You can wade through Monet’s water lilies or lose yourself in Van Gogh’s swirling stars.
In all, more than 8 million people have stepped inside those famous paintings in the touring show “Beyond Van Gogh and Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience.”
Now — after visiting Europe, Canada and some of the United States’ biggest cities — the hit art show is coming to Southwest Florida, too.
The exhibit opens Feb. 13 at Estero’s Coconut Point shopping center and continues through March 29.
And you have to see it for yourself to believe it, says art historian and show co-curator Fanny Curtat.
“It’s very hard to describe an immersive experience because it is something that you actually feel,” Curtat says. “You have to be in the space for it. … There’s an emotional weight.”
The separate Van Gogh and Monet exhibits are brought to life by projecting animated art onto the walls and floor, surrounding visitors on all sides.
Curtat loves watching people step into the shows and get lost in the beauty of those famous paintings.
“I’ve seen adults twirl and dance,” she says. “I’ve seen people laugh giddily. And some people are just quiet, taking it all in.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the shows:
Hit Van Gogh, Monet tour comes to Estero, Florida
The Canada-based show has toured the world since 2020, including New York City, Chicago, Detroit and Tampa. Well over 8 million tickets have been sold, says the show’s global touring producer, Mark Fraser-Davidson.
Now this new, scaled-down version is coming to smaller markets such as Southwest Florida. It follows the show’s popular run in Tampa last summer.
The show will take up about 11,000 square feet in the former JOANN Fabric and Crafts at Coconut Point, Fraser-Davidson says. The original touring show was about 20,000 square feet.
“We created a smaller version,” he says. “It’s actually enhanced the show, because we’ve changed the look and feel. We changed the music of the show.”
360 degrees of Van Gogh, Monet paintings
The show uses 18 high-definition digital projectors to super-size more than 700 Van Gogh and Monet paintings and project them all around visitors on the walls and floor. So when they’re walking through the exhibit room, they’re walking through those iconic paintings, too.
It’ll take four days and a team of about 15-16 people to set up the show at Coconut Point, Fraser-Davidson says.
“It’s a 360 degree (show),” Fraser-Davidson says. “The work that goes into doing the projector plots and the 3-D mapping, it’s quite a big job … I love watching them do it, because it’s just hundreds of thousands of squares. And they literally just have to align the squares to sit inside of each other, to blend all the projectors. It’s quite a cool thing to see.”
A team of animators and graphic designers took the original paintings and created digital, high-definition versions that could be blown up to room-sized and animated to make the images seem to live and breathe all around you.
“They add their touches on top of the artwork — to add movement, to add flow, to add a bit more drama and to bring these pictures to life,” Fraser-Davidson says.
You can see the petals falling from Van Gogh’s “Almond Blossoms” and float around the room, for example. And those famous stars in “Starry Night” take over the entire room.
“You cannot have an experience about Van Gogh and not have ‘Starry Night,’” Curtat says. “And so one scene is entirely devoted to that specific painting and how awe-inspiring it is. … This scene starts only with slight swirls, very delicate, and instantly everybody knows what’s coming because it’s so iconic and recognizable.”
The shows are accompanied by music that includes everything from Coldplay and The Beatles to Debussy and Vivaldi, Curtat sats.
“Music has a very cinematic role,” Curtat says. “It really carries the emotional impact.”
Two art icons, one immersive show
You’d be hard-pressed to find two more famous artists than Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet. That’s why the artists were chosen for the tour, Curtat says.
Van Gogh is the most famous Dutch post-Impressionist in history. His iconic paintings include “The Starry Night,” “Sunflowers” and “Almond Blossoms.’ And Monet is France’s father of Impressionism, known for famous pieces such as “Water Lilies” and “Woman with a Parasol.”
“Both of these artists are incredibly powerful,” Curtat says. “And put together, you just have this incredible combo.”
Even if you don’t know much about a history, she says, you’ve seen those paintings.
“You don’t need to be an art historian to enjoy this show,” she says. “It’s truly for everyone.
“If you are somebody who is already well-versed in Van Gogh and you’re familiar with his work, then you’re like me and you’re just living the fantasy of being inside the works you know. But if you don’t know anything about him, it’s such a fantastic introduction for everybody.”
Tickets and information
“Beyond Van Gogh and Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience” opens Feb. 13 inside the former JOANN Fabric and Crafts at Coconut Point (next to Panera Bread), 23106 Fashion Drive, Estero. It continues through March 29.
Tickets are $37-$48. You can either see “Beyond Van Gogh” by itself or get a ticket to both “Beyond Van Gogh” and “Beyond Monet.” Tickets aren’t available for just the Monet exhibit by itself, Curtat says.
The shows are played in 35-minute loops, not including the introduction hall filled with information about the artists and their art. The shows are rotated, so you can’t see both Monet and Van Gogh at the same time.
For tickets and information, visit beyondexhibitions.com.
Charles Runnells covers arts and entertainment for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 or email crunnells@usatodayco.com. Follow or message him on Facebook(@charles.runnells.7), Instagram (@crunnells1) and X (@CharlesRunnells).
Please support local community journalism and stay informed about Southwest Florida news by subscribing to The News-Press and Naples Daily News. Download the free News-Press or Naples Daily News app, and sign up for daily briefing email newsletter, food & dining and growth & development newsletters here and here.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Step inside Van Gogh and Monet’s paintings: Hit show visits SW Florida
Reporting by Charles Runnells, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
