Becoming Van Gogh

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For years, Denver Art Museum curator Timothy Standring wanted to put on a Vincent van Gogh exhibition in Denver. There was just one problem: the museum doesn’t own a single van Gogh painting or drawing. So Standring had to turn to other museums and private collections to put together Becoming van Gogh. That meant traveling hundreds of thousands of miles over seven years to meet with curators and museum directors, at times pleading with them to loan their precious works of art. Standring gives Ryan Warner a preview of the exhibition, which opens on Sunday.

[Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, 1887. Oil on canvas; 16-1/8 x 13 in. Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation).]

[Vincent van Gogh, Road in Etten, 1881. Chalk, pencil, pastel, watercolor. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.]