The Pink Peach Tree was painted in 1888 by Vincent Van Gogh. One of the first books I purchased in my teens was a large, leather-bound coffee table book featuring works of art by Van Gogh. I came across this book in a basement bookshop on Canal Street in New York City. This was the same day that I bought size ten blue suede shoes, four sizes too big. I was coming into myself, becoming an artist. The Pink Peach Tree was first shown to me in the pages of my new book. I became fascinated, not by the brush strokes, style, or simplicity but by the statement. Van Gogh was complex, moody, and difficult but he made not-so-subtle statements by his brush strokes, style, simplicity, and SELF-mutilation.
Van Gogh cut off the lobe of his ear for reasons only he knows, but the public speculates each day when, around the world, more than thirty public museums open and patrons gaze into the mind of Van Gogh. He has touched our hearts and souls so much so that in 2017 The Van Gogh Immersion Experience began. Thirty-five Cities around the world have given the public a chance to not just view Van Gogh’s works but to, via virtual reality, go inside them.
Thanks to Niko for this contribution – send ours to steve@granitegrok.com
No other painter has had this public desire, where millions of people want to step inside the paintings they created. Currently, a wait list exists to attend the Immersion Experience as it continues to captivate us city after city. I have been to five countries to see works by Van Gogh and have stood before Van Gogh’s The Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London twice. I wore the 3-D goggles when I attended the Immersion Experience in Tucson, Arizona. When I look at his works, I am overcome by emotions of sanity v. insanity.
Sunflowers by Van Gogh 1888
However, a darker story exists and should not be forgotten. The Rape of Europa was painted by Titian but its namesake appeared again in a 2006 documentary, which shares the story of the twelve years when Nazis looted &/or destroyed the highest percentage of art in world history. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was hidden in the back of a pressurized ambulance in 1940 and transported away from Nazis, for safekeeping. The Statue of David by Michelangelo was encased in bricks to protect it from Nazi theft and bombings.
The Statue of David by Michelangelo in 1943
Eighty-five of Van Gogh’s paintings vanished during World War II. Arguably the last time Van Gogh’s Trees with Ivy was ever seen publicly was in 1942 before this photograph was taken when Nazi deputy leader Hermann Göring and his art advisor Walter Hofer were seen with the painting.
Nazi deputy leader Hermann Göring touching Van Gogh’s Trees with Ivy in 1942
Amanda Plummer, a member of Just Stop Oil, is not an activist. She is a Nazi and a hypocrite. She wants to appear complex, moody, and difficult but her statements are not self-mutilation. Her statements are narcissistic and hypocritical. Amanda has been charged and imprisoned for harming national infrastructure. Plummer sought to destroy what belonged to not her but arguably a jew. The Van Gogh painting she defiled, known as The Sunflowers, and the subsequent paintings the Just Stop Oil group continued to attack and bomb with soup were stolen during World War II., Plummer was charged with harming National Infrastructure, but Van Gogh’s The Sunflowers is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the heirs of Paul von Mendelsohn-Bartholdy, a German Jewish businessman and former owner of the painting. His heirs claim that the Nazis acquired the painting via threat. The Sunflowers is not the property of the National Gallery. They are stewards of the painting and should be responsible for its safety.
Amanda Plummer, with her pink hair, wore a Just Stop Oil t-shirt on the day she entered the National Gallery to defile Van Gogh’s The Sunflowers and show the world who she was, a hypocrite and Nazi. Pink hair is achieved by stripping the cuticle of the shaft and breaking the bonds of the cortex so that a synthetic pink dye made from petroleum can be applied. The entire process is achieved by applying petroleum to the hair, allowing it to sit, and then rinsing the petroleum down the drain. Oil is Plummer’s artistic medium of choice. She is simply too stupid to know.
Amanda Plummer moments after bombing Van Gogh’s The Sunflowers
We as a society almost lost Van Gogh’s The Sunflowers once, but it was never ours to have. On the day Plummer was lightly sentenced to jail, her colleagues returned to the National Gallery to throw soup on The Sunflowers for a second time. The London courts were too lenient.
Seeing as the National Gallery has failed to protect Van Gogh’s work, I officially pivot on my viewpoint: The painting should be returned to the heirs of Paul von Mendelsohn-Bartholdy. Van Gogh’s painting survived the World War, yet its current threat is climate activists. I suggest the courts give Plummer and her Just Stop Oil hypocrites a truly Immersive Van Gogh Experience. Cut off their hands.
