Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour

Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour is the first exhibition to explore what the colour yellow meant to Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. Van Gogh discovered the colour yellow while searching for the bright light and warmth of the sun in Arles, in the south of France. He wrote to his brother Theo:

‘Sunshine, a light which, for want of a better word I can only call yellow – pale sulphur yellow, pale lemon, gold. How beautiful yellow is!’

The exhibition opens with Van Gogh’s most famous yellow masterpiece, Sunflowers, before exploring art, fashion, music and literature around 1900. It explores questions like: What is yellow? How does yellow feel? What does yellow smell like?

Visitors are asked to consider how artists such as Van Gogh, Marc Chagall, William Turner, Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint gave meaning to the colour yellow. Traditionally, yellow was the colour of the sun, but artists also used it to express deeper meanings, emotions and ideas. In literature and fashion, yellow was associated with everything that was modern, daring and decadent.

We are also asked to think about what yellow sounds and smells like. Visitors can listen to compositions inspired by works on view in the exhibition - created by students from the Conservatory of Amsterdam - while walking around the exhibition or via the playlist. Fragrances add a further dimension to the experience of the art works and the colour yellow. Three olfactory designers from the Robertet group based in the south of France, developed three unique scents for this exhibition. They used natural ingredients like citrus, bergamot, and camomile. Visitors can vote for the scent that best captures the essence of yellow.

A striking light installation by the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson (1967) offers another way to experience the colour yellow. HisWho is afraid yellow flower ball from 2006 is also on view.