AGBAY, ERIKA JAZREEL

B – 211

ASSESSMENT: Appropriation Artwork

ORIGINAL ARTWORK:

STARRY NIGHT BY
VINCENT VAN GOGH

SOURCE: https://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starry-night.html

RECREATED
ARTWORK:
Artist’s statement:

As seen from the first picture, the original artwork is the famous “Starry night” by
Vincent Van Gogh that was created using oil painting. As for my recreated artwork, I sketched
out the original piece by incorporating spirals and lines and used digital art in editing the colors
and design of this piece to make it seem united. As I was doing my research, I was very intrigued
by the history of Van Gogh’s artwork for he was actually known to be a crazy artist. Based from
articles, he cut off his own ear and was admitted in a mental health asylum. It was believed that
Van Gogh painted the Starry night as it depicted the landscape and view from the window of his
hospital room. It was also said that Van Gogh suffered hallucinations and thoughts of suicide
because of his depression.

Because his story, I tried to recreate his “Starry Night” into a much more darker sense.
The primary colors I used for this are orange, magenta, turquoise, black and some whites. I did
not want to follow the colors that Van Gogh used so that I would be able to represent the
hallucinations he felt before. I made this artwork look gloomy and isolated to symbolize his
mental condition and tortured soul. Also, based from a video that I have recently watched, I
learned that Van Gogh was seen as a failure in his time. His art was laughed at and he died
probably feeling useless and insignificant. Hence, I incorporated the blood marks to symbolize
loss of strength and energy, and of course death. The meaning that I want to intend in this
artwork is the life of Van Gogh. Behind all of the colorful and beautiful pieces of Van Gogh, is a
lonesome and broken artist. It’s a shame that Van Gogh died without knowing that he was a
legend. His story made me sad and made me realize that he deserved better that is why I wanted
to empathize with what he felt when he drew this artwork and incorporated it with my art
appropriation. I wanted to make the audience realize that artworks may seem attracting and
inspiring, but behind those pieces are sad back stories that we don’t know. Behind those
beautiful colors are sad pasts that they hid. Hence, we should appreciate every art that is made
and avoid belittling other people for we do not know their whole story.