Stay Gold, 2024

JOHNNY ROMEO

Stay Gold, 2024

acrylic and oil on canvas

1220 x 1220 mm

In Johnny Romeo’s Kitsch Pop world, Van Gogh’s influence on art has been so groundbreaking that he has us seeing triple. Stay Gold portrays the legendary Dutch artist as a deity-like, candy-coloured triptych whose three faces have morphed together in a style similar to Cubism, a nod to the immense impact that Van Gogh has had on Modern Art. Drawing on his arsenal of art references, Romeo’s triple-vision Van Gogh tips his hat to the artist’s three paintings of his iconic bedroom in Arles. References to triplets are further explored through the word assemblage ‘Triple Cut Up’. Plagued by mental illness throughout his adult life, Van Gogh infamously cut off his left ear after a heated argument with the artist Paul Gauguin. In the painting, however, the ‘triple cut’ of Van Gogh’s severed ear has intentionally disappeared, even though his face appears three times. By removing the symbol of Van Gogh’s madness and melancholy, Romeo reclaims the Dutch master from the very depression that took his life and re-envisions him as a figure of hope. We can see this through the text passage ‘Triple Up’, an allusion to the three-finger salute from the Hunger Games series which has been adopted as a symbol of rebellion and strength by pro-democracy movements in Southeast Asia. Van Gogh’s optimistic new lease on life is further captured in the warmth joy of the painting’s title Stay Gold and its connection to yellow, the painter’s favourite and most used colour. Yellow was a constant throughout Van Gogh’s life, featuring in his famous sunflower paintings, his memories of his father and the Yellow House in Arles where he painted his bedroom.