Beyond Van Gogh Austin — Attraction in Austin

What to expect (contains some spoilers):

If this is your first time, like it was mine, it would have been good to know that te exhibit is divided into 3 rooms. The first room has what I can only describe as presentation slides about Van Gogh’s life. Most of what we know about Van Gogh comes from his letters to his brother Theo - so on this note, it was nice to see quote from his letters popping over closeups of his paintings.

The second room is really a waiting room with a projected color show. Not much special here and it’s just a transition room .

The third room is what we see in pictures and reviews. You’re not allowed to sit on the floor or touch the walls. Fair enough. It would have been nice to have a few more benches since the entire slide show in this exhibit room is actually decently long.

The starry night and water scenery was the best. They used technology to bring parts of the painting to life, like blinking lights by the stars or a shaky motion to simulate being on a boat…. Except the shaky motion was NOT intentional and remained constant throughout the entire slide show, which made still life photos blurry and sloppy looking.

They added wind motion to the landscape paintings and it was very nice - however, some of the paintings had “floating” components which were, for example, a circle cutout of part of the painting and it just danced around on top of the painting - this was not aesthetically pleasing.

There were nice quotes in this third exhibit as well - music was pretty well picked. Loud enough to drown out people talking but then they also had random quotes spoken, but these were barely recognizable.

If you’re going for the immersion, the projectors and screens were good quality so I don’t have too many complaints there (just the shaky motion mentioned above). Some of the transition effects were a little too much (too gimmicky and annoying, not helpful towards the display of art).

One problem that annoyed me particularly was that one painting can be duplicated on different walls and the lighting would be different… since many of his paintings are appreciated because of his ability to bring forth life through choice of color, technique AND lighting, different technical and supplementary lighting by the presenters really did ruin some of his works.

If you are going for art experience, this isn’t it.

Very few notes on art were provided for people to learn about Van Gogh, which I think I takes away from the experience. If you were going to go and appreciate art, I’d recommend doing a bit of research on Post-/Neo-/Impressionism, Pointillism, and other art movements to learn more about what to expect in his paintings.

The staff was very friendly and happy. So we had no complaints there.

Parents of littles (2-6yo): is this a kid friendly event? Kinda and kinda not. It’s an interesting experience for our senses and to appreciate art with technology - but the length of the slideshow is long and slow. I don’t think most kids would enjoy this as much as adults would. Nonetheless, it is a good experience.

Given the price of this event, I was looking and hoping for more. I would have wanted to see more of his other works - not just his absolutely famous ones. But of the famous ones, I would have wanted to also be immersed in the field of irises … there was a slide show of growing flowers thrown about, but it was too much for me.

Other notes: Parking was on premise and free.

Covid regulations - no masks required. Ppl were pretty good about spreading out. You’re not touching anything.

Stroller accessible? I believe we saw a few strollers, so yes. Wheelchair accessible? Officially, not sure. We didn’t see any. But the aisles were wide, so I think it would be possible for wheelchairs.

Language: the slides had English and Spanish. Some French from Van Gogh’s...

I found an advertisement on social media for this venue that had a promo code. I was looking forward to seeing it and also getting a discount. Unfortunately their website had no obvious opportunity in their selection and checkout process to apply a promo code. I called them to see if I could get a discount, but the attendant who answered was unyielding and unfriendly about any refunds, discounts or cancellations. I attended anyways because my family members were excited to see it. I asked the attendant at the door about the discount as well, and was given the same terse and unfriendly response. Don't expect to get refunds or discounts whatsoever.

This place is really only for art afficionados. It's not as immersive as advertised. It's one room with quality projectors exhibiting a stylized and sometimes animated video of the artist's paintings, all projected on all four walls and the floor in a studio setting with black curtains and a dozen or so benches. I can tell you, the immersion is more active when standing versus sitting, as you can see the images on the floor better. I watched kids and most men yawn while edging toward to exit, though. If you love art, you'll enjoy it. If not, you'll probably leave after 10-15 minutes.

But with that said, you probably won't enjoy the cost. This is easily 1.5 times more expensive than it really should be. The projections appear to be on a 30 minute loop, so really the show is only 30 minutes long. It's also a very passive experience in general.

When we bought our tickets, the website noted an "All" option for our chosen experience, which we selected. This appeared to include both the Van Gogh and Monet exhibits, plus some other music experience. While there, though, all they had was the Van Gogh experience. An attendant mentioned that there is a combination show, but apparently we came on the wrong day for that. He wasn't aware of the musical experience at all. So you may want to call ahead of time to find out what experience you should actually expect.

Nearby parking is private and apparently unaffiliated, and costs about $16 for 3 hours minimum. After visiting the exhibit, you might consider visiting the nearby Congress Street Bridge to get your money's worth out of parking. If you time it right, you can also walk under the bridge and watch the bats fly out at dusk (depends on the time of year, too). The river is otherwise right there to walk along. Towing is enforced, so don't be late back.

In general, I can't recommend this to any of my friends. I know they would be disappointed. I enjoyed it, but not without lots of reservations about the management.

(Promo code ad included to...

We went despite the one-star reviews. I had an open mind. Big mistake.

First: there is a massive amount of parking, but you have to pay $15 for the privilege, a fact that was nowhere salient on exhibit's website. You get exactly nothing for this, by the way: it's a valet company that vacuums up your cash for nothing in return. A valet without the valet.

Second: it's literally two rooms: one filled with a chronology of his life (backlit text) and another with mediocre animations inspired by his artwork, intended to inspire, but inspiring lots of meh instead. We (my pregnant wife and young son), decided to make the most of the exorbitantly priced tickets by having a seat on the floor to "admire" the animations (on the floor because of the paltry to non-existent seating). But we, and all the other victims of grift attempting to make a moment out of the experience, were quickly told that we were not allowed to sit on the floor. Which meant my pregnant wife was forced to stand. (I asked whether I could bring a chair from my car; I was informed that I could not!?) We didn't last 10 minutes, all things considered, in this profoundly mediocre exhibit, and exited through the gift shop. ("That's it!?" we exclaimed. "That's it," remarked the gift shop attendant, clearly familiar with this reaction.).

Save your money. This is, again, an overpriced grift. Watch a documentary on Van Gogh on YouTube, buy a book, a bottle of wine, and read in soft lighting with nice instrumental background music. You'll have a lot more fun and a lot less aggravation. This is a shameful money...