From today, a new presentation of recent work by artist Jeff Cowen (b. 1966 in New York) opens at the Van Gogh Museum. He created these works in the region of Provence in southern France. Vincent van Gogh lived in this area from 1888 to 1890 and was moved by the brilliant light and the beauty of nature. Now, in work made more than 130 years later, Cowen has also captured the sense of wonder evoked by Provence.
Cowen uses photography to convey his connection with the landscape. He makes large analogue prints on thick photographic paper and experiments with the chemicals that he uses for the photographic development process. Cowen’s photography includes all traditional art historical genres, such as still life, landscape and portrait. For him, these genres form an allegory of the region.
Van Gogh rendered his impressions of the southern French landscape in bright colours on canvas as well as in black-and-white drawings on paper. Both artists reveal the power and beauty of nature: from the immensity of mountain landscapes and fields to the smallest detail found in a simple leaf or fruit.
Collaboration with Huis Marseille
Simultaneously with this presentation, Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography in Amsterdam presents an exhibition of photographic works by Cowen, including new images of the Provence region of southern France. Following Cowen’s successful exhibition Photoworks at Huis Marseille in 2017, this is the museum’s second exhibition of Cowen’s work. Guest curator for Provence Works at Huis Marseille is Sara Tas, Associate Curator at the Van Gogh Museum.
Biography
Jeff Cowen (b. 1966 in New York) grew up on New York’s Upper West Side and studied Oriental Studies at New York University and Waseda University in Tokyo. In the late 1980s, he worked as a taxi driver and assisted American photographers Larry Clark and Ralph Gibson, who taught him various development techniques. Cowen subsequently turned to street photography and began to experiment with collage.
In the 1990s, he studied at the Arts Student League and the New York Studio School, where he learned drawing and painting. This is when he became interested in the interweaving of painting and photography. To him, the photographic image is never the end result but rather a starting point for his artistic reflection on the motif. His analogue prints, developed with the use of a range of chemicals, are often post-processed using painting and collage techniques. Cowen has lived in Europe since 2001. In 2021, he received a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant for his Provence Works.