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Art

Flavorpill’s 10 Most Anticipated Art Exhibits of 2013

By Marina Galperina on

Are you ready for a year of new art exhibitions? Whether you’re itching to revisit old favorites or ready to embrace brave new frontiers, we’ve got a selection of exciting art shows that love to break the rules. From cutting-edge new media exhibits to shows celebrating an avant-garde departure from mainstream culture in a decade past, get ready to be inspired. Is the New Aesthetic the new Surrealism? Take a peek at 2013 and mark your calendars! … Read More

Art

Personal Letters From Great Artists to Their Friends and Family

By Emily Temple on

Here at Flavorpill, we’re great fans of artistic ephemera, endlessly fascinated by everything from the journals of creative geniuses to postcards from famous authors. After all, once you’re famous, there’s just no way to keep your private papers out of the hands of the curious masses — not that we’re complaining: sometimes, the best way to learn about someone is to see the way they correspond to those closest to them. To that end, we’ve collected a few beautiful letters from great artists to their friends and family, each one as visually evocative as you’d expect. Take a look after the jump, and if we’ve missed a stellar letter, send it our way in the comments! … Read More

Art

Extremely Silly Photos of Extremely Serious Artists

By Emily Temple on

You might think visual artists have it easy — hanging out with models and making pretty pictures — but after a long day of churning out portraits (at the Factory, perhaps) or patiently mixing colors, every serious artist needs to cut loose and let his silly side shine. After all, writers can’t have all the fun, can they? In fact, from what we can tell, artists come up with some of the strangest and funniest ways to play, and we’ve collected a few snaps of their most ridiculous escapades, both candid and posed, here. Click through to check out our gallery of very silly photos of very serious (or at least seriously acclaimed) visual artists, and when you’re through, you just might consider putting aside your work for the afternoon and going out to play. … Read More

Art

A Survey of Iconic Masks in Visual Art

By Marina Galperina on

Guy Fawkes, los Luchadores, Sleep No More — there are oh-so-many masks in today’s popular culture, and so many questions. What’s with this desire to plop on another’s image and transform into something different, new and strange? Why hide your identity behind an oval-shaped obstruction and gawk at the world from behind its eye-holes? What kind of wrestling tights does one wear with a sparkly aquamarine Lucha libre mask? Just kidding. Let’s swerve the conversation into the field of visual art and investigate. From masks’ roots in ancient ritual performance to their use in contemporary art and related ruckus, peek under a few here and see if they’re still relevant. … Read More

Pop Culture

15 Famous Art-Influenced Album Covers

By Marina Galperina on

Is it odd when an ’80s New Wave band recreates an 1860s pre-Impressionist painting? Nah. Here you will find album covers that pay homage/allude to/imitate/rip-off famous works of art and iconic photographs, from almost near replicas to stealthy appropriations of the work’s key elements to tributes to specific artists’ very definitive styles. From the White Stripes’ very De Stijl De Stijl to Joni Mitchell in Van Gogh drag to Rembrandt à la Rammstein, see fifteen of our picks here. We’re sure there are many, many more. Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments! … Read More

Pop Culture

10 Great Songs About Famous Visual Artists

By Marina Galperina on

Even reigning glam aliens have idols. Even top hip hop impresarios obsess over that one particular painting. There is no shortage of guitar strumming, rapping, and singing about art at large, but we’re keen on odes and tributes to specific heroes of art history. From David Bowie’s serenade to “Andy Warhol” to the Modern Lovers’ investigations into “Pablo Picasso” and why he “never got called an asshole,” here are a few notable tracks inspired by famous visual artists. Did we miss your favorite? Drop us a comment. … 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

Art

Famous Artworks and Photos “Fixed” with Photoshop

By Marina Galperina on

When a camera crew lagged behind the ordered lines at Kim Jong-Il’s funeral procession, the Korean Central News Agency had erased them. Perfect order was restored, harking back to the Stalinist era practice of doctoring official photographs. The international photojournalist community groaned and scoffed, but it got us wondering. We thought of a few famous artworks and photographs that could use a touch of “totalitarian esthetics.” So, we gave it to them. Some people will have you think that the so-called imperfections are integral to the historical validity and artistic vision. We took the liberty of ‘shopping them out. Photos altered! Artworks tweaked just so! Everything just shipshape! Enjoy. Oh, and we aren’t Photoshop experts, clearly, so feel free to mock our skills and lack of thereof to your heart’s content, or better yet, submit your own.

… Read More

Art

Cover Art: Surprising Recreations of Famous Paintings

By Romy Oltuski on

The most iconic paintings of eras past can’t escape traveling the world economy class, as cheap Monet posters taped up on dorm-room walls and off-brand Rothko reproductions hanging in the living rooms of the gullible. But who said knockoffs couldn’t be creative? Some of our favorite songs are covers and mashups — just like the reimaginations of famous paintings after the jump. The “cover” artists featured below used everything from coffee to balloons to celebrities — everything but paint, really — to pay homage to the classic artworks that inspired them. … Read More