1. Philosophical and Artistic Context

The work is part of a reflection on contemporary abstraction as a spiritual language, extending Van Gogh's quest for transcendence. Before becoming a painter, he aspired to the priesthood; his artistic practice thus became an act of devotion, an offering to the divine. This piece explores this relationship through the meal—a universal symbol of life, sharing, and ritual—transposing it into a subrealist aesthetic (between figuration and dreamlike abstraction) blending expressionist gestures and digital hybridization.

-------------------------

2. Creative Methodology: Physical and Digital Mixture

- Physical Support: Large acrylic canvas cut and reassembled, evoking the fragmentation of perceptions and ritualistic repetition (the meal as a cyclical celebration).

- Digital Integration: Photograph of the painted canvas, reworked into a frame-by-frame animation, with minimalist digital paint overlays. This animation suggests the perpetual movement of the creative gesture and the persistence of the sacred in everyday life.

-------------------------

3. Subrealism and Gestural Abstraction

The subrealist style fuses abstract expressionism (energy of gesture, impasto reminiscent of Van Gogh) with digital distortion, creating a contemplative allegory. The shapes of the Carrel Restaurant are disarticulated, the colors saturated to convey an inner vision: no longer perceived reality, but its spiritual echo. Yellow, Van Gogh's obsessive color, here becomes a metaphor for the search for light in the darkness.

-------------------------

4. Xanthopsia: Altered Perception and Positive Utopia

The Xanthopsia collection embodies a vision filtered through the prism of hope—even in dark moments, creation seeks light. This work offers a utopian reinterpretation of Van Gogh's legacy: not as a tragedy, but as a celebration of the persistence of the divine in art. The hybrid digital processing highlights how contemporary tools can reveal new layers of meaning in classical works, particularly their meditative and spiritual dimensions.

-------------------------

5. Conclusion: Reinvention and Transcendence

This reinterpretation illustrates art's ability to transcend time through a dialogue between techniques and symbols. By blending acrylics, photography, and animation, it asks:

- How can digital technology deepen our relationship with the sacred in art?

- How does digital subculture and reappropriation become a new ritual of transmission?

The homage to Van Gogh thus goes beyond a simple quotation; it becomes an active meditation on creation as an act of faith, where the meal—and by extension, art—nourishes both body and soul, yesterday and today.

 -------------------------

Final Synthesis:

"The Meal of Life" is a manifesto on the persistence of the spiritual in art in the digital age. Through subrealism and hybridization of media, it transforms the Carrel Restaurant into a space of ritual contemplation, where Van Gogh's gesture meets the potential of digital technology to reaffirm: to create is still to believe.

The Meal of Life: Xanthopsia 171:

Tribute to :

« The Restaurant Carrel in Arles   »

Original in collection: Sammlung Murray S. Danforth, Jr.

Digital art version :

3840 x 2160 px / 4K MP4 / 191 Mo / 15 fps / 1/1 édition on @objkt