EY helps bring Van Gogh exhibition to London

09 November 2018 Consultancy.uk

EY has announced that its partnership with the Tate arts institution will bring a ground-breaking exhibition of Van Gogh paintings to London in 2019. Having now completed nine years of partnership, EY is one of the Tate’s largest and longest-standing corporate supporters, with support extending to corporate memberships around the country.

The Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art museums, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. While its main sponsor is the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, it also boasts a host of corporate partners, including Big Four professional services firm EY.

The latest development of this relationship will see Tate Britain open a major exhibition in March 2019 about Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain how Van Gogh was inspired by British art, literature and culture throughout his career and how he in turn inspired British artists, from Walter Sickert to Francis Bacon. Arriving as a young trainee art dealer, Van Gogh himself spent several crucial years of his life in London, between 1873 and 1876, saying in a letter to his brother Theo at the time, “I love London.” Now, a large body of his work will return to the city which prompted him to explore new avenues of life, art and love, for the first time in almost a decade.

Organised by lead curator Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art 1850-1915, Tate Britain and Chris Stephens, Director of Holburne Museum, Bath with Van Gogh specialist Martin Bailey and Hattie Spires, Assistant Curator Modern British Art, Tate Britain, the Van Gogh and Britain exhibition will include over 45 works by the artist from public and private collections around the world. These include Self-Portrait 1889 from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, L'Arlésienne 1890 from Museu de Arte de São Paolo, the famous Starry Night on the Rhône 1888 from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and the rarely loaned Sunflowers 1888, which makes a comparatively shorter journey to the Tate from the National Gallery, London.

The exhibition will also explore Van Gogh’s passion for British graphic artists and prints. Despite his poverty, he searched out and collected around 2,000 engravings, most from English magazines such as the Illustrated London News. It will then conclude with an important group of portraits by Francis Bacon based on a Van Gogh self-portrait known only from photographs since its destruction by wartime bombing, showing how Van Gogh’s legacy inspired and inspires artists like Bacon, and the British public at large, and epitomises the idea of the embattled, misunderstood artist, set apart from mainstream society.

Commenting on the announcement of the exhibition, Michel Driessen, Partner Sponsor of the UK&I EY Arts Programme, said, “Central to this exhibition is the dignity and humanity which Van Gogh applies to his subjects. Here at EY, these qualities are important to us and we believe in creating an environment in which people feel, and are, valued. This exhibition is extraordinary in its invitation to explore Van Gogh’s personal struggles and achievements and encourages everyone to talk openly about these through the lens of the 21st century.”