Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers are among his most famous works and are some of the most iconic paintings in the world. In an extraordinary exhibition, the Van Gogh Museum took a new and revealing look at the five publicly owned versions of sunflowers in a vase. The film explores the many questions and mysteries surroundings the works. Why, for example, did Van Gogh choose the exotic sunflower with its long stem and golden crown? When did the flower itself arrive in Europe and how had previous artists reacted to it? What was Van Gogh trying to say with his works and how does that differ from version to version? And what secrets did scientists discover when they analyzed the work in detail? All is revealed in this fascinating film, which traveled beyond Amsterdam to Tokyo, Philadelphia, London and Munich to film, in incredible high definition detail, all five of the works.
David Bickerstaff