you waiting for?"
With such universal rave reviews — almost as rare as true 'once-in-a-century' exhibitions — it really is the only question left.
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers runs at the National Gallery in London until 19 January 2025
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