CALLING ALL PANDEMIC PAINTERS
Love, beauty, pain and death are powerful themes in art. Poetry, song lyrics, paintings, sculpture, books, theatre, film, street art, etc, all capture the art of emotion through the eyes of the creator.
Some of the worst times, of struggle and hardship, dial it up a bit and often produce the greatest works of art. Personal tragedies, illness, loss, wars, and yes, global pandemics. Artists and creators have been inspired, moved and driven to express their feelings and ultimately help us all to try and make some sense of what we are experiencing.
Sumanley Xulx , Untitled, 2020
From the Middle Ages to modern day, and long before and long after, plagues and pandemics have bore witness to those bearing witness. Historical works came out of tragic times like The Black Death and The Spanish Flu through to modern day works depicting AIDS, Ebola and now COVID!
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Triumph of Death, c 1562, Museo Del Prado, Madrid
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a Flemish Renaissance master and Medieval White Walker Whisperer, channeled his zombie apocalypse fears in his 16th century painting, Triumph of Death, a very Game of Thrones depiction of The Black Death, complete with an army of pissed off skeletons.
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait After Spanish Influenza, 1919, Oslo, at the National Gallery
Edvard Munch caught the Spanish Flu and painted a series chronicling his illness. Munch survived unlike other famous artists including Gustav Klimt who died in 1918 after contracting the Spanish Flu while hospitalised for a severe stroke that left him partially paralysed.
Banksy, Game Changer, 2020
Painters all over the world have been busy creating everything from murals to street art, to self portraits and beyond. Beautiful, bizarre, devastating and angry.
Has Covid informed your work? Or the work of someone you know? Share with us in the comments below!