Sonnenblume 2022

Gazmend Freitag painted this sunflower in 2022, rendering the bloom with thick strokes of oil on an 80 x 80 cm canvas. The sunflower, or "Sonnenblume" as it's known in German, is more than just a pretty flower. Its radiant, sun-like form has captured human imagination across cultures and time. Think of Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, whose symbolic association with the sunflower reflects its daily turn to follow the sun's path. Similarly, in Peruvian Inca culture, the sunflower was a sacred symbol of the sun god, representing divine power. The symbolic weight of this flower is passed down through history, where it appears in Van Gogh's famous sunflower series as a personal expression of gratitude and joy. Freitag’s painting is part of a larger visual language, each artist imbuing the symbol with personal and cultural significance, revealing the powerful, recurring nature of symbols in art.