Original artwork description:

When Vincent van Gogh was a poor struggling artist - ie, for the whole of his life - he saved money on hiring models by painting self portraits; and saved even more money by painting 5 of these self portraits on the back of some of his other paintings. Since only one photo portrait of VvG survives, only these portraits give us an idea of what the red-haired, bearded, surly genius looked like. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein was fond of painting his own frames onto his pictures and he also actually painted a picture of the back of a canvas in his own unmistakeable cartoon style. It would be beyond absurd for this artist to even mention himself in the same breath as Vincent and Roy, but even so he hasn't yet come across a painting of the back of a canvas, with a painting on; rather than just a painting on the back of a canvas. But this is not to say it doesn't exist; it probably does. Very confusing I grant you, but as Whistler said: 'An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision. '

Materials used:

Acrylics

Tags: