Diemut Strebe Living, Hearing Copy of van Gogh's Ear Goes on Display

Creators Nov 03, 2015

Want to see a living piece of art history? A bioengineered replica of Vincent van Gogh's severed ear will be on display at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York starting November 7th.

Dutch artist Diemut Strebe has been keeping the ear alive in a nutrient solution since she used science and the DNA of van Gogh's ancestor, Lieuwe van Gogh, to 3D print the ear for a project called Sugababe last year. Lieuwe, the great-great-grandson of Vincent's brother Theo, shares around 1/16th of the the Impressionist master's genetic material, including the Y-chromosome passed down through the male lineage. Apparently this is enough to make a facsimile of the ear that heard van Gough paint Vase with Twelve Sunflowers—though it wouldn't have heard the creation of Starry Night, which was painted post-clipping.

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