Concept

Jankowski’s unconventional working method involves surprising forms of collaboration with people outside the art world. In this case, he found photos on the internet of people re-enacting a Van Gogh portrait, sending them to China to be painted by an artist there.
In this process, Van Gogh’s work is reproduced in different media, undergoing a diverse series of transformations: from the original to a re-enactment to a photograph to mass media and back to an oil painting. Van Gogh himself sometimes copied the work of other artists in a highly individual way: ‚it’s a hard and fast rule that only the composer plays his own compositions’, he wrote (letter 805, c. 20 September 1889).
When the photographs, found in the internet, did not follow the dimensions of Van Gogh’s original paintings, Jankowski corrected this difference in his series by adding a part of unpainted canvas to the new composition. The number of 10 paintings was chosen‚ because “Chinese Whispers – Neue Malerei (Van Gogh I-X)” was originally made for the exhibition “When I give I give myself” at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2015. This museum owns 10 paintings of the often copied genious.

Paintings

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh I), 2015, oil on canvas, 41 x 32 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait with straw hat, Summer 1887, oil on cardboard, 40,5 x 32,5 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh II), 2015, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait, 1889, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh III), 2015, oil on canvas, 61 x 49 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait with bandaged ear, easel and Japanese print, January 1889, oil on canvas, 60 x 49 cm, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London.

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh IV), 2015, oil on canvas, 43 x 31 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait, 43,2 x 31,3 cm.

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh V), 2015, oil on canvas 59 x 49 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait with bandaged ear, easel and Japanese print, January 1889, oil on canvas, 60 x 49 cm, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London.

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh VI), 2015, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait, 1889, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh VII), 2015, oil on canvas, 42 x 32 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait with straw hat, 1887, 41,8 x 31,5 cm.

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh VIII), 2015, oil on canvas, 19 x 14 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait, 1887, 19,1 x 14,1 cm

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh IX), 2015, oil on canvas, 42 x 32 cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait with hat, 41,5 x 32,5 cm

Christian Jankowski: Neue Malerei (Van Gogh X), 2015, oil on canvas, 42 x 32cm, painted after: Vincent van Gogh: Self-Portrait with straw hat, 1887, 41,8 x 31,5 cm.