Even the philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin, who lamented the bygone “aura” of one-of-a-kind paintings and sculptures in his 1935 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” would throw up his hands at the many layers of knockoff simulation at play. National arts reporters have struggled to distinguish the various shows on offer, which are the handiwork of different animators and composers, and to assess claims of being the “original” Van Gogh immersion-a dubious concept for infinitely reproducible exhibitions that traffic in public-domain digital images. “Beyond Van Gogh,” which opened Friday in Austin, is one of a half-dozen independent productions of Van Gogh–inspired wall-and-floor projection shows appearing across the country. I was instructed that, despite his suicide in 1890 at age 37 shortly after lopping off his own ear and offering it as a gift to a brothel maid, “Van Gogh’s work radiates joy and celebrates life,” and that “to experience his work is to open oneself to immense joy.” Steeled for delight, I reached the portal. I spent ten minutes winding past screens of text explaining, in hagiographic terms, the life of the Dutch Postimpressionist painter. There, a nondescript warehouse beckoned with a playful sign reading “Gogh This Way.” In the paved, arid expanse of COTA in summer, absent any landscape or human figure that might have compelled Van Gogh to pick up a paintbrush, I drove past five empty parking lots and into a sixth.

My immersive journey into the mind and work of Vincent Van Gogh began with a twenty-minute drive to the Circuit of the Americas, the motor sports racetrack outside of Austin.

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