Vincent Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing

Exhibition on Screen

Perhaps more than any other artist, Van Gogh's life has long captured the imagination of storytellers. Delving deep into his fascinating and sometimes deeply troubled world comes this award-winning documentary directed by David Bickerstaff.

Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing provides an extraordinary biography of Van Gogh’s life made with privileged access to the treasures of Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, featuring interviews with key curators and historians including Vincent Willem van Gogh (great grandson of Theo van Gogh), Dominique Charles Janssens (President of the Institut Van Gogh), Axel Rüger (Director, Van Gogh Museum) and Van Gogh Museum Senior Researchers Teio Meedendorp and Louis van Tilborgh. With complete access to the galleries and the storerooms, this film gives audiences unprecedented views of Van Gogh’s remarkable paintings and drawings.

The Van Gogh Museum houses the largest collection of Vincent’s artistic output in the world and features iconic works such as The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers, Irises, The Bedroom and many of his self-portraits. Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing provides a high-definition cinematic experience of seeing Vincent’s masterpieces up-close on the big screen while narrating these images with new insights and interpretation.

Vincent van Gogh was a prolific letter-writer and with access to an entire collection – to choose the most revealing and moving moments – EXHIBITION ON SCREEN brings to life these illuminating letters with actor Jamie de Courcey as Van Gogh, tracking Van Gogh’s life from his beginnings in the Netherlands and England to his development as an impassioned artist in France.

“Paintings shown in breath-taking detail” Daily Mail “Splendid, impressive, emotional” Oxford Times “Discover the real Van Gogh” Institut Van Gogh “Nothing short of spectacular” Mail & Guardian Director David Bickerstaff says: “Van Gogh became an artist at the age of 27 and made art for only 10 years before his death in 1890, but what most people don’t realize is that he only made drawings and watercolors for the first five years – no paintings. He produced over 450 paintings in the last five years of his life which is incredible when you think of how many masterpieces were amongst them. Imagine what he could have gone on to produce if he had not committed suicide? This film shows that Vincent was not some mad, isolated genius but a deep-thinking man who was extremely well-read, observant and dedicated to understanding the essence of making art. Through his letters we understand that he didn’t suffer fools lightly and was hungry to interact with the world, particularly with nature and ordinary people from everyday life.”

Producer Phil Grabsky says: “Van Gogh’s life is shrouded in myth and misunderstanding. How many times have you heard that Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime? That’s just one of the myths. This film seeks the truth about Vincent van Gogh. And what better way to discover the real Van Gogh than through his art? Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing looks intensely at the life of a man who reminds us, in his own words, that ‘Art is long and life is short’.”