ArtCorner

Few paintings make the transition from museum circle legend to pop culture icon. We have our favorites, be it by Degas, da Vinci, or Duchamp.

Mona Lisa and The Scream

The above listed paintings are two examples of famous paintings that have achieved pop culture icon status. What else do these paintings have in common? The latter, The Scream, is a “study of my soul,” according to Munch, a universal expression of human anxiety according to others. Mona Lisa is supposed by some scholars to truly be da Vinci himself. But aside from being supposed or literal interpretations of the artist, these two artistic icons have something else in common – music.

Mona Lisa Inspires Nat King Cole

Not yet another rigid profile painting of nobility by a notable painter, Mona Lisa is a girl who captured the world by her secretive smile. As a painting, we can impress upon her any of our experiences and imagine who Lisa del Giocondo was, what her life might have been like. We can suppose what his life might have been like, for those who favor the theory that da Vinci disguised himself in her. For those who do favor the theory, it may interesting to note Marcel Duchamp, among others, created L.H.O.O.Q. as an artistic parody of the original, including a mustache, goatee, and flattering inscription of “Elle a chuad au cui,” translated as “She has a hot ass.”

“Are you warm, are you real, Mona Lisa? Or just a cold and lonely lovely work of art?” Nat King Cole asks this of the painting in a song that topped Billboard’s charts for eight weeks as the number one song in 1950. “Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep. They just lie there and they die there.” Mona Lisa is the woman the viewer can’t have, by her expression as much as she is a painting which inspired a chart topping song.

The Scream and Screamo?

Before creating his 1893 masterpiece, Edvard Munch was taking a stroll down 76th Drive in Forest Hills (Queens, New York) only to be struck down by a most invasive muse. Munch said that the painting was a study of his own soul, describing the moment of inspiration thusly,

“I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature.”

At this particular point in his artistic career Munch was struggling with a major bout of madness, and in the coming years underwent therapy which brought upon a new era in Munch’s art.

According to Bob Olson, a professor of contemporary music at Texas State University, it was a revolutionary moment in music heard from a nearby apartment that gave Munch more than an anxiety attack. “It’s just another example of great art begetting great art,” said Olson in a CNN.com article, “A genius in one medium inspiring a genius in another.”

Whatever Munch heard that day is not yet clear. Given the era, it certainly was not Screamo, but the sound incurred a similarly unique expression in Munch. Art begets art. Great art begets great art, and art changes lives.

We each have our favorite paintings, be it a part of a museum collection, a favorite of popular culture, or a local creation. It will be exciting to see what new revolutions in music inspire art and what artists we know today, be they locally or nationally recognized, who will create the next great art icon. Who knows what Jimi Hendrix or Lady Gaga may have secretly inspired?

Until we find out, explore Mona Lisa, The Scream, and other iconic favorites at overstockart.com.

I ran across these recreations of Gustav Klimt‘s work on the Behance network and simply had to share them with you.

This collection of beautiful and artistic photos is called “La Esencia de Klimt” which translates to “Klimt’s Essence”.

As a long time admirer of the Austrian Art Nouveau painter, these fashionable, real-life recreations of his works captured my immediate attention. A group of talented folks have combined their photography, digital art, illustration, make-up, hair and styling (all found through Kattaca) to recreate some of Gustav’s most famous paintings.

I’ve added Klimt’s original paintings for contrast:

The fashion community, Polyvore, which is a site that lets you mix and match products from any online store to create outfits or any kind of collage, created a great collage that focuses around the Amadeo Modigliani painting – Woman with a Hat:

I love the way this collage was mixed and matched with fashion items and all to emphasize the color scheme that the oil painting can go oh so well with…

In 1937 During the Spanish Civil War; the Fascists devastated the peaceful town of Guernica with aerial bombings executed by the Natzi Luftwaffe.

Picasso’s painting the Guernica, was his reaction to the tragedy.

The following is an amazingly detailed 3D representation of the painting, an amazing work by Lena Gieseke:

I had the pleasure of visiting the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid this summer, the home of the Guernica. It was one of the most amazing and heartfelt encounters I have ever had with a piece of art. The massive scale and the vivid terror the painting entrenches over you are hard to describe.

The sculpture you are looking drew ridicule and shame when the artist first exhibited it in 1913… nearly a century later, symphony number one is considered a pivotal example of abstract sculpture…

Your immediate reaction might be to dismiss this work, just as your boss would dismiss you after what anyone would agree was an honest mistake.

But if you allow yourself to really look at this piece you will see that it awakens all senses simultaneously…

The artist who was so experimental and ahead of his time, had a lingering hope that someone, someday would feel what he felt, and see what he saw.

This video is true of all great artists, who attempt to sculpt not just with clay or paint on canvas, but more than anything, help us shape the minds and thoughts of the future…

As I march through the many museums and cultural centers around the world, I encounter numerous works of art. These works carved a certain nitch in art history and could only be found on museum walls.

These exquisite oil paintings might be very expensive; they might be prestigious and even meaningful to many. The art pieces have historic significance, and they may actually be really beautiful. However, what I find interesting is how certain oil paintings just never seem to go out of style. Not only are they priceless and have a deep and profound meaning, but somehow they take us on a journey and become a part of all of our lives.

I wanted to reflect on some of the timeless pieces that seem to have lasted the test of time and are as pertinent as they were when they were first conceived. Not to mention how popular they are today compared to more than a 100 years ago.

The first oil painting is Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry night. Considered by many the most popular painting in the world, it has influenced the western world for the past 130 years. This painting has become ubiquitous in our surroundings. You can find it anywhere from calendars, coasters and iPhone screensavers. It’s pretty amazing how this oil painting, by an artist who sold one single work of art in his lifetime, is so popular these days. A service conducted found Van Gogh’s Starry Night as the most popular print among college students?! So, how does Van Gogh still appeal to the most trend setting and approached market in the United States? That is the question that keeps me up at night…

Another oil painting that has become an icon that has been apart of the modern world for over 120 years is The Scream by Edvard Much. This gray, expressionist Norwegian painter created this masterpiece in the late 1800’s, and yet his Scream still echoes as it symbolizes the most horrific emotions captured on canvas ever. You can find The Scream on T-Shirts, Google logos and even in a Halloween Simpson Special!!! It amazes me that after so many years of classic horror films and the evolution of the human thought this is our best attempt to capture an emotion that is so vivid and memorable?! With that said, I get terrified every time I stare at it.

These are just two examples of many paintings that have withstood the test of time. So, what’s the recipe for success? How can you foresee the next Van Gogh Starry Night? How can we look at works by an artist and proclaim him as the next Claude Monet? These questions probably don’t have a single right answer, we can only hope that art will keep advancing and that new contemporary will join the ranks of the greats that have escaped the trenches of the canvas and made their way to our lives and have become apart of our culture, emotions and thought.