Why Do We Only Value Artists Once They Are Dead?

Last year we bought tickets to The Immersive Van Gogh (IVG) experience where animated versions of the artist's paintings were projected onto huge walls as ticket holders literally lay down on the ground to soak in the artistry. And to share it on Instagram, of course. What I didn't consider in the moment was how this manufactured immersion might also be "exploiting the labor of living artists," as Abbey Fenbert writes for Catapult magazine.

A former employee at IVG herself, she writes about how working there offered a slice of redemption for artists like herself as organizers promoted the idea that they were nobly "making art more accessible" while also raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. Surrounded by branded pillows and jigsaw puzzle versions of paintings, it was hard for her not to recoil at the rampant commercialization of a tortured artist. As Fenbert writes:

"Cynicism was one of the few things that came cheap at IVG ... maybe in his final hour Van Gogh did catch a glimpse of his own past refracted onto the distant future. 'In the life of a painter,' the voice-over quotes from the shadows of the Experiential Hallway, 'death may perhaps not be the most difficult thing.'"