Artist Completely Wraps Rooms with Famous Paintings

By Alice Yoo on March 5, 2014

Lichtenstein Moe's Tavern

While at first glance these rooms may look like something you'd find in one of today's swanky design hotels (like in the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas), you might be surprised to find out that they're actually the work of one digital artist. Jon Rafman, known for his Google Street View series, is behind an ongoing project called Brand New Paint Job where he takes modernist paintings, like those from Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marc Chagall, Jasper Johns, Yves Klein, and Willem De Kooning, and completely wraps rooms with them. Of course, these aren't any ordinary rooms, they're 3D models taken from Google 3D Warehouse, an online gallery that allows users of Google Sketchup, a free 3D modelling program, to upload to and share their works.

The Montreal, Canada-based artist implores us to think about what the definition of art means in this day and age. As he told Dazed, “The BNPJ interiors started off as a play on interior design chic. Historically, the greatest fear of the painter was that his work would become design objects. Now it's common for contemporary artists to take inspiration from commercial visual culture. The design of a Nike cross trainer or a Samsung monitor is as important to contemporary art practice as intense light and dark shadows are to baroque painting. I'm exploring the line between art and design, in which a great work of art can be reduced to a shrinkwrap or add-on surface and functional objects and spaces elevated to the purposelessness of artwork. I'm interested in those forced marriages.”

Photos of this project can be seen at The Armory Show in New York from March 6 to March 9. Rafman's Monet Master Bedroom is listed as one of the event's six must-see works. In an exclusive preview, you can check out all of the exciting art and photography being displayed at the show right now on the Artsy website.

Monet Master Bedroom