The proposed approach is part of a contemporary and multidimensional reinterpretation of a Van Gogh landscape, combining both a philosophical approach and a hybrid artistic experiment. At the heart of the Xanthopsia collection, the painting “Wheat field behind Saint-Paul Hospital with a reaper” is revisited from the angle of a subrealist abstraction which, by juxtaposing mixed techniques — physical painting and digital animation — offers a meditation on the constant evolution of life and the transmission of knowledge.

- Philosophical and symbolic vision of evolution

The piece, renamed “Evolving is a constant,” transposes the image of the wheat field and its harvest to make it a metaphor for life: the growth of the wheat symbolizes the continuous accumulation of knowledge, while the reaper represents the culmination or maturity of this learning, this knowledge must be transmitted even after death. This duality between growth and end, chaos and order, is part of a reflection on the perpetual becoming and the intrinsic transformation of the human being. The ability to sow and reap transcribes the tension between the passing of time and the permanence of accumulated knowledge.

- Fusion of techniques and the metamorphosis of the classical work

The hybrid technique, which combines the tangible of painting with the virtuosity of digital animation, does not just modernize Van Gogh's work; it redistributes its visual and symbolic codes. The use of a central black pixel, a true point of meditation, plays a strong allegorical role by inviting the viewer to explore the intersection between darkness and light, between apparent disorder and the subtle harmony that emerges from the fabric of life. This pixel, both a minimalist element and concentrated in meaning, comes to fix the attention of the gaze in a universe in perpetual movement, where each digital and pictorial detail questions our perception of time and space.

- Subrealist abstraction and natural minimalism

By adopting a subrealist abstraction, I distance myself from purely figurative representations to offer a more intuitive and symbolic reading. Even a simple countryside landscape revisited through the prism of minimalism can expose all the richness of evolution, by reporting through the detail of a blade of wheat and its cut at maturity an ontology of becoming. The allegory here is not only visual, it is also metaphorical. Through an almost Zen reduction of form, the materiality of the landscape reflects a spiritual journey: the continuity of life, the transmission of knowledge and the inscription of humans in a nature that is both implacable and benevolent.

- The Xanthopsia collection and altered perception

If the title Xanthopsia — or “yellow vision” — immediately suggests an altered perception, the work becomes an invitation to rethink our relationship with reality. Van Gogh, famous for his play of light and color, is reinterpreted here to illustrate how an external, even utopian, perspective allows us to find positivity even in moments of transformation or shadow. The work thus questions the duality that permeates human existence and the coexistence of opposing forces: the light of knowledge against the darkness of oblivion, the perpetual metamorphosis of being in the face of the constancy of natural cycles.

In summary, this conceptualization aims to be a bridge between tradition and modernity. It offers a plural reading of Van Gogh's work by injecting a digital and philosophical dimension that questions the fixed, emphasizing that life, through its evolving and transformative force, continues to sow and reap, well beyond the original temporal and aesthetic framework.

Tribute to : Van Gogh :  Wheat Field Behind Saint-Paul Hospital with a Reaper

See the original work at: Museum Folkwang