Judith Slaying Holofernes (after Artemisia Gentileschi)
Archangel Michael Defeating Satan (after Guido Reni)
David with the Head of Goliath (after Caravaggio)
The Sacrifice of Isaac (after Rembrandt van Rijn)
Christ Crowned with Thorns (after Gerard van Honthorst)
I took five biblical paintings and reproduced them entirely in Adobe Illustrator. It initially began as simply defacing religious baroque paintings with cartoons in order to make them more relatable to modern viewers. Though throughout the paintings it has become clear that there is also a battle waging between “high culture” realism and “low culture” cartoons.
Realism appears to be the ruling class, but contact with a cartoon ignites the transformation from full rendering to black outlines and flat colors. In the beginning, the cartoon character plays a small role or is regarded as the enemy. But by the end the world is completely inhabited by them. Even the embodiments of good and evil now look like they walked out of a children’s show.
The cartoon styles used all emphasize certain features, making them look crude and deformed but also more attention grabbing. Even when they are depicted as the heroes, they appear more as invaders sought on total control and that assimilation and acceptance are the only options for the original inhabitants- realism. I selected paintings that depicted stories of violence, which all the more invokes the war between styles. By also using religious works, a narrative of bearing witness to the creation of a new world is illustrated.