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This Accessible Information Pack has been created by Birmingham Hippodrome, Deaf Explorer and Sightlines; to accompany visits to the UK premiere of Alive at Birmingham Hippodrome, which opened on 8 Oct 2020. Van Gogh Alive Van Gogh’s works have been home, in London and Paris, displayed and enjoyed around the planting the seed for an enduring world for over a century - but passion for painting. never like this. Forget traditions In his early 20s, of tiptoeing through silent unsuccessfully studied theology galleries and viewing paintings then briefly served as a from afar - Van Gogh Alive will missionary. In 1880, at the age of have you interacting with art in 27, Vincent finally turned to art: ways you never imagined. inspired by Impressionism and From the moment you enter, a Post-Impressionism, and heavily powerful and vibrant symphony influenced by artists of the time of light, colour and sound such as Monet and Gauguin. compels you to leave the world He had found his calling. behind and immerse yourself in Completely self-taught, Van Gogh Van Gogh’s paintings. was one of the most prolific Vincent Willem van Gogh was artists of his time. In only ten born in 1853 in a small town in years, he produced more than the south of the Netherlands. 2,000 works of art, consisting of Vincent became aware from an around 930 paintings and 1,100 early age of the divide between drawings and sketches. his own middle-class upbringing Despite this great volume of and the poverty-stricken lives of work, The Red Vineyard is the only the local labourers. piece known to have sold during Leaving school at 16, Vincent his lifetime. began work at an art dealership Van Gogh was constantly inspired in which his uncle was a partner; by the changing landscapes and organising exhibitions, selling people that surrounded him original and reproduced artworks throughout his ten-year artistic - and seeing the prices they were journey. fetching. Vincent was exposed to a wide range of paintings at Distinct changes can be seen in productive: his optimism clearly his use of colour, light, style and evident through the Sunflower technique; reflecting underlying series and his love for Japanese changes in his state of mind. art. Van Gogh Alive explores these Vincent’s marks changes in shifting ‘movements’, a turning point in his emotional or chapters. Each movement is instability, and downward spiral accompanied by a musical score into mental illness. that echoes the emotions and Over the last ten years of his life, experiences that underlie Van Van Gogh expressed himself in Gogh’s work through the many over 800 letters, providing an phases of his artistic life. amazing insight into his personal We begin in Vincent’s homeland, and artistic journey. the Netherlands, through his During Van Gogh’s voluntary stylistically dark ‘Dutch’ period of commitment to the asylum at subdued, earthy tones: distinctly Saint-Remy, he produced both different to the vibrant style that tortured and peaceful would emerge over the following landscapes, leaving us with a years, laying the foundations for glimmer of hope embodied by ‘modern’ art. . From the Netherlands, we move Vincent’s sense of emptiness is to France. Inspired by the energy almost palpable in his haunting of Paris and the Impressionist final works, featuring the wide- painters, Vincent began to open spaces of Auvers-sur-Oise; develop a brighter palette and concluding with his most transform into the celebrated evocative and elemental piece, style for which he is known. Wheat Field with Crows, offering We make our way to the south of a candid insight into the artist’s France from Paris to Arles. Van emotional turmoil in his final Gogh’s time in this region was days. perhaps the happiest of his life, and certainly the most

