A photo of an artwork purportedly depicting the current era of multiculturalism in Europe is being shared on social media claiming that the artwork had won the amateur art contest conducted in the Netherlands. The artwork depicts a man, with a rope tied around his neck, watering a plant so that he could hang himself from it when it grows. The purported artwork represents the person and the plant with Europe and Islam spreading in the continent respectively. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Artwork depicting multiculturalism in Europe that won the amateur art contest in the Netherlands.
Fact: The artwork was created by German visual artist Friedrich Kunath in 2010 for an exhibition at the Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York. Friedrich Kunath created this artwork or painting as part of his collection, “Tropical Depression”. The artwork does not depict multiculturalism in Europe, and it has nothing to do with any amateur contest in the Netherlands. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found in a collection of images published on the ‘Contemporary Art’ Blogspot in 2010. The Blogspot described it as the artworks created by Friedrich Kunath for an exhibition at the Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York in 2010. Many social media users posted the artwork by crediting it to Friedrich Kunath.
When searched for further sources, we found the artworks created by Friedrich Kunath for the solo exhibition at the Andrea Rosen Gallery in 2010. Friedrich Kunath, a German visual artist, created this artwork as part of his collection “Tropical Depression”.
Describing Friedrich Kunath’s Tropical Depression exhibition at their gallery, Andrea Rosen Gallery website in a press statement said, “Tropical Depression, Kunath’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, stages a watery world and shows Kunath’s unique ability to wrest together normally contradictory notions of romanticism and despair, and irony and sincerity, to fill the gallery with a mood, almost the way a scent invisibly permeates a room and alters one’s perception.” The artwork does not show multiculturalism in Europe, and it has nothing to do with any amateur contest in the Netherlands.
To sum it up, this artwork does not depict multiculturalism in Europe, and it did not win any amateur art contests in the Netherlands.
