Authorities in bid to save derelict Van Gogh house
The house where Van Gogh lodged in the Borinage, where he was an evangelist among the coalminers, is falling down.
Legal measures are being taken by the local authority to compulsorily purchase the dilapidated building. The plan is to restore it and open it to visitors from 2015, the year when the neighbouring city of Mons will be European Capital of Culture.
Van Gogh went to the village of Wasmes, in the Borinage in western Belgium, in December 1878. He initially lodged with a farmer, Jean-Baptiste Denis, who lived in Rue du Petit-Wasmes, now 221 Rue Wilson. The Dutchman, who was then 25, had virtually no money, and he lived a life of abject poverty, sometimes even giving away his clothes to the poor.
Van Gogh had already begun to draw, and six drawings from the Borinage survive. However, most of his work from this period was lost, including sketches of Denis’ family made during his seven-month stay.
The modest Denis house, which has a commemorative plaque, has been unoccupied for around two decades and is now dilapidated, with its windows boarded up. The rear extension has lost part of its roof, and is now in danger of collapsing.
The municipality of Colfontaine, which covers Wasmes, has begun legal proceedings to purchase the building under a compulsory order, on the grounds it is not being cared for. This process should take around six months, unless the owner appeals. The plan is to open the house as a visitor centre (the other house where Van Gogh later moved to in the Borinage, in Cuesmes, is open to visitors).
More news
 |
An exhibition, The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011, is currently being mounted simultaneously at 11 Gagosian Galleries around the world, including London, New York, Paris and Hong Kong.
12 January '12
www.telegraph.co.uk
|
 |
Attendance at the Museum of Modern Art dropped 11 percent last season to 2.8 million, as the previous year’s marathon motionlessness of Marina Abramovic and designs from movie director Tim Burton proved to be hard acts to follow.
12 January '12
www.bloomberg.com
|
 |
A spectacular bronze figure of the Farnese Bull (The Punishment of Dirce) is one of the major pieces of sculpture to be shown by Tomasso Brothers Fine Art at TEFAF Maastricht at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre (MECC) from 16 to 25 March 2012.
12 January '12
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
Gagosian Gallery presents “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” by Damien Hirst. The exhibition will take place at once across all of Gagosian Gallery’s eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong, opening worldwide on January 12, 2012.
12 January '12
|
 |
Art Amsterdam will be undergoing a metamorphosis. The art fair will be more exclusive and compact. Art Amsterdam will be held from 20 - 23 September 2012. The exact location of the event will be announced shortly.
12 January '12
|
 |
The Andy Warhol Foundation was accused in a lawsuit by The Velvet Underground of infringing the trademark for the banana design on the cover of the rock group’s first album in 1967.
12 January '12
www.bloomberg.com
|
 |
Artist Riusuke Fukahori’s meticulously detailed goldfish works make their debut at London’s ICN gallery, in an exhibition titled “Goldfish Salvation.”
12 January '12
hypebeast.com
|
 |
The gallery is being sued over an alleged fake Pollock, sold for $17m in 2007.
11 January '12
www.theartnewspaper.com
|
 |
Damien Hirst’s spotty creations will flood not just the art market this week, as his shop Other Criteria launches a new range.
11 January '12
www.telegraph.co.uk
|
 |
The ever popular and equally enigmatic artist Damien Hirst has kicked off The Complete Spot Challenge.
11 January '12
hypebeast.com
|
 |
Spring is art fair season in New York, and this year it will be more crowded — and more competitive — than ever.
11 January '12
www.artinfo.com
|
 |
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on Tuesday proposed building a museum in the Finnish capital after a yearlong feasibility study.
11 January '12
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
Louis Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs has tapped the legendary Japanese polka-dot painter Yayoi Kusama as the company's latest artist collaborator, most likely with an eye toward the Japanese market, one of the world's largest for luxury goods.
11 January '12
www.artinfo.com
|
 |
The world’s first online contemporary-art fair is set to expand with three new events in 2012, following the hiring of a new chief executive officer, director and technical team.
09 January '12
www.bloomberg.com
|
 |
Artist David Hockney has denied attacking Damien Hirst for using assistants to complete his works.
09 January '12
www.bbc.co.uk
|
 |
Four works taken in pre-dawn heist at Greece's biggest public art museum but one was dropped as thieves fled.
09 January '12
www.guardian.co.uk
|
 |
Police and military personnel evacuated 800 people from four villages in the low-lying northern Netherlands on Friday amid fears of a dike break following days of drenching rains.
08 January '12
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
A painting valued at $30 million to $40 million was attacked by a woman at the new Clyfford Still Museum in Denver on Dec. 29.
06 January '12
www.artfixdaily.com
|
