Oil, emulsion, wood and Van Gogh prints on table-top with castellated framing.

102x65x8cm

A posthumous collaboration and reimagining of Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh (1888).

Just as Vincent immortalised sunflowers in paint in the middle of their life, this contemporary painting examines them at the end… the moment the colour fades away and the seeds are passed on to the next generation of artists.

“Art can die; what matters is that it scatters seeds on the ground”

Joan Miró (from ‘I Work Like a Gardener’)

The original bunch, dried, with another signature scrawled across the vase, with ears from self-portraits (1888, 1889) resting like fallen petals.

Scholars talk about Van Gogh’s paintings in terms of him showing the soul of nature and working people. It is curious therefore that large sections of the museum housing this legacy is designed like a soulless airport terminal full of flat-screen TVs and low value merchandise. This contemporary curatorial contradiction continues elsewhere with technology in one form or another employed wherever one sees his work in public today. What would Vincent make of this? Being an emotional man with strong opinions about art, one theory is that it might drive him to cut off his other ear. Many modern museums have the impossible job of trying to please everyone.