Van Gogh in America exhibit brings Starry Night from Paris to Detroit

The Detroit Institute of Arts announced that Starry Night (1888) – on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris – is the newest addition to its Van Gogh in America exhibition, which will run from October 2, 2022 to January 22, 2023 only at the Detroit Institute of Art. Featuring more than 70 works, the groundbreaking exhibition is the first ever devoted to Van Gogh’s introduction and early reception in America. Tickets will go on sale this summer.

Starry Night – also known as Starry Night Over the Rhône – is one of two iconic paintings including the nighttime sky that Van Gogh created while living in the French city of Arles from 1888 to 1889. The beloved work captures a clear, star-filled night sky and the reflections of gas lighting over an illuminated Rhône River in Arles with a couple strolling along its banks in the foreground. Starry Night is important to the introduction of Van Gogh’s work to the United States for its pivotal role in the iconic film Lust for Life (1956; directed by Vincente Minnelli). The masterpiece will be on view in the U.S. for the first time since it was lent to a COVID-19 interrupted show at the St. Louis Art Museum; it is one of three Van Gogh works on loan from the Musée d‘Orsay for the DIA exhibition.

Van Gogh in America will be the largest-scale Van Gogh exhibition in America in a generation, featuring paintings, drawings, and prints by Van Gogh from museums and private collections worldwide. Visitors will also “journey” through the defining moments, people, and experiences that catapulted Van Gogh’s work to widespread acclaim in the U.S.

Van Gogh in America reveals the story of how America’s view of Van Gogh’s work evolved during the first half of the 20th century and his rise to cultural prominence in the United States. Despite his work appearing in over 50 group shows during the two decades following his American debut in the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art (commonly known as the Armory Show), it was not until 1935 that Van Gogh was the subject of a solo museum exhibition in the United States. Around the same time, Irving Stone’s novel Lust for Life was published, and its adaptation into film in 1956 shaped and began to solidify America’s popular understanding of Van Gogh.

Van Gogh in America will also celebrate the 100th anniversary of the DIA becoming the first U.S. museum to acquire a Van Gogh painting – his Self-Portrait (1887).

General Museum Hours and Admission 

9 a.m.–4 p.m. Tuesdays–Thursdays; 9 a.m.–9 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; closed on Mondays. General admission (excludes ticketed exhibitions) is free for Macomb, Oakland and Wayne County residents and DIA members. For all others, $14 for adults, $9 for seniors ages 62+, $8 for college students, $6 for ages 6–17. For membership information, call 313-833-7971. 

Extended hours and ticket prices for Van Gogh in America will be announced this summer.

About the Museum

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the United States, is home to more than 65,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through the 21st century. From the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum (Self-Portrait, 1887), to Diego Rivera‘s world-renowned Detroit Industry murals (1932–33), to the first museum in the United States to have a permanent collection of galleries and a curatorial department devoted to African American art, the DIA’s collection is known for its quality, range and depth.

The DIA’s mission is to create opportunities for all visitors to find personal meaning in art individually and with each other. 

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