Museum Asks Public to Reinvent a Classic Painting, With Incredible Results

Lady With a Pearl Earring? Extra like Man With an Apple AirPod. 

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague put out a name for re-creations of Johannes Vermeer’s iconic seventeenth century portray — with weird and pleasant outcomes. 

Scroll by way of posts tagged #mygirlwithapearl on Instagram and you will find greater than 4,700 interpretations of the well-known oil portray of a younger lady in a head wrap, a big earring dangling from her left ear. The homages vary from lovely to whimsical to surreal, from classical to summary to steampunk. You may see the Lady in pictures, digital drawings and oil work, and re-created in sculptures created from embroidery thread, toys, college provides and multicolored beads and buttons. 

She seems as a child, an older bearded man, a duck, a canine, a bunny and a blue Na’vi from Avatar.  In multiple picture, she’s decidedly twenty first century, sporting a face masks or earbuds or holding a cellphone. One artist overlayed Vermeer’s portray on a Tinder display screen, calling the creation “Swipe Proper.”

Had been a few of the digital variations created with an AI artwork creation instrument like Dall-E or Midjourney? You possibly can wager on it. 

The Mauritshuis normally homes the well-known portray, however for eight weeks beginning in February, the work might be out on mortgage for a Vermeer exhibit at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. Somewhat than depart the Lady’s wall empty, the Mauritshuis plans to rotate a few of the crowdsourced interpretations by way of a digital show.   

“The room the place the Lady hangs will quickly turn out to be a spot of inspiration with as many Ladies collectively as potential, from house and overseas,” the museum says. 

Because the submissions attest, the museum did not place any restrictions on creativity right here. “A self-portrait with a shower towel as a turban, a painted iron or perhaps a pile of crockery,” it says. “Little is simply too loopy for us.” Registration for the competition closed on Jan. 15. 

Vermeer, one of the vital famend Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, is thought for his intimate home scenes and gorgeous use of sunshine.

His iconic Lady With a Pearl Earring has made a quantity literary and cinematic appearances, together with in a 1999 historic novel of the identical identify that instructed a fictional story of the portray’s creation. That e-book led to a 2003 movie adaptation starring Scarlett Johansson as a younger servant within the house of Vermeer, performed by Colin Firth. 

If you wish to discover the unique portray in additional element to higher respect the reimaginings, an augmented-reality function known as Pocket Gallery in Google’s free Google Arts & Tradition app presents a digital exhibition house the place you’ll be able to see and find out about all 36 of Vermeer’s work. None of them function robots.