Mystical Landscapes brings Monet, van Gogh masterpieces to Toronto

Vincent van Gogh's star-filled sky, Claude Monet'swater lilies andEdvard Munch's blazing sun are artworksthat speak volumes with brushstrokes. But a new exhibit in Toronto is re-examining these and other magneticmasterpieces under a new lens of spirituality and mysticism.

"In the art world, we tend to dismiss them as popular culture pictures, but I do believe there's a reason they're so popular... They're feeding people spiritually," lead curator Katharine Lochnan told CBC News.

Opening at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto,Mystical Landscapes: Masterpieces from Monet, van Gogh and more is the first exhibition to consider how art, nature and mysticism intersect in some of Western art's most famous works.

In the case of van Gogh, he turned to nature and the cosmos in his search for spirituality.

"He wrote to his brother that when he felt a strong need for religion, he looked up at the stars," saidLochnan.

On one level, the exhibition can be enjoyed forits high-profile loans, including "destination" pieces such as van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhone fromtheMuse d'Orsay in Parisor canvases considered national treasures, like Eugene Jansson's view of Stockholm, which seldom leaves Sweden, Lochnan noted.

Mystical Landscapes includes close to 90 paintings and 20 works on paper, created by three dozen artists from 15 countries. It's been in the works for five years, with the co-operation of an advisory committee that included theologians,historians, an astrophysicist,a doctorand a psychoanalyst.

"We're looking at a very well-trodden period of art history from quite a different perspective," Lochnan said.

"We know that thousands of visitors of all cultures and creeds go to the [Muse de] l'Orangeriein Paris to sit in front ofMonet'swater lily canvases daily and that they spend hours contemplating them."

The exhibit digs deeperby exploring Monet's interest in Buddhism. After building his own Japanese water garden and stocking it with water lilies, "he spent hours in contemplation there,until he felt himself become one with it, before he began to paint. He described his feelings as akin to a state of hypnosis," Lochnan said.

"He invited the then-prime ministerof France, Clemenceau [also fascinated with Buddhism] to look at the paintings with him, saying, 'Put your hand in mine and let us help one another observe more closely.'"

A few years ago,Lochnanbegan studying theologyand re-examiningspirituality in her own life."Suddenly, I saw the pictures in a new way," she said.

She was inspired to examine the spirituality of artists in the late19thand early20thcenturies. It wasa tumultuous time: institutional religion was falling out of favour, Darwin releasedOn the Origin of Species, political conflicts were building toward the First World Warand people were searching for meaning in a new way artists included.

"Let the artist lead you and show you what the artist has seen ... see what the pictures evoke in you and what you feel as a result of them. They're very affective. They will trigger feelings. People are deeply affected by them."

"We know that art has an ability to heal, to touch people deeply ... art has a power to transform lives,"Lochnansaid.

Munch's The Sun was placed on view in Oslo after the horrific 2011 attacks by Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, shesaid, noting that theevocative landscape was displayed "in a place where people could sit and meditate on what had happened."

Though thespiritual subtext has largelybeen written out of modern art history, Lochnanand her co-curators areattemptingto bring this context back in withMystical Landscapes.

For instance, Paul Gauguin who had trained in a Catholic seminary was going through a personal andspiritualcrisis at the time he paintedChrist in the Garden of Olives (shown with his Vision after the Sermon and Yellow Christ as a triptych for the first time ever).

Van Gogh, however, "disagreed with Gauguinintroducing biblical imagery into Christ in the Garden of Olives, saying that when he wanted to paint Gethsemane, he [simply] painted an oliveorchard," Lochnan said.

Forvan Gogh, the Divinecould be found in nature.

Today, the world is in a moment of crisis and conflict not unlike the time period from which these paintings originate, Lochnan said.

"The vast majority of individuals are looking for their own spiritual paths unmediated by religious institutions. There is tremendous interest in meditation and mystical practices. Human beings are wired for mystical experiences: we are all capable of having them," she said.

"By contemplating these works and 'walking with' the artists on their spiritual journeys, viewers will be able to share in their mystical experiences and think about the role of spirituality in their own lives."

Mystical Landscapes opens Saturday at the AGO, the lone North American stop, and continues to Jan. 29, 2017. It opens at the Muse d'Orsayin Paris in spring 2017.