Like other similar venues across our nation, the world-famous J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles was closed to visitors because of COVID-19. So its staff decided to engage the public with an actual “Life Imitates Art” challenge. And the results were pretty amazing!
We challenge you to recreate a work of art with objects (and people) in your home.
🥇 Choose your favorite artwork
🥈 Find three things lying around your house⠀
🥉 Recreate the artwork with those itemsAnd share with us. pic.twitter.com/9BNq35HY2V
— Getty (@GettyMuseum) March 25, 2020
There were so many creative and wonderful ones it was hard to choose. Some of them were quite abstract, so I limited myself to ones that a non-arts aficionado could enjoy.
But even that left me with over 40 selections. So I decided to group them in very broad themes. There will be some overlap as one submission could qualify for more than one theme.
Let’s start with Animals. Proving yet again that cats are free-spirit critters (and confirming the old adage that they cannot be herded) there wasn’t one employing a kitty cat. A ferret – YES, but no cat.
One popular painting was “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer. But I decided to go with “Male with a Pearl Earring”.
I was a bit surprised that Frida Kahlo self-portraits was such a popular subject. I thought these were the two best.
There were a few of the “Ugly Duchess” by Quentin Matsys which were quite well done. (One wonders if the subject knew the title of the painting they were portraying – although the two I picked were both males.)
Far away the most common theme simply involved people. Because there were so many, I made three GIFs; but I didn’t do a very good job dividing them up.
There were a couple cute Rockwell ones.
And I thought we should end with a selection memorializing what generated this “Life Imitates Art” challenge – the Coronavirus Quarantine. So the last one features artworks employing Toilet Paper and Masks.
I’m not sure if all those submitted are at the above Tweet – but there are quite a lot more there for your viewing pleasure.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: I always select “Do NOT Stack Frames” – but have never been successful in getting it applied. So I apologize that there are remnants of previous ones that annoyingly hang around.]
6 Responses to “Friday Fun: Life Imitates Art … No, Really!”
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Thanks Nameless–I’ve been running into different ones sporadically–some of them are amazingly well done and creative.
These are all delightful. You prabably know which one was the model for the Duchess in Alice in Wonderland –
It’s not an exact portrait, more of an homage, really – but you surely can see it in the clothinh. (PS If I remember correctly, the actual name of the original subject was Maria Maultasch.)
Thanks so much, as always, for the levity!
Brilliant work. Both your collage, or rather smorgasbord, of gifs, Nameless and the artworks people came up with. Some were rather tongue-in-cheek but others were really inspired and creative.
Has anyone counted the (hoover) hoses used as props?
I especially liked “Judith with the head of Holofernes”, with hubby sticking his head through the carton. Lockdown must have made it feel very real.
Great pictures, my favorites were the Animals, with the Frida Kahlo self-portraits right behind.
psssss…..they’re ALL good!
Fantastic post, Nameless!
Thank you!!!
Thanks Nameless. Excellent!
Are you planning to submit criminal Fuhrer Trump’s* official Residential portrait with a sphincter?
Wonderful photos, Nameless.
Very creative. Love them.
Thanks Nameless