Reproduction of the painting
– Screenshot of the Izoisoliatsia Facebook group
Shrimp forming Dance of Matisse or chicken wings becoming The three Graces François Boucher… To deceive boredom, Internet users
Russian,
confined because of
coronavirus, reproduce with the means at hand the masterpieces.
“The proliferation of our project is even more exponential than that of the virus”, laughs Ekaterina Broudnaia-Tcheliadinova, 38 years old, founder from the group “Izoisoliatsia” (artistic confinement) on Facebook which had 350,000 subscribers in Russia on Friday.
Chagall, Van Gogh, Matisse
Initially, says this employee of the group Mail.ru, she sought to distract friends by publishing at the end of March a photo of her husband disguised in the manner of a famous self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh. “It was easy to do with an old straw hat found in a closet and a quick reddish dye from his beard,” she says. In response, she received an elaborate re-enactment of Lovers in the sky by Marc Chagall. A couple “flew over” perched on a stool, a city built in Lego.
“And it was gone! She laughs. Since then, Ekaterina has discovered the existence of other similar groups reproducing classical works at home, in Russia and elsewhere. “We are happy to exchange our masterpieces,” she said. Among them Dance by Henri Matisse, recomposed by Natalie Chevtchenko with prawns and five nuts placed on a plastic bag and a green terry towel. The work has been wildly successful, with 40,000 “Likes” since its publication on Tuesday.
Photo retouching prohibited
The rules are strict: photo editing software is prohibited and you only use what you find at home. Afterwards, there is free rein to the imagination with funny, frightening, astounding and even naughty results, playing on Facebook’s nudity taboos. The Monakhov couple recreated three paintings in their apartment in Saint Petersburg. Their masterpiece: Prodigal Son by Rembrandt. On their copy, Rouben as a happy father hugs his wife Ioulia, kneeling with her back to the viewer, with her bare, dirty left heel sticking out under her white terry robe.
“The situation with confinement is not easy, but we always hope for the best, that’s why we chose this subject,” said Rouben Monakhov, 48, himself a professional painter. The demography of the tables is very varied, with even a lot of people aged 60 and over. Like this 88-year-old great-grandmother who poses for The unknown, work of the Russian painter of the 19th century Ivan Kramskoï, whose reproductions were omnipresent in the Soviet apartments.
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