“I think people enjoy them so much because of the humor and the aesthetic appeal of the painting,” he told Bored Panda that it’s a powerful combination. Meanwhile, with so many talented content creators posting their classical art memes on social media, we were interested in what advice Varkey would give everyone to help their content stand out from the crowd. “And I use the same font so that my posts stand out,” he said. The creator also shared that there are a lot of artists that he respects. He revealed that some of his favorites include Carl Bloch, Vida Gábor, Peter Baumgartner, Carl Spitzweg, and others. Varkey, who is widely known on Instagram, blends insights from contemporary life with classical paintings on his account. At the time of writing, his project has 104k dedicated fans from all over the world. The very terms classical or classic art first started becoming widespread in the 17th century. In the West, during the Renaissance and later periods, classicism in art mainly focuses on classical myths and legends, as well as gods and heroes. From the mid-18th and 19th centuries, the aesthetic is referred to as Neoclassical. It’s easy to instinctively understand the appeal of the classical art meme genre. Classical paintings have incredible energy, fantastic details, and feature very expressive characters. On the one hand, they’re a perfect fit for the comments about modern life. No matter how much time passes and how much technology advances, human beings still deal with similar fundamental issues in their daily lives. On the other hand, there’s also a delightfully playful contrast between the epic scenes in the background of these paintings and the little mundane scenarios being played out on top of them. Humor is, essentially, found in the unexpected and the surprising. And classical art memes capture this essence very well by throwing a curveball every time. Classical art memes connect with internet users by linking up to their internal monologue and touching on their everyday struggles, both large and small. He shared that he’s a safety engineer with a passion for classical art, history, and geography. “I don’t have any background as a creator or artist but I have always loved classical art,” he said. According to Varkey, he got the inspiration to make humorous classical art edits at the beginning of 2020, as the major Covid-19 lockdowns started happening. “I came across the posters by the ministry of culture of Ukraine about the Covid precautions in which they had put masks and gloves on characters in some famous classical paintings. I fell in love with this idea instantly and I wanted to do something like that,” he told us earlier. “Whenever I see a painting, I try to imagine how the painting would look if it was painted in the 21st century. I also try to correlate it with pop culture,” Varkey told Bored Panda. “It is difficult to develop a unique and distinct style nowadays but I guess it doesn’t matter because there is an audience for all of us. I don’t think about it much because I do it mainly for my satisfaction, whenever I create something I feel content, and yes, whenever people appreciate what I do, it makes me want to keep doing it. If there is a market, I would like to sell my works as merchandise or prints in the future,” Varkey said. He added: “These works are detached from specifics of our modern world and modern situations in a way that lets people poke fun at the timeless aspects of the human condition.” From his perspective, the very best memes are educational, not just entertaining. “They make you view a piece of art in a new way, noticing something about who or what is portrayed in the work or about the artist themselves that you may have missed otherwise." She added that it’s important that the witty and relatable text that you add has no grammar errors, and that the artists are credited properly. When was the first time that you came into contact with classical art memes on the internet, dear Pandas? We’re always happy to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments. Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
