Panettone exhibition does not disappoint: over 400,000 visitors for Goldin's van Gogh

446,218 visitors flocked to the halls of the Palladian Basilica in Vicenza: that’s how many people visited the Van Gogh between Grain and Sky exhibition(here is Finestre sull’Arte’s review), with an average of 2,438 tickets for each of the 183 days it was open and a turnout that grew from 2,025 visitors in October, the exhibition’s opening month, to an average of 5,185 in April, the closing month. A result that confirms that the response towards the initiatives targate Linea d’ombra and Marco Goldin is still very strong. “The result is resounding in numbers,” said the curator-mathematician of the exhibition, "and for us at Linea d’ombra exciting, because at the closing Tra il grano e il cielo reached the number, it must be said extraordinary, of 446,218 visitors. A number of international level, which will almost certainly place Vicenza and the exhibition dedicated to Van Gogh in the world’s top ten most visited exhibitions of the year. But what touched me most, and this is the authentic thanks I want to give to all those who visited this exhibition, is the true, passionate, moved and emotional involvement in front of Van Gogh’s works. It was not at all a foregone conclusion, because I had decided to do a different exhibition on him, on my fifth exhibition occasion since 2002 onwards. I had already had so many of his masterpieces on loan over the past 15 years, thanks in part to my privileged relationship with both the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, which alone hold two-thirds of Van Gogh’s works in the world. But this exhibition I wanted to do just that, without sensationalism, with my own reading of his life and work that is grounded not in the shouted cursing typical of many exhibition or theater or film productions. And it leans instead on the narrative of Van Gogh’s soul, his formation as a man before even as an artist. Hence the presence I wanted, so thick, of the drawings from the Dutch time. It was a gamble, it might have been a losing choice, it certainly was a risky choice. But I had an immense desire to tell the story of his soul, the outcomes of fate on him, how this had gradually become drawing first and then painting."

Goldin also has words for his loyal audience, “So many of you have followed me along this path, you have not let yourselves be captivated only by the colors, though wonderful. We have made this journey together, into the soul of a torn and extraordinary man who has also become our soul.” The mayor of Vicenza, Achille Variati, said Goldin’s exhibitions have transformed Vicenza’s identity since “they have represented an exceptional driving force that the territory has gradually been able to grasp and make its own.” In much the same vein was culture councillor Jacopo Bulgarini d’Elci: “The admissions to municipal museums and their more than doubled receipts during the exhibition period are the best response to those who claim that big events are necessarily irreconcilable with the growth of the territory’s cultural infrastructure. And this is because alongside the major exhibitions we have built a constant investment in the permanent attractions of our city, those museums and monuments that make Vicenza a World Heritage city and that year after year visitors find different: more accessible, more livable, more modern in the logic of tourist enjoyment. The bet we had made was that visitors would come for the great exhibitions but discover a city they did not know: they discovered it, and they fell in love with it.” The councilor rattled off data on the numbers of Vicenza’s museums during the exhibition period: 142,407 visits for Teatro Olimpico, Pinacoteca di Palazzo Chiericati, Santa Corona church, Museo Naturalistico Archeologico, and Museo del Risorgimento e della Resistenza, an increase of 111 percent compared to the same period in 2017 (when there were 66,914 visitors), with total takings of 861,293 euros (compared to 408,065 in the same period in 2017). With the exhibition ticket, it was possible to buy a single ticket to visit four museums in Vicenza (Teatro Olimpico, Palazzo Chiericati, Santa Corona Church, and Museo del Gioiello): 16,150 tickets were sold, exceeding expectations of 12,000 tickets.

Panettone exhibition does not disappoint: over 400,000 visitors for Goldin's van Gogh

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