Life

If Paintings Could Text, Here's What They'd Say

by Kat George

Giving old things a modern twist by adding "if old thing had [insert current technology here]" is the new black. The latest cab off the rank is the Tumblr, "If Paintings Could Text." The idea is re-imagining classic paintings personified, and with cellular data to burn. So if you've ever wondered exactly what all those paintings you studied at school would have to say if they could get there fingers tapping in iMessage, this is the Tumblr for you. From early classics like The Girl With The Pearl Earring, to more contemporary art, like Supine Woman, this Tumblr runs the gamut of iconic images, and gives them the low brow treatment with its textual treatments.

Turning the women of An Illicit Letter into gossipy basics, Mona Lisa into that confrontational friend and American Gothic's rural couple into Home Depot shoppers, no art is safe from "If Paintings Could Text". With some of art histories most recognizable characters reduced to drunks, cocaine addicts and giving them the potty mouths of sailors, you'll never think of a trip to the Louvre the same way again. Some of the texts are painfully familiar, some are hysterically funny. Browsing through the library of art and mock texts will leave you somewhere between giggling and cringing, because sometimes a tacky text is an all too close to home reality.

Images: ifpaintingscouldtext/Tumblr