The Sensation of Yellow with Olafur Eliasson
Experience the sensation of the colour yellow through two captivating installations by artist Olafur Eliasson. Who is this artist and why is yellow important in his work?
Van Gogh Yellow
When you think of Vincent van Gogh, the colour yellow probably comes to mind. So, was yellow Van Gogh’s favourite colour? Not always, perhaps, but when he was living in Arles in the south of France, the colour played a remarkably large part in his paintings.
His most famous yellow work is the painting Sunflowers, but the colour is also strongly present in his landscapes and other iconic paintings that he created in the sunny town of Arles. With all that yellow, he captured the light and life of the south.
In June 1888, he wrote about the landscape:
‘...tones of gold of every shade, green-gold, yellow-gold, red-gold, ditto bronze, copper, in short from lemon yellow to the dull yellow colour of, say, a pile of threshed grain’.
This still life of sunflowers is full of warmth, vibrancy and life, but the withering flowers also suggest decay. But the yellow colour makes everything more cheerful. Van Gogh used three shades of chrome yellow, and built up the colour in several layers, using different brush strokes and thicknesses. He didn't just use the yellow paint only for its colour, but also as something more tangible. By doing this, he would make yellow the main subject of the painting.
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1889, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh foundation)