Van Gogh exhibition to be most popular for Australian gallery

Some 50,000 people have visited the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne in the first 10 days of the Vincent Van Gogh exhibition, which would become the most popular one in NGV history, a NGV curator said on Tuesday.

Laurie Benson, International Art curator at the NGV, said that it is very impressive that record number of people flocked to the gallery to enjoy the exhibition, which opened on April 28.

Nearly 50 of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings are on display, making it the biggest exhibition of works by the Dutch master ever shown in Australia.

The exhibition, titled Van Gogh and the Seasons, explores Van Gogh's profound connection to the seasons of nature. Paintings on display show the scenes that evoke sensory pleasures or deprivations particular to each season: blossoming orchards in spring, fields of ripe wheat in summer, bountiful harvest in autumn and peasants digging potatoes out of frozen field in winter.

"Van Gogh was a very honest painter. He's very elemental particularly with his landscapes. It's about the connection between humanity, earth, nature and the spiritual power," said Benson.

"His pictures are astonishingly beautiful... That explosion of color is radical and really appeal to a lot of people. And it's relevant today. It's a combination of beautiful pictures, energetic brushwork, radical art and also universal appeal."

The exhibition runs till July 9.