DIGITAL MASTERPIECE. (2020)
idea and graphics by Stas Chekirov
source photos by Innermost limits (Pexels), Darwin Laganzon (Pixabay)
“Masterpiece” is the pop art style painting made in oil on canvas by American artist Roy Lichtenstein in 1962. In 2017, it was sold for $165 000 000 and was ranked in the top 15 most expensive paintings ever sold at art auctions or privately. It shows the guy and the girl looking at a picture which content is not visible to a viewer, and the girl says: “darling, this is a masterpiece”. My artwork is digital, and by telling a viewer that it is a “masterpiece” - directly, without intermediaries - I create a homage that is conceptually reinterpreted and call the painting a “Digital masterpiece”. However, references only in the title, of course, are not enough – after all, the girl in the original makes a statement right in the painting.
Parallelly, now more about information transferring to a viewer. Post modernism, in fact, is skepticism and irony. Post irony mocks both irony and the object of irony. Meta - generally about the triple secret bottom in the boxes of post modernism and post irony. So, digital content producers who offer to purchase their products on various platforms usually display the product partially, objectively teasing potential consumers with it and offering a kind of blurred outline of the product, sometimes figuratively: movie or game trailers, sometimes literally: paid content on platforms that becomes available only after subscribing is really blurred – only the lock icon, name and price are clearly visible. I offer a viewer the digital painting. For view. For free. However, the content is hidden – you need to pay. However, what a viewer sees is the final product. Or not. The issue is the payment. Post. Meta.
Indeed, blue is the most pleasant and favorite color for most people. Without blurring, the painting shows what you can see if you look at the painting without blurring. Or from afar. Or from close. Or by turning. Or by paying. Post. Meta.
Eventually, via such conversations, one post meta ironic modernist brought three viewers to the boiling point – and this trio of irritated people drag this human to somewhere by the hands and feet. It is better to look for their silhouettes by looking at the upper half of the picture from a relatively long distance.
Clearly, in general, of course, this trio commits violence, and violence is bad. Therefore, although this is a movement, the development of the situation - from left to right, nevertheless, it is a movement down, diagonally. Our foursome moves exactly from left to right and from top to bottom.
Euros? Dollars? Rubles? No, KWD is the Kuwaiti dinar, and it is the most expensive currency at the moment. 4 000 000 Kuwaiti dinars at the current exchange rate is about 1 billion rubles. After all, art masterpieces can cost large and beautiful amounts in the currencies of the countries in which they are created. But why exactly 1 billion rubles? At the 2017 exchange rate, $165 000 000 is approximately 10 billion rubles. 10 – 9 = 1. What's 9? In what month was the painting created? September.
The first letters of the first six above-mentioned points form the word “Masterpiece”.
Horizontal figure eight – the symbol of infinity. Post. Meta. Violence is bad, but for some reason, the people on either side of the foursome are applauding. Their silhouettes are also better to look for, looking at the picture from a relatively long distance. But why are they applauding rather than helping the post meta ironic modernist? Perhaps it is because this human tired them out too much. Just like