The composition is unmistakable: van Gogh’s Sunflowers — one of the most recognisable images in the canon. But here, all colour has been stripped away. What remains is the frame of the painting, not just visually, but conceptually: line, shape, placement - the architecture of presence without the flesh.
In the Christian mystical tradition, via negativa is the path to understanding through absence - through what God is not. Here, that idea becomes method. The act of removal is not a denial of van Gogh, but a form of reverence. By refusing colour, the painting lets us feel its loss more deeply - and in doing so, reveals the original in a new light.
This is not an appropriation or a reproduction. It’s an exorcism. A distillation. The painting does not show van Gogh’s flowers - it shows what happens when their colour, their vitality, their voice is taken away. And still, they remain.
Via Negativa becomes not just a title, but a technique. Meaning is not applied, but uncovered. Beauty is not added, but remembered. The silence of the image is its speech. What’s left is absence - full, deliberate, and undeniable.
Exhibited:
2009. A Blacker Gold, Haunch of Venison, Berlin
2010. Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
2018. 2018. The times they are a-changin. Galerie Bastian ,Berlin
