News: Van Gogh & Leonardo Argue from the Grave

 

In what was part performance art and part serious debate about art today, five psychics were invited to an event during the London Frieze art fair organized by American multidisciplinary artist Jeffrey Vallance. Each psychic channeled the spirit of a different Western artist to participate in a panel where questions were posed to the deceased such as “Is there an afterlife?”
 
The artists “invited” to the event were Vincent van Gogh, Leonard da Vinci, Marcel Duchamp, Frida Kahlo and Jackson Pollock- though it was Van Gogh and Leonardo that caused the most controversy:

When the medium channeling Leonardo da Vinci proclaimed that he was a better artist than the other artists summoned for the discussion, he drew an enraged gasp from Vincent van Gogh via medium Grant Colyer, who shouted: “We are all as good as each other!” – CNN

 
The conceptual event was the highlight of the fair and emphasized the debt that contemporary artists owe to centuries of forbearers.