ROSE FINN-KELCEY: BUREAU DE CHANGE ON SHOW AT TATE BRITAIN TO COINCIDE WITH THE EY EXHIBITION, VAN GOGH AND BRITAIN.
27 March - 11 August 2019
This major exhibition brings together 45 works by Vincent van Gogh to reveal how he was inspired by Britain and how he inspired British artists.
We are delighted that Rose Finn-Kelcey’s Bureau de Change will be on show to coincide with Van Gogh’s exhibition.
Bureau de Change, 1987, consists of a large-scale rendering (2290 x 1520 mms) of one of Vincent van Gogh’s (1853–1890) iconic Sunflowers paintings (see, for example, Sunflowers 1888, National Gallery, London), made using £1,000 worth of British coinage laid out flat on a fragmented section of wooden flooring. The image of the coin ‘painting’ is lit using a theatrical lighting rig. To one side sits a uniformed guard and a video monitor suspended from the ceiling displays an image of the coin ‘painting’ fed to it by a CCTV camera directed at the work. The installation is completed by a viewing platform from which the piece can be appraised.
Finn-Kelcey’s initial motivation for making the work was the sale at auction in 1987 of one of van Gogh’s Sunflowers to the Yasuda Insurance Company of Japan, for the then record price for any work of art, of £24.5 million.
Read more about Bureau de Change on the Tate’s website.