From Botticelli to Basquiat, Art History Goes Emoji
Jean-Michel Basquiat (all images by and courtesy Cantor Fine Art)
Some might find the translation of
Vincent van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear” into a smiling
cartoon head spurting blood a little sacrilege, or just tacky, but it
was only a matter of time before the emoji-fication of art history took it there.
To continue in the vein of “The
Scream” emoji, which makes existential despair seem cute, Cantor Fine
Art Gallery has designed a series of emojis based on legendary artists
and artworks. Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yayoi
Kusama, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol are all represented by little
pictogram portraits. Other artists get more abstract tributes: Damien
Hirst is a glittery cartoon skull; Keith Haring is a dancing heart with
legs; Marcel DuChamp is R. Mutt’s toilet; Georgia O’Keefe is a cow skull
adorned with a calico rose.
The gallery took requests for art-inspired emojis via its
Instagram account,
where it posted the series. Unfortunately for millennial art history
nerds, they’re not functional emojis and there’s still no pictorial
shorthand for texting “Oh, Jeff, I love you too, but…” or “Girl With a
Pearl Earring,” so words are not yet obsolete.
Vincent van Gogh, “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear”
Rene Magritte, “The Son of Man” (1964)
Damien Hirst, “For the Love of God” (2007)
Frida Kahlo
Johannes Vermeer, “Girl With a Pearl Earring” (1665)
Roy Lichtenstein, “Oh, Jeff…I Love You, Too…But…” (1964)
Banksy, “Balloon”
Botticelli, “The Birth of Venus” (1484-1486)
Keith Haring, “Three Eyes” (c 1981)
Keith Haring, “Heart”
Andy Warhol, “Self-Portrait in Fright Wig” (1986)
Emoji inspired by Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” (1511)
Salvador Dali
