Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Daniel Baker “I am Vincent”

Daniel+Baker+I+am+Vincent

In early 2016, Canadian author and artist Douglas Coupland created a contest, “I am Vincent,” that challenged participants to find a look-alike of the famous Dutch artist, Vincent Van Gogh. Coupland made the contest in the hopes of creating a sculpture of the ‘new’ Vincent Van Gogh.

This past November he found Van Gogh’s doppelganger.

Douglas Coupland was looking for a modern look-alike of Vincent Van Gogh as part of his new series of works called “Redheads,” which celebrates redheads in art. This is part of a series called “the genetic magic.” But why Van Gogh?

Van Gogh was an impressionist artist who started painting in 1881 using bright, vivid colors.  In his time, Van Gogh wasn’t a very successful painter: nobody wanted to buy an impressionist’s paintings. Van Gogh lived a tragic life, which kept snowballing toward disaster, resulting in him becoming a psychotic drunk. It wasn’t until after his suicide that his art became popular. Today, Van Gogh is one of the most influential figures in the history of Western art.  And, he was a redhead.

For many months Coupland had been looking for Van Gogh’s doppelganger, a redhead with a gaunt face. Over 1250 people from around the world submitted pictures hoping to be the next Vincent Van Gogh. Coupland sifted through thousands of entries on his computer, from 37 different countries but he didn’t find exactly what he was looking for.

It wasn’t until Coupland saw Daniel Baker getting out of a cab that he saw exactly what he was looking for.  Coupland said he knew at first sight that Baker was the modern “Vincent Van Gogh” doppelganger.  After consulting with doctors to confirm Bakers facial structures were the closest to Vincent Van Gogh’s, Coupland claimed him the winner. Baker obliged with the idea of a sculpture, and it is now in progress, planning to be debuted April 22nd, 2017 at a special pre-conference adventure for attendees of in Vancouver, Canada.