Nowadays, it is easier to find and live with works of art, especially since it is no longer strictly necessary to go to museums to appreciate them since several of these institutions created virtual tours of their rooms and corridors due to the pandemic by the Coronavirus.

Another of the virtual methods to be able to experience this approach is the social networks and in these, this interaction happens in different ways, from publications made by different art venues through their accounts, private profiles that share albums with works of art or well, the works intervened digitally, creating memes.

In this article we are not going to investigate the issue of whether memes are art or not. We will talk about works of art that were turned into templates for memes, changing their discourse, creating new images and experiences from them. We will also present the original works, since we do not usually find technical sheets in memes.

It is possible that certain conceptions that sacralize art may be against this practice, since they consider that art belongs exclusively to elevated spheres of thought and culture, however, this would limit the development of art in one of the characteristics that is part of its essence and has led it to remain in force since the beginning of humanity to the present day, this is the quality of being a reflection of its time.

An example that this adaptation is not a transgression is the fact that the museums themselves have sought to get closer to the public by intervening works from their collections, implementing texts with a certain humorous discourse with which practically anyone could identify, and even the creation of tiktoks; An example in Mexico is the Museo Dolores Olmedo (CDMX), which has published memes of his works on social networks, and the Uffizi Gallery in Italy, which has made videos on the TikTok platform, among which we want to recommend one about Sandro Botticelli If you like to see it, click here.

Although institutions make memes with their works, it is not always easy to find the file of the works with author and title, therefore, we have selected some memes that circulated on social networks and we will present both the original works and the artists who created them. they performed.

“Live your life as if it were a work of art”

This work is one of the not well known works by an artist who is well known. Normally we would expect to see ballet dancers to know who it is, but since that is not the case, it may have been a little more difficult to identify that we are seeing a work by Edgar Degas (1834-1917). In the work entitled "The Absinthe" (1876) and made by the famous Parisian artist, the characters are in the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes, which was frequented by the artist in his adulthood after leaving aside the Café Guerbois , where years ago during his youth, the meetings and talks of the impressionist group took place.

Entitled “The Favorite” (2010), the original work in this meme is by American artist, Omar Rayyan. Inspired by the aesthetics and environment that surrounds him on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Rayyan developed his style that brings back some traditions of early Northern Renaissance painters, merging them with the elegance of 19th century artists and creating a fantasy world that maintains a balance between the beautiful and the monstrous. The theme of maidens and young women accompanied by monsters or demons is not the only one that it represents, but it is recurrent, as well as titles that give no clue about the presence of these unusual companions in a typical genre scene, or a simple portrait .

"The favorite" (2010) despite being incredible, is just one of many fantastic works by Rayyan, if you like to see more of this artist, we leave you a link to visit his page, here.

"Why are you like this?"

Walter McEwen, the artist who made this work entitled “A Woman of the Empire” (1902) was an American who had international fame during his lifetime, he even had a studio in the Netherlands and there he was inspired by the group of realist painters known as the Escuela de Hague, who, in turn, were influenced by the French realists of the Barbizon School – a group in which Millet participated – however, their main role model was the baroque Johannes Vermeer. McEwen also had a successful career in Paris, where he exhibited at the salon for many years until he was forced to leave Europe by the outbreak of World War II and returned to the United States. His works are generally genre themes, portraits, and pastoral or rural scenes with enchanting realism and great technical skill.

"When you get out of hand..."

Something that characterizes memes and has made them so viral is not only the fact that many of us can feel identified with their content, but also that they have images that perfectly represent the message they seek to convey. This work is by Iliá Repin, a Russian painter within the realist movement, famous for the great detail in his work and the great ability he had to charge them with enormous psychological depth, he has always represented reality in a punctual way.

 The work is titled "Iván El Terrible and his son" (1885) and as it says in the meme: it got out of hand. According to Polish writers, the event took place during a fit of rage that the Moscow Tsar had, but all this anger was directed towards his daughter-in-law, the wife of his eldest son Ivan Ivanovich. His intention in the first instance was to hit her with a cane, this for wearing "inappropriate" clothes during her pregnancy, the same reason that led the young Iván to intervene to defend her, receiving a blow to the temple that would end his life. What we can see is the fear, regret and guilt that the Tsar feels during a lucid moment in which he realizes what he had done, while his son vanishes in his arms.

As we have seen, the intervention of works of art to create memes is not exactly a transgression, but it provides the work with new meanings and messages that put at its disposal a new way of reaching more people with a more pleasant approach and less select or pretentious than the conception that is usually had of art in general.