Icons of the Art World
Works of art that became iconic: The Mona Lisa is one of them, van Gogh's Sunflowers, Munch's Scream, and the Nike of Samothrace. And precisely because they are iconic, they are beloved objects of artistic debate. The range is extensive. It ranges from a discreet allusion to an open parody.
The treatment of such an icon can rely on the fact that the viewer knows the original precisely and, therefore, immediately understands the intended artistic deviation from it.
In the process, it can turn into an icon itself, as is the case with Andy Warhol's serial lithographs of the Mona Lisa. Most importantly, however, such an adaptation forcefully places the original in the present - in Warhol's case, in the modern age of industrially influenced mass culture. It is similar to the treatment of Nike, it appears in a new guise with a brightly coloured coating of car paint, entirely in the spirit of Pop Art. The new look at the iconic original that such work makes possible is, of course, at the same time, a deep bow to the artistic original. This brings us to what actually makes a work of art an icon. Because it is not only the mastery of its execution or the degree of fame it has achieved. It is also the resilience with which it survives times and artistic epochs.
€590.00
