Van Goghs were a big draw here in 1959
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The last time Seattle saw a sizable group of van Goghs in town was when a blockbuster traveling show of 84 paintings and 71 drawings stopped at Seattle Art Museum March 6-April 19, 1959, setting new attendance records.
Breathless reporting in The Times described "workmen" installing the show as being "nervously aware that a slip of the hammer might bring disaster to irreplaceable painting worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each."
That exhibit stopped in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland before coming to Seattle, and there were reports of 1,000 people an hour crushing into the Portland Art Museum.
At Seattle Art Museum's original Volunteer Park building, attendance peaked at 7,300 on closing day, with a total of 126,110 for the six-week run. Van Gogh's nephew and namesake, V.W. van Gogh and his wife, visited Seattle during the exhibition.
In those days, SAM admission was normally free, but van Gogh visitors had to fork over 75 cents to help defray the $25,000 cost of bringing the exhibit to town.
And it was the first time SAM audiences became exposed to the wonder of the audio-tour. "We have been introduced to a gadget called an "Acoustiguide," marveled one Seattle Times columnist. "The recorded voice can be turned on or off at will." There were only 15 Acoustiguides available, and they rented to about 100 lucky people a day for an additional 75 cents a person, $1 for two.
SAM officials expect attendance of about 300,000 during the three-month run of "Van Gogh to Mondrian: Modern Art from the Kröller-Müller Museum" — about the same as the 1999 show "Impressionism." "Van Gogh to Mondrian" was organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where it will travel in October.
— Sheila Farr, Seattle Times art critic