The DeYoung museum in San Francisco has a special exhibit of Post-Impressionistic Painters on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in France.  I’m taking the day off work tomorrow to go check it out.  I know I’m not alone in saying Van Gogh is my favorite painter of all time.  More than any other painter, Van Gogh’s works speak to me of the wonder in the world around us.

I mentioned recently how much I loved a recent episode of Doctor Who entitled “Vincent and the Doctor.” 1  Well, someone uploaded a clip and sped up the audio.  It makes for disorienting listening, but the brilliant monologue from Bill Nighy as Dr. Black, a museum curator, answering the question, “Where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art?”  Just tune in at 1:52 for his response.2

Amusing side note, the DeYoung has a list of things prohibited at the exhibit:

• No strollers or baby-carrying backpacks are allowed in the exhibition.
• Tickets do not allow for re-entry into the exhibition; there are no restrooms located inside the exhibition galleries.
• Sketching, photography, videotaping, and cell-phone cameras are not allowed in the exhibition.

Can you imagine?  No sketching while standing in front of the most inspirational works of art in all the world?!  :(

1. That episode of Doctor Who may just stay on my DVR until it’s drives rot to pieces. [↩]
2. Well… um… big question, but, to me Van Gogh is the finest painter in the world.  Certainly the most popular, great painter of all time.  The most beloved, his command of color most magnificent.  He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty.  Pain is easy to portray.  But to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world? No one had ever done it before.  Perhaps no one ever will again.  To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provenance was not only the world’s greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived. [↩]