For this project, Naveen Boktapa and I reviewed hundreds of paintings (and drawings) by Vincent van Gogh, along with his deeply personal letters to Theo and Emile Bernard – focusing on Vincent’s emotional journey and the visual changes in his work as he moved from the Netherlands to Belgium to France, adapting to what he saw and how he felt. The goal was to show viewers not just the iconic paintings like Starry Night, Sunflowers, Almond Blossoms, or the Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, but also the works that were very personally dear to him.
It was our journey to understand him as an artist- one who was not just seen through the lens of a tortured artist, but as someone deeply sensitive, incredibly gifted, and able to find beauty in everything around him.
This research informed a 36-minute video that we created for the Real Immersive Van Gogh exhibition in India. We selected about 168 paintings to create this immersive video; every painting was carefully selected not just for its beauty, but for how it contributes to the larger emotional journey.
Because the paintings are of different sizes, and the shots for the immersive video needed to be of a fixed aspect ratio, we stitched together several paintings of varied sizes, but having similar themes. They were adapted to fit the viewing space without compromising the original composition. The intent was to preserve the integrity of each work so it can still be experienced in full.
For example, one shot in the video is created by stitching together seven separate paintings into a single frame.
