This fall when you visit the Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibition “Van Gogh and Gauguin: Studio of the South,” which opens Sept. 22, consider that someone specially built the walls that hold Vincent van Gogh’s treasured “Sunflowers” and picked the gilded frames cradling other masterpieces.
The order in which the pictures are hung was decided a year ago. The volunteer you stopped to ask about Vincent van Gogh’s birthplace was trained to answer that kind of question nine months ago. The simple sunflower paperweight you couldn’t pass up in the gift shop went through an extensive product development and approval process by museum staff in 1999.
Don’t even think about throwing away those exhibition brochures — it took nearly a year to design and write them back in 1998.
All of this shows that getting an exhibition off the ground is more than just throwing pictures on a wall. It has taken 12 years of research and planning, and more than 200 museum employees, to pull together “Van Gogh and Gauguin: Studio of the South.”
“Vincent would be embarrassed by all the attention he’s getting,” said Peter Kort Zegers, the Roth Family research curator for the Art Institute.
Organized by the Art Institute in partnership with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the blockbuster exhibit, which focuses on two months that van Gogh and Paul Gauguin spent in the South of France in 1888, is expected to attract more than half a million visitors before it leaves for the Netherlands in mid-January.
Beyond the 138 objects displayed, the museum also will offer a six-chapter catalog, five books, 300 gift shop products, a Web site, a video introduction and audio tours.
“It takes years of planning and hard work that literally doesn’t stop until the show is over and moved on,” said Douglas Druick, Art Institute Searle curator of European painting and Prince Trust curator of prints and drawings.
With the help of exhibition coordinator Barbara Mirecki, here’s a timeline that attempts to encapsulate the hard work and sheer will needed to bring the bond between van Gogh and Gauguin to life in the Rice Building of the Art Institute.
The first pieces
In 1923, the Art Institute receives into its collection its first van Gogh, titled “The Bedroom.” Three years later, the museum receives its first Gauguin work, “The Hibiscus Tree.”
How it came together
1980s
SEPTEMBER 1989
As Douglas Druick and Peter Kort Zegers prepare for the Institute’s exhibition “The Art of Paul Gauguin” in 1988, they keep running into the influence that van Gogh had on the artist. A year later, the idea for “Studio of the South” is born.
OCTOBER 1989
Curators informally notify Art Institute officials of their interest in “Studio of the South” as an exhibition and inventory artwork by van Gogh and Gauguin held in the museum’s permanent collection. Research on “Studio of the South” gets put on the back burner as curators prepare for two other exhibitions in 1994 and 1995.
1990s
AUGUST 1996
Before museum leaders give approval for an exhibition, curators must prove the premise of the exhibition — in this case, the influence van Gogh and Gauguin had on each other’s works. Curators begin reading the 1,600 personal letters exchanged among the artists, friends and family. The research includes reading biographies and articles about the artists, and examining news reports from Arles, France, in 1888, which may have been reflected in what and how the artists painted on a particular date.
SEPTEMBER 1996
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam signs on as a partner. Home to many works showcased in “Studio of the South,” this partnership was essential to the exhibition.
MARCH 1997
Barbara Mirecki is named exhibition coordinator. Her job includes organizing research, scheduling project deadlines and initiating contact with 90 private and public collections that hold artwork needed for the exhibit. Because van Gogh and Gauguin are luminary figures in the art world, their works are often sought for exhibits, which makes securing paintings difficult.
OCTOBER 1997
Curators make their first research trip to Arles to study the landscape and to compare paintings to actual scenes to learn specifically where the artists painted the works.
MAY 1998
The Art Institute Board of Trustees’ Exhibit Committee approves the “Studio of the South” exhibition idea after a meeting in which a report details initial research and confirmation from several art lenders.
SEPTEMBER 1998
Conservators visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which holds Gauguin’s “Madame Roulin,” one in a group of works completed in the studio. The conservators examine the work to determine the timeline of the piece and other information.
MARCH 1999
Ameritech gives $1.5 million to underwrite “Studio of the South.” It is the largest one-time contribution received by the museum.
SEPTEMBER 1999
Museum shop officials and curators design calendars as one of the 300 products to be sold in conjunction with “Studio of the South.”
DECEMBER 1999
The manuscript for the exhibition catalog is started. The first draft of the catalog’s first chapter is due January 2001. The six-chapter catalog is printed in Verona, Italy, on July 18. An Italian printer was selected because of the special inks needed to accurately reproduce paintings in the book.
2000s
JANUARY 2000
A cartographer is hired to draw maps of 19th Century Arles.
JUNE 2000
Conservators begin selection of the 14 frames to be replaced for the exhibition.
SEPTEMBER 2000
A model of the artists’ studio in the “Yellow House” is built in the Art Institute warehouse to help researchers determine exactly where in the room each artist positioned his easel. Although van Gogh and Gauguin painted the same subjects, their paintings reveal different angles, shadows and lighting.
NOVEMBER 2000
The first meeting with an architect to discuss exhibition design, which will provide blueprints needed to turn empty space in the Rice Building into “Studio of the South” galleries.
DECEMBER 2000
The first meeting to discuss content for exhibition Web site is held, and designs for exhibition pamphlets are proposed.
JANUARY 2001
The first content meeting for the video introduction, which will provide visitors with an overview of the exhibition as they enter museum, is held. The video is to be completed by mid-August.
FEBRUARY 2001
Antenna Audio Inc. is enlisted to create the audio tour. Based on the catalog’s research, the script for the tour is written as chapters of the catalog are approved. (The tour will be recorded in early September.) So far, about 100,000 audio tours have been purchased in advance.
APRIL 2001
Street and facade banners are approved for exhibition. A self-guided tour of artists who influenced van Gogh and Gauguin in other parts of the museum is outlined.
JUNE 2001
Public tickets go on sale — 2,000 are sold in the first hour.
AUGUST 2001
First painting is scheduled to arrive and installation of artwork will begin.
SEPT. 12, 2001
Dress rehearsal for exhibition as lenders, who provided artwork for exhibit, will see the exhibition for the first time after a black-tie gala in their honor.
SEPT. 22, 2001
Show time.
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The relationship that inspired an exhibit
OCTOBER 1888
Five months after van Gogh’s invitation, Gauguin moves into the “Yellow House,” a four-room rental at 2 Place Lamartine in Arles, France. The two artists met a year before in Paris during one of van Gogh’s cafe art exhibits.
DECEMBER 1888
Tensions rise between the two masters and finally a dramatic falling out occurs in which Van Gogh, who suffered from mental illness, tops an argument by cutting off part of his ear. He is hospitalized and Gauguin returns to Paris.
JULY 1890
Van Gogh dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach. Gauguin dies in 1903.
