Viewing Room | Vik Muniz. Olive Trees With Yellow Sky And Sun, After Van Gogh, 2007

22 February - 31 March 2024

Vik Muniz. Olive Trees With Yellow Sky And Sun, After Van Gogh, 2007
Framed chromogenic print mounted on aluminum, 180,3 x 228,6 cm
"Using color pigments, I wanted to make a statement about the importance of color. Because of it, even reproductions of celebrated works in the history of art can change from one print run to another. If you place the pages side by side, you think that they're different works. All is relative in art."

– Vik Muniz

In his 'Pictures of Pigment' series Vik Muniz pays homage to the emblematic paintings of the great masters of impressionism and abstract expressionism, delving into the intricate interplay between visual perception and reality.
Vik Muniz. Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, after Van Gogh, 2007 © Gary Tatintsian Gallery and the artist
Vincent van Gogh. Olive Trees With Yellow Sky And Sun, 1989 © Minneapolis Institute Of Art

In his renowned 'photographic delusions,' Muniz meticulously layers brilliant powdered pigment onto his canvas, achieving a remarkable textural depth that is later captured in a two-dimensional photograph. While the final photographic image marks the culmination of Muniz's artistic process, it is the scrupulous construction process itself that truly reveals the essence of his approach.
Vik Muniz. Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, after Van Gogh, 2007 (detail) © Gary Tatintsian Gallery and the artist
"I WORK WITH A VARIETY OF 'NON-ARTISTIC' MATERIALS TO ILLUSTRATE THE EFFECTS OF THE PROCESS OVER THE MEANING OF IMAGES. I WANT TO GET THE VIEWERS BACK IN THE GAME OF LOOKING AT THINGS AND TO RE-INSERT FILTERS THAT ONCE WERE SO VERY IMPORTANT FOR OUR PROCESS OF UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD THROUGH SYMBOLS."

– VIK MUNIZ
Vincent van Gogh. Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, 1887
© Detroit Institute of Arts

'The murmur of an olive grove has something very intimate, immensely old about it.'

– Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh's 'Olive Trees' stands as a testament to artist's profound emotional connection with nature and his unique interpretation of the Provence landscape. Seeking to encapsulate the essence of the southern countryside, Van Gogh imbued his work with a spiritual significance attributed to nature. His vibrant palette, featuring an array of greens, blues, and yellows, adds to the evocative power of his paintings. Van Gogh himself considered his paintings of olive trees to number amongst the best he had made in the South of France.

Building Van Gogh's sensual shimmers of color and his iconic pointillistic strokes, Muniz enhances the intensity of the work with a contrast of luminous pigments and a range of photometric shadows, immersing the viewer to the variety of shades of the renowned olive grove.
Click on for video - 'Inside My Studio: Vik Muniz'. © Anderson Ranch Arts Center
"There's no such thing as a new visual idea. There are only an infinite amount of variations of very good existing ones. I use other artists' works that I admire and think that is important as a way to infuse these already exhausted images with a renewed interest and meaning."

– Vik Muniz
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