In the Internet meme factory, minimalism is an absolute gold mine. Designers have taken to creating minimalist poster versions of just about everything imaginable, reducing philosophies into abstract shapes, movies into collections of icons, and children’s stories into spare narrative images. Now, it’s art history’s turn to get simplified.
Re:design studio’s Eurydyka Kata and Rafal Szczawinski have created a series called “Iconic Painters to Guess” that translates famous artists into series of three objects, depicted in clean silhouettes on top of monochrome backgrounds. Andy Warhol, for example, gets a banana (think Velvet Underground), a Campbell’s Soup Can (duh), and Marilyn Monroe’s face (his most famous screenprint subject) arrayed on bright pink.
Other puzzles are tougher. Neoclassical French painter Jacques-Louis David has a Napoleon-style tricorner hat, three downward-pointing swords, and a lounge chair. It’s a fun guessing game for any art history aficionado. We suggest the designers include some real minimalist artists though. Call it meta-minimalization.
Click on the slide show for the minimalist representations of artists, and see below for the answer key.
Answer Key:
1. Andy Warhol, 2. Johan Vermeer, 3. Vincent van Gogh, 4. Jacques-Louis David, 5. Frida Kahlo, 6. Renee Magritte, 7. Mark Rothko, 8. Salvador Dali, 9. Georgia O’Keeffe, 10. Roy Lichtenstein.