Homage to Vincent van Gogh

Handing the Loaded Revolver to the Enemy

In July 2004 the Aquarium Gallery will be hosting a unique exhibition of Vincent van Gogh paintings painted by the artist Billy Childish. Say's Billy Childish "These paintings are like Van Gogh's but more so. Some of them are paintings that he hasn't done. They are not copies but close interpretations - an attempt to connect with the spirit of the artist. Of course, many in the art world will despise my exhibition but that's just another good reason for painting it - to hand a loaded revolver to my enemies. It is the artists duty to make himself an open target for the trendy and cool, this helps us to see what is of true worth and what is just ephemeral, fashion and entertainment. All I'm doing is meeting the challenge that every artist and person who wishes to grow has to meet - their own limitations. I'm not investing my time in some adolescent notion of what art could or could not be, or treating art as some kind of novelty entertainment but intending to grasp the nettle and paint pictures that move us."

Painted in an age of cynicism and disbelief, Handing the Loaded Revolver to the Enemy brings art back to it's true affiliation with life, tradition and God - a direct challenge to post modernism's bankruptcy.

"Childish single handedly resurrects the tradition of homage

and counteracts the current practice of devaluing the past through irony."

- Charles Thomson