Famed gallery f logs Van Gogh ‘earaser’
GIVEN the art world’s obsession with political correctness, it’s fair to say that the souvenirs chosen to accompany a new exhibition of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh are something of a surprise.
Products picked by London’s Courtauld Gallery – currently displaying works including the famous self-portrait of the artist sporting a bandage over a selfinflicted wound – include a €7 ‘earaser’, a rubber in the shape of the ear that Van Gogh severed in a psychotic rage.
The range to celebrate the Dutch Master, who suffered severe mental health problems culminating in his suicide, also features a €6 bar of soap, marketed as ideal for
‘the tortured artist who enjoys fluffy bubbles’, and an Emotional First Aid Kit, priced at €19, which is described as ‘a box of wise emergency advice for 20 key psychological situations’. But some have been left distinctly unimpressed – and even offended – by the attempt at humour. Charles Thomson, a co-founder of the Stuckist group of artists, said: ‘Suicide is not a joke and mental illness is not a joke. This is shallow, nasty and insensitive.’ Art critic David Lee said: ‘I can’t believe that this isn’t someone in marketing’s attempt at tasteless humour in the pub after work. This is, after all, the Courtauld Institute, supposedly the centre of Art History in the UK if not Western Europe. Would they, for example, be prepared to sell pencils in the shape of a false leg at a Frida Kahlo exhibition?’ Mexican artist Kahlo had her leg amputated due to a gangrene infection.
A heavy drinker, Van Gogh, whose most famous works include Sunflowers and The Bedroom, is thought to have suffered from either bipolar or temporal lobe epilepsy, a disorder of the nervous system. In 1888, while living in France, he severed his left ear after a row with fellow artist Gauguin.
He then spent more than a year at the Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Rémy, and in 1890, aged only 37, shot himself, dying two days later.