Van Gogh’s Ear, 2025
Artists supposedly work for the love of the job. But they also need to earn a living. What is the compromise?
On one side you have 30 pieces of silver. Payment for entertaining the wealthy. On the other, Van Gogh’s ear. Van Gogh is every artist’s hope and fear. The archetypal starving artist, relatively unknown in life, becomes celebrated after death. If not money, then fame?
A second paradox. “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”. In art, reality is a representation, not a truth. The ‘Walking Art Patron’, the controller of money. The collector of debt. The absurdity or truth of the taped banana. Is there a choice?
An alternative? Collectives, Artist-run. An artists’ union: CARFAC. Carole marching with the Independent Artist’s Union (IAU) banner.
Notes:
• The ear (reproduced in the image) was grown from the living cells of Lieuwe Van Gogh, the great, great grandson of Theo Van Gogh (Vincent’s brother), in 2014, by the artist Diemut Strebe
• Geishas in a Landscape’ 1870’s, by Torakiyo Sato, a Japanese print that appears in Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889 (title image).
• Comedian (taped banana) by Maurizio Cattelan, 2019. Sold for $6.2 million.