Van Gogh and Absinthe

Van Gogh and Absinthe is an investigation into a day in the life of an artist who catapulted the contemporary art world to where it is today. With artists continuing to change and expand the definition of art. It is increasingly difficult to understand where a particular art movement originated. Society has become engrossed with capitalism and consumerism. Its ability to allow art and entertainment, as we know it, to exist has created a diversity and therefore a divergence from any sort of artistic community.

At this point much of the civilized world is engrossed with technology. Technology's rapid evolution has taken an established set of rules and scattered them across a web of wires. The idea of artists labeling a particular art movement appears highly unlikely. The constant force-feeding of classification is the need of society to interpret its own existence. Nowhere does this apply more than to the Post-Modern art world. Critics, art historians, and even artists have been wrestling with how Post-Modernism has developed. With the advancement of technology, global communication and more specifically the World Wide Web, many individual art movements have begun to take shape on their own. Now more than ever, the idea of a few powerful art dealers, historians, or critics creating the next Vincent Van Gogh, pales in comparison to the chance of the individual artist leaving a mark on the art world through the Internet.

Van Gogh and Absinthe's intention is to offer insight into the origin of the journey of Modern and Post-Modern Art, how Van Gogh has affected it presently and how the attitude of Vincent continues to shape the artists of tomorrow. To do this, this thesis will focus on the short film Van Gogh and Absinthe, a stop-motion animation about a day in the life of the artist, Vincent Van Gogh. If there was ever one artist who signified the essence of this thesis it had to be Van Gogh. Vincent Van Gogh also lived at a time of great change and wonder. The foundations of Modern art and Impressionism were just forming. But each and every day of this artist's life was spent questioning, why am I doing this, where do I fit into this puzzle and what impact am I making on this world?

Produced and Directed by Kris Kluthe, Greg Parrish and Seth Roe.