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Leonardo Da Vinci

Art

Famous Works of Art Halloween Costumes

By Jennifer Lewis on

Halloween is right around the corner, party people! When it comes to costumes, are you one of those perfectionists who will settle for nothing short of a handmade masterpiece? If yes, this one’s for you. If you’re still searching for some Halloween “masterpiece” costume inspiration, why not just dress like an actual masterpiece? After the jump, you’ll find a smorgasbord of art costumes from the realms of surrealism, post-impressionism, symbolism, pop art, and more. Check ‘em out, and hit the comments to add your artsy and/or spooky tips for those who might actually try to execute these suckers. … Read More

Photography

Striking Photos That Cleverly Remix Classic Works of Art

By Paul Laster on

A photographer with a sharp eye and a keen wit, Awol Erizku twists art history around to fit his needs. Observing that there weren’t many museum masterpieces featuring people of color, the 24-year-old artist set about creating his own versions of the classics. In his bohemian studio, which is situated below a flower shop in downtown New York, Johannes Vermeer’s iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring was transformed into Girl with a Bamboo Earring, with the model being a young black girl he spotted on the subway. Likewise, Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with Ermine was humorously remade as Lady With a Pitbull and Caravaggio’s Young Sick Bacchus got slyly reinvented as Boy Holding Grapes.

“The models I choose to work with are not professional models but possess an undeniable, striking beauty,” declares the Ethiopia-born photographer, who grew up in the Bronx. A graduate of Cooper Union, Erizku has been working for the past few years as a commercial photographer, capturing the likes of Mos Def and the A$AP crew for magazine pages, while simultaneously pursuing his fine art work. After being featured in a group exhibition at NYC’s high-profile FLAG Art Foundation last fall, he landed his first solo show, which is currently on view at Hasted Kraeutler Gallery. Click through to view our favorite photos from the show and to watch a video interview with the artist, who’ll soon be off to Yale to further explore his dreams. … Read More

Art

10 Famous Artworks Inspired by Other Famous Artworks

By Judy Berman on

We tend to think of appropriation as a postmodern thing, with artists in all media drawing on, referring to, and mashing up the most influential works of the past. But we forget that this has been happening for centuries — millennia, actually — as Renaissance painters paid tribute to Greek art, ideas circulated within the 19th-century French art scene, and Dada hijacked the course of art history, mocking and inverting everything that came before it. After the jump, we round up some of the best, most famous, and all-around strangest artworks inspired by other artworks. Some are homages, some are parodies, some are responses, and a few seem to function as all three. … Read More

Pop Culture

A Peek Inside the Notebooks of Famous Authors, Artists and Visionaries

By Emily Temple on

It’s no secret that we at Flavorpill are fascinated by the marginalia of our favorite artists’ lives — we swoon over their doodles, dig through their sketchbooks, and posthumously ogle their beach photos. Recently, aided by one of our favorite Tumblr destinations for literary ephemera, Fuck Yeah, Manuscripts!, we’ve indulged in a little more snooping, and put together this collection of a few of the notebooks, journals and diaries of some of our favorite creative minds — authors, artists, actors, musicians, scientists — so as to better get to know their inner selves. Click through to page through the notebooks of a few famous creatives, and let us know which one looks the most like your own in the comments. … Read More

Web

What's On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds In Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we learned about a lost Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece. We demanded more hilarious French cat videos. We imagined what the History Channel’s first reality-based fiction series about vikings would be like. We enjoyed the best Google Maps satellite imagery around the world. We wondered if … Read More

Art

The Famous Artworks Matchmaking Game

By Marina Galperina on

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and some of us here at Flavorpill are feeling silly. Or, you know, nauseated and glum. Sigh. So, what are we going to do? We’re going to play the Famous Artworks Matchmaking Game! Yay! Remember when you were kid and you’d smack your Barbie and Gumby together and pretend they were a couple? It’s like that. We’re pairing up the classic, contemporary, and pop culture works of art — and their subjects — that we think should go on a date and have a nice time together. Feel free to rain on our silly love parade in the comments section. We realize that it could be quite cathartic this time of year. … Read More

Art

Delightful Barbie Tributes to Famous Works of Art

By Caroline Stanley on

For reasons that are obvious now that we’re no longer five years old, Barbie often gets a bad rap. But once upon a time, the little plastic doll with the impossible proportions was one of our most beloved toys. We’re assuming that it was the same for a French woman named Jocelyne Grivaud who is hoping to change the way that we see Barbie by incorporating her image into some of art history’s most famous works. Click through to see Barbie as everyone from Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring to Warhol’s Marilyn, and let us know in the comments which remixed work of art is your favorite. … Read More

Books

The 10 Most Expensive Books in the World

By Emily Temple on

It could be a record-breaking afternoon in the book world. Today, Christie’s New York will auction off a copy of John James Audubon’s Birds of America, which already holds the title of most valuable printed book in the world, having sold for about $11.5 million in 2010. In fact, according to The Economist, a true list of the ten most valuable single books ever sold would have to include five copies of The Birds of America. Though Christie’s is playing their cards close to the vest and estimating a $7 to $10 million sale, today could see a new record for the book. After all, the copy that sold for $11.5 million was estimated at less than the copy on auction today.

To help you brush up on your knowledge of the very old and very valuable, we’ve compiled a list of the ten most expensive books ever sold — no white gloves necessary. Click through for an overview, and then head upstairs to check your attics for any forgotten dusty tomes — you could be a millionaire and not even know it. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we enjoyed this thoughtful analysis of Miss Piggy’s style evolution by our dear friends the Fug Girls. We wished that we’d been at the recent Adventures of Pete and Pete reunion at Cinefamily in LA. We read Leonardo da Vinci’s to-do list from the late 1490s.… Read More

Art

Da Vinci’s Mysterious ‘Salvator Mundi’ on Display

By Alison Nastasi on

The recently rediscovered Leonardo da Vinci work, Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) will be on display for the National Gallery’s Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan exhibition starting tomorrow, through February. The painting was purchased at an estate sale in the U.S. several years ago and was authenticated by a consortium… Read More