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Sinkovics Ede: Önarckép à la van Gogh




Technique: oil, canvas, mounted on board
Notation on the back
Framed cca 70 x 130 cm
Exhibited: Első Magyar Látványtár, 2008.

With the study of art historian Dr. Zoltán Somhegyi.

EdE Sinkovics: Self-portrait à la van Gogh
EdE Sinkovics likes to puzzle the observers of his works. He likes to make them think, to challenge them to revaluate what they already know, or, more precisely, what they think they had known so far. The artist wants them to go beyond the apparently visible and immediately observable. And one of the most efficient ways of doing so is precisely to show the observers that, what seems to be so straightforward in the beginning.
This is the case with the present artwork too. When we look at it, we immediately recognise Vincent van Gogh’s famous self-portrait, and, based on the title, we also realise that it must be the artist’s portrait next to it. But we also realise, just as quickly, that there is something more in this. The rendering of van Gogh’s self-portrait is not a simple copy or imitation of the original, and not even an exercise in his style. Much more, it is a proper hommage. A tribute, but one in which the artist takes a departure point, an inspiration, from a classical work, and then transforms it into a piece in his own style.
This process is labelled as “paraphrasing”, and is a common practice among artists, just think of, for example, Picasso’s series on Velazquez’s Las Meninas. But what EdE Sinkovics does we can also call a dialogue. The two artists are conversating. Not directly, of course. But still, van Gogh has something to say that EdE Sinkovics wants to listen to, and then wants to tell him his own interpretation of the question. The contemporary artist wants to show us what he had learnt from his older colleague.
Such dialogical paraphrases are very typical in EdE Sinkovics’ oeuvre. In the beginning of the 2000s, he made a series of re-elaborating the “best of” Hungarian, as well as of French painting, always with the strong desire to learn something from the masters, but also to highlight certain features he likes in their work, i.e. something that had then become the basis for his own, new piece. These characteristics can be concerning the composition, colours, topics, motifs, style of the brushwork etc. It will be precisely this how EdE Sinkovics firmly grounded his signature style. Also in the case of this present work, while recognising the original work by van Gogh, we realise that this has now become a new original, by EdE Sinkovics.
As I started above, the artist likes to challenge our regular ways of observing. Through this work EdE Sinkovics successfully manages to demonstrate not only what van Gogh had achieved, but also how van Gogh can be influential today. The contemporary artist enjoys making us face the fascinating paradox that it is through the active reference to another work that he creates his authentic new piece. The ability to create a great work in such mode will be the illustration of EdE Sinkovics’ skills, and this also demonstrates his prevalent importance in the contemporary Hungarian art scene.

Zoltán Somhegyi