Arguably one of Van Gogh’s most famous self-portraits, belonging to the Musée d'Orsay’s permanent collection, David Mach has paid the ultimate homage to one for the world’s greatest painters. Mach’s chosen medium of coloured pins, painstakingly placed one at a time, echo the movement and brush strokes of the original portrait as well as embody the ethos of the Impressionist style - small dots of multiple colours place side by side emphasising light and movement.

Mach’s medium seems fitting as Van Gogh himself described: “The best pictures, and from a technical point of view, the most complete, seen from nearby, are but patches of color side by side, and only make an effect at a certain distance.” (Vincent Van Gogh, November 1885)

David Mach RA is one of the UK’s most recognised and respected artists working in contemporary art today. Mach established his reputation in the 1980s with a series of increasingly ambitious sculptures and installations like 1983's Polaris, a life-size representation of the nuclear-powered submarine made from tyres, at London's Hayward Gallery.

Never content in making ‘easy’ art, Mach continuously challenges not only his physical ability but gravity and perception. He revels in the challenge of the physically demanding character of his works, siting that ‘hard graft never hurt anyone,’ and attributing his need to make physically demanding pieces as a response to growing up in the industrial region of Fife, Scotland. For Mach, the act of making is just as important as the finished article as he strives for a need to overcome the ‘Bohemian’ idea of the artist with their brush and chisel.

Born in Methil, Scotland in 1956, Mach graduated from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee in 1979 before moving onto study at the Royal College of Art, London in 1982. He is a former Turner Prize nominee and was elected a Royal Academician in 1998. Pangolin London are proud to represent David Mach.