Giant
Van Gogh Sunflower Painting
Giant
Van Gogh Sunflower Painting
Location: South edge of Goodland
Contact: 888.824.4222 You can read more about the international scope of this art project at the website,
http://www.thebigeasel.com
Fee: None
Photos Copyright Harland J. Schuster. Please do not use without permission.
An
eighty-foot steel easel towers into the blue Western Kansas sky,
holding a 24 by 32 foot reproduction of a Van Gogh sunflower painting.
Merely a curiosity for the traveler? Perhaps. But there's a story
here that will eventually span seven countries across the globe.
Aside from being famous for cutting off an ear
and sending it to the woman of he loved (luckily, this never caught on as a
means of showing affection), the artist Van Gogh created seven portraits of
sunflowers from 1888 to 1889 while living in Arles, France. Fast-forward
to Altona, Canada, 1996. A Canadian artist, Cameron Cross, decided to
contribute a work of art to the city where he was teaching. He decided
upon a giant reproduction of one of the Van Gogh sunflower paintings, which are
in the public domain. After the completion of the first reproduction in
Altona, Canada, Cross decided to widen the scope of the project.
When completed, the project will place a different giant Van Gogh painting in
seven different countries around the world. The painting in Goodland is
the third of this series, with the previously mentioned painting in Canada and
one in Queensland, Australia.
Considering the international scope of the project, you might ask, "Why Goodland?". The paintings will be placed in locations either connected to Van Gogh, the original artist, or where sunflowers are an important part of the area's agriculture. Additional paintings will be constructed in The Netherlands, Japan, Argentina, and South Africa. The choice of Goodland is obvious for a couple reasons. For one, Kansas is known as the "Sunflower State". The Wild Sunflower is the State Flower. Second, Goodland is home to a sunflower processing plant, which makes sunflower oil and sunflower meal from the sunflower seeds grown by local farmers. As a consequence of the plant being located in Goodland, vast fields of the colorful crop are grown in this region of Kansas. Most of these commercial sunflower fields bloom in August, and the sight of a large field of the yellow flowers can be quite striking.