And the Winner is… Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers

The exhibitions I visited in 2024 all deserve praise for one reason or the other—even the one that has baffled me for the most misleading title. So this time, instead of doing a top five plus a turkey, I’ll give you the overall winner.

Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, at the National Gallery in London, was a truly exceptional exhibition. All tickets were already sold out by the time I booked my flight to London, and yet I did manage to put my hands on one because… life happens while others are staring at their phones.

With a couple of hours to kill before heading back to the airport, I decided to pop in the National Gallery. While I was queuing so that the security guards could give my bag their soup-free seal of approval, I heard (or I thought I heard) two ladies asking if someone would be interested in a ticket for the Van Gogh exhibition.

By the time those in line with me re-surfaced from the screens of their phones (I was looking at the Christmas stalls and pondering the ubiquity of churros vendors—I know, not the most profound of thoughts) I had already stepped out of the queue and joined the two kind-hearted women who were giving away (yes, I had heard it right!) the ticket of a friend who hadn’t been able to join the party at the very last minute.

I have nothing to add to, but to agree with, the 5-star reviews the exhibition has received from the most renowned art critics. I will only say that the paintings were so impactful that, for once, I didn’t mind the crowd, the whole exhibition so electrifying that I didn’t take one single photo, the overall experience so joyous that it will stay with me forever.