Van Gogh Village NUENEN -- May 17th 2009

125 years ago,  the well-known Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh lived and worked for some years in Nuenen, a little village in the vicinity of Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands. It was during this period that Vincent produced about 25 % of all his famous works visualizing the village people, landscapes, houses and churches of Nuenen in that era.
As a tribute to the famous painter, the Foundation ‘ Buitenschilderdag Nuenen’ (a group of village citizens aiming for stimulating amateur paint-art) decided to commemorate this fact with a special paint-project.  The project encompasses a large number of paintings to be chained to each other in order to create a panorama impression of Vincent van Gogh’s life. Fifty-one enthusiastic amateur painters volunteered to participate in painting on 45 canvases (each with a dimension of 2 x 1 meter) the predefined periods out of the life of Vincent van Gogh. From each of the chosen periods, particular paintings and drawings were selected as a basis to be taken up in the amateur paintings. Individual creative contribution was allowed.  The more experienced painters within the group were asked to help and advise the others on form and colours.  The paintings were completed within 2 months and the result was impressive. With a total length of about 100 meters, a chain of 45 paintings (interconnected to each other with a 10 cm chain gap) was created as in our opinion “the longest chain of different Van Gogh’s life paintings”. The chain of paintings was displayed for public for the first time on May 17^th.

The more than 15.000 visitors of the paintings project also initiated the idea to start a GWR Attempt procedure. The yearly Garden and Flower Fair (24^th July – 2^nd August) in Nuenen where the 2^nd public display will take place, was chosen to be the ideal moment for the attempt.

An unique project for stimulating amateur paint-art and promoting purposes of the village Nuenen .