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Aug 2019
2m 7s

Introducing

Städel Museum
About this episode
FINDING VAN GOGH

In search of the legendary Portrait of Dr Gachet

The last great portrait by Vincent van Gogh disappeared from the public eye three decades ago. It was sold at auction in New York in 1990 – at what was then the highest price ever paid for a painting. The podcast series FINDING VAN GOGH sets out in search of the legendary masterwork, exploring its eventful history along the way. To this end, the journalist Johannes Nichelmann travels around Europe, and even as far as New York, to talk to contemporary witnesses, experts and van Gogh enthusiasts. They shed light on how the Portrait of Dr Gachet came to reflect the last 130 years of art and society, how it came to be linked with personal fates, and how the mechanisms of the art market and the art world work. And not least importantly, FINDING VAN GOGH asks: How do an artwork and its maker become a legend?

FINDING VAN GOGH is a podcast series by the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, in cooperation with Johannes Nichelmann and Jakob Schmidt.

Available 12 September 2019

Find out more on www.findingvangogh.com

Media partners: Monopol Magazin für Kunst und Leben, Lage der Nation - der wöchentliche Politik-Podcast aus Berlin

Up next
Sep 2019
I. The Missing Neurologist
FINDING VAN GOGH “He painted it really not just as a portrait of Dr Gachet but as a self-portrait and as a portrait of the modern artist. And also the state of mind of the modern world.” Johannes and the curator Alexander Eiling are standing in the Städel Museum’ storage room – i ... Show More
44m 48s
Sep 2019
II. „Degenerate Art“
FINDING VAN GOGH “His face displays the pain-filled expression of our time.” Frankfurt, Germany, 1905. Georg Swarzenski is appointed director of the Städel at the age of 30. He wants to open the richly traditional museum for exciting new art. In 1911, he purchases the Portrait of ... Show More
34m 55s
Sep 2019
III. Genius and Madness
FINDING VAN GOGH “Essentially, it’s like this: You need life for art to be created!” The Portrait of Dr Gachet is in storage in a granary in Berlin along with thousands of other confiscated artworks. Here it comes to the attention of one of the leading National Socialists: Herman ... Show More
32m 37s
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