In October, Artnet.com – an excellent online news service about developments in the world of art – published an article, reporting that an astronomer had identified the village road in Vincent van Gogh’s iconic 1884 work, Lane of Poplars at Sunset (now held by the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands).
The astronomer Donald Olson used scientific methods and historical sleuthing to pinpoint where Van Gogh had painted these poplars, and determined that the painting’s ‘shot’ depicting the lane of poplar trees was created shortly before sunset on November 13 or 14 in 1884, along a 365-meter stretch of road known as Weverstraat in the Dutch town of Nuenen, in the province of Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands.
Wow, I thought, I know that street! That’s where the Van Gogh Village Museum is located. I spent my high school years a few miles from that location, in the adjoining village of Geldrop. One thing is sure: I will never forget that van Gogh painting thanks to the unique story of its creation and origin.
This edition of the WINC is a bit different. Call it a “theme issue” because the first seven items all relate to the same topic: generic and brand-related diamond marketing, promotion, and, last but most important, storytelling. In the first seven news items, various forms of promotion and storytelling are featured.
Those of you who read Ronnie VanderLinden’s foreword of last week know it focused on the topic of diamond marketing and promotion. More specifically – diamond marketing and promotion will be the lead topic at IDMA’s Presidents’ Meeting that will be held in mid-March 2025.
Does the industry want to return to classic, generic diamond promotion, or will it be “each for himself?” Stay tuned, as we will be talking about this, because effective diamond promotion among the generation coming into money will be critical to our industry’s survival!