Fine Art in Quarantine?

Stay at home orders have caused people to cease from frequently pretty much all public spaces. Although maybe not something at the forefront of most people’s minds as being affected by lack of visitation, museums have lost their crowds of visitors. Even so, as I found on a PBS’s website through a PBS News Hour article, some people have begun connecting with famous works of art in a unique way.

Supposedly beginning with a Dutch instagram account, Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine, people have been participating in a sort of fine art challenge trend. As disseminated by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the challenge was simply to recreate a work of art yourself with items around you. Participants have chosen a wide range of works and many different ways of representing the subjects with the items in their homes or replacing the famous people in hanging in the museums with images of themselves.

Although this challenge is a way to entertain yourself by delving into a creative project, it has also served as an emotional outlet and a way for people to express themselves. One participant, Alana Archer, who recreated a portrait of Frida Kahlo, said that through their recreations people can “express emotions that you don’t necessarily recognize or that are a little bit overwhelming.”

All in all, this trend of recreation has been an interesting adaptation to the commonly experienced stay at home orders. Without the opportunity to physically visit museums and experience the famous works of art held there, and with people constantly looking for ways to spend their time or projects to work towards, this creative practice of recreating works of art with the items and people around us (or ourselves) has helped fill in the gaps in our time and our lives.