Technique: Oil + objects on canvas on wood
Dimensions: 59 x 43 cm
Undoubtedly, the painting Starry Night painted by Van Gogh is one of the iconic paintings of Western culture. It is a composition created using parts of studies obtained from observations made in plein air, as well as night observations made directly from the window of his room in the asylum for the mentally ill of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, close to the village of Saint-Rémy in France.
Although he was disappointed with the result of the painting, feeling that he had failed in his attempt to create works that came from his imagination instead of direct observation, the historical and artistic importance that the work obtained contradicts his reasoning. Observing it in person produces a rapturous effect on most people. It was no different for me in 1990 and on other occasions that I had the opportunity to see it again.
In this sense, the painting Starry Night after Van Gogh – Rereading painted by me in December 2023, reflects my admiration for Van Goghian's work. The logarithmic spirals that I often use in my work match perfectly with the spirals used by Van Gogh and it was exactly this perception that made me create a reinterpretation of his iconic painting. His painted houses led me to the use of electronic boards constantly incorporated into my work, as both are the product of human action. To reproduce the visual strength of the cypress used by Van Gogh, I reused small electronic chips that have a strong visual charge associated with our technological everyday life. To represent the stars I used small light-emitting diodes (high brightness LEDs) and for the planet Venus and two stars I used three small magnet stators taken from computers. Given the strength of the Moon painted by him, which has the magnitude of the Sun, I painted a recurring image in my works: the Moon itself. Therefore, I could not fail to include another recurrence in my works: the mother Gaia.
Generally, my constructivist-based compositions, in addition to the use of objects/symbolic elements adverse to the universe of oil painting, generate unconventional pictorial works, whose style is identifiable by the compositional conception and the symbolic universe that instigates the viewer's curiosity.
I hope that, with each new observation, my work can reveal new details so that the viewer can make different readings of my Art.
Walter Miranda – January 2024