Guide to The Netherlands the Music of Oliver Ledbury - Skye At Night Potato Eaters - Atmospheric, Van Gogh Alive bleak violin over continuous drone. Van Gogh Alive is set to a classical music score that reflects the emotional turbulence Paris of Van Gogh’s life. Ian Hughes - Fromage Français For Deaf and hard of hearing A typical, happy, traditional- audiences, we wanted to sounding French tune played on describe some of the musical the accordion. score that is played during the experience. J.S Bach - Cello Suite No. 1 for cello & strings The experience is divided into An uplifting expansive piece movements. We have described played on the cello. some highlights of the score for each movement. Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1 Satie was a French composer Self-Portraits and pianist. This piece is slow and melodic, almost melancholic. Antonio Vivaldi - Le quattro stagioni, Tormenta: From Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons,’ the word Japan tormenta means storm. Unknown - Sakura Sakura Matched with the self-portraits Sakura sakura means ‘cherry Van Gogh painted throughout his blossoms’ in Japanese. The music life, the music reflects his inner is a traditional Japanese folk turmoil. song, celebrating the beauty of cherry blossoms in full bloom. Arles Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was afraid that people would not J.S Bach / Charles Gounod - consider him a serious composer Prelude No. 1 in C Major if they heard The Carnival of the Animals. He stipulated in his will The music begins feeling light that it could not be published and romantic, however the music until after his death. then starts changing key which subtly alters the mood, giving In a small parallel to Van Gogh, darker undertones to the the only movement in Saint- romance, leaving the audience Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, unsettled. that was published during the Erik Satie - Gnossienne No.1 composer’s lifetime, was The Swan. He could have no idea how Played on the piano, the mood is famous his music would become, thoughtful and brooding. Feelings much like Van Gogh’s paintings. of timelessness and infinity come from the work’s cyclical nature - Auvers-sur-Oise you could leave the piece of music on repeat and never This movement includes a sound distinctly hear a beginning or an effect of a gunshot. A few days ending. after Van Gogh completed his painting of Saint-Rémy (July 1890) he walked into the same field and shot himself. Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre Eulogy Danse Macabre means the George Frederic Handel - Dance of Death. The theme of the Sarabande music is the universality of death: no matter who you are or where A sarabande is a dance that you are from, everyone eventually originated in Central America dies. The Danse Macabre unites back in the sixteenth century. all. Handel adopted the sarabande and his version is a stately and Camille Saint-Saëns - Carnival of mournful work. the Animals No.7, Aquarium Van Gogh Quotes Self-Portraits: With grey felt hat, with straw hat, with bandaged ear, Self-Portrait 1889

I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting. I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly’.

Irises If you truly love nature, you will feel beauty everywhere. What colour is in a picture, enthusiasm is in life. I work as diligently on my canvases as the labourers do in their fields. Cafe Terrace at Night Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul. Sunflowers Though I am still in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke. I wish they would only take me as I have tried to express the idea I am. that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. The way to know life is to love many things. Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all. Blossoming Almond Tree I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream. Starry Night You can’t be at the pole and equator at the same time. You I don’t know anything with must choose your own line, as I certainty, but seeing the stars hope to do, and it will probably makes me dream. be colour. The emotions are sometimes In either figure or landscape I so strong that I work without wish to express not sentimental knowing it. The strokes come like melancholy, but serious . speech. The more I become decomposed, Still Life with the more sick and fragmented I Quince Pears am, the more I become an artist. There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, Line sketches and if it became worse and and drawings harder even, the French air cleans up the brain and does Great things are done by a series good - a world of good. of small things brought together. I would rather die of passion than In an artist’s life, death is perhaps of boredom. not the most difficult thing. The painter of the future will be In spite of everything, I shall rise a colourist in a way no one has again; I will take up my pencil, been before. which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing. Two Cut Sunflowers Seeing that I am busily occupied These are colours that cause with myself just now, I want to try each other to shine brilliantly, to paint my self-portrait in which form a couple that writing. complete each other. I have nature and art and poetry, Self-Portraits and if that is not enough, what is enough? I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart. Sunflowers Wheat Field with Crows In a certain way I am glad I have I will not live without love. not learned painting. I put my heart and soul into my The sunflower is mine, in a way. work and have lost my mind in the process. How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun. I feel a certain calm. There is safety in the midst of danger. Starry Night over What would life be if we had no the Rhône courage to attempt something? Willows at Sunset I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognise that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture. Portrait of Doctor Gachet, Portrait of Trabuc, Portrait of To do good work, one must eat well, be well housed, have one’s Dr Felix Rey, Portrait of fling from time to time, smoke Père Tanguy and Portrait one’s pipe, and drink one’s coffee of the Postman Joseph in peace. Roulin As a suffering creature, I cannot I have walked this earth for thirty do without something greater years, and out of gratitude, want than I - something that is my life - to leave some souvenir. the power to create. One must work and dare if one Someday death will take us for really wants to live. another star.