Duration: 14:46 mins
Edition: 2/5
Archival: DVD
Exhibition copy: mp4 digital file
Signed
Provenance: Richard Heller Gallery
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Vincent van Gogh: 42 Self Portraits is a looped video made by Dane Picard. In under 60 seconds, Picard presents a seamless montage of 42 self-portraits by famed artist Vincent van Gogh. One portrait morphs into the next, causing the viewer to make quick, sometimes subconscious, visual connections. Curator James Housefield pointed out, “Van Gogh’s modernism is heralded as the harbinger of Expressionism, in which each brushstroke contributes to the artist’s goal of communicating emotions through paint and canvas. Paradoxically, Picard works with computer technologies that are generally considered impersonal. As the shifting 42 self-portraits show Van Gogh in a new light, ever-changing yet trapped in his own self-depictions, Picard’s work raises questions about the possibility for artistic expression today. By looping the short cycles of the repeated 42 self-portraits, Picard calls attention to the power of repetition in constructing the histories of art and taste. Artists and museum visitors today are more likely to know past artworks through mechanically reproduced images than through direct experience of the originals. Picard shows that each of these reproduced images may take on a life of their own, appearing to live, breathe, and grow in time.”1 This video artwork is the second in a group of three made by Picard in 2003 which feature looped, composite portraits of the subject. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: 81 Self Portraits and Jules Engel: 100 Portraits, photographed during 12 minutes on 4/28/3 are the first and third in the group.
Vincent van Gogh: 42 Self Portraits In under 60 seconds, Picard presents a seamless montage of 42 self-portraits by famed artist Vincent van Gogh. One portrait morphs into the next, causing the viewer to make quick, sometimes subconscious, visual connections.
Included with the work
