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People Recreate Works of Art With Objects Found at Home During Self-Quarantine

My fiancée says I'm handsome…like a Japanese woodblock print. Here's to the Getty Museum Challenge from r/pics

Like many cultural institutions, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is closed due to the spread of the coronavirus. But during this challenging time, the Getty has found a way to keep people engaged with their art—even though they can't see it in person. They've challenged their social media followers to “recreate a work of art with objects (and people)” from the comfort of their own homes. And the internet did not disappoint.

After the museum shared some examples of this art challenge with its own staff, Twitter users began replying to the Getty with their artistic recreations. Some used their pets as stand-ins for the human subjects in art history, and everyone had to get creative about how they saw everyday items. One person used a dustpan to represent a blue house found in a Chagall painting, while another used half a dozen rolls of toilet paper to mimic the poofy shape of a powdered wig in an 18th-century Parisian painting. These types of recreations will make you laugh, and then they'll have you looking around your own home to see what you could conjure up for a masterpiece from history.

The Getty isn’t the only account that's promoting this type of creative challenge, but it has become so popular that it's now known as the “Getty Museum Challenge.” The institution, however, got the idea from Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine, a Dutch Instagram whose name means “between art and quarantine.” They have been sharing homemade recreations for months now, as has Covid Classics—a popular Instagram featuring “four roommates who love art… and are indefinitely quarantined.” The Getty Challenge has even found its way into wildly popular Facebook groups in Russia and Spain where people are continuing to share themselves as famous paintings.

Scroll down to see what people have come up with while in their homes.

A unique art history project, known as the “Getty Museum Challenge” has people recreating iconic paintings with anything they can find at home while self-isolating.

My son enters the Getty Museum Challenge with his take on a popular one from r/pics

Our take on the Getty Museum Challenge – “Judith with the Head of Holofernes” by Lucas Cranach from r/pics

My attempt at the Getty Museum Challenge – “Christina's World” by Andrew Wyeth from r/pics

My husband & son recreated Ilya Repin’s “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” Getty Museum Challenge from r/pics

The Way They Nailed Getty Museum Challenge from r/nextfuckinglevel

Getty Museum Challenge – Picasso Edition 🙂 from r/pics

My contribution to the Getty Museum challenge.. also I'm a female and this is makeup from r/pics

Mona Lisa from r/pics

“The Milkmaid” Johannes Vermeer. Right: A recreation submitted by Alex Woollard (@Woollards) from r/GettyMuseumChallenge

My friend and I recreated this abstract peice with items in our kitchen/living room from r/GettyMuseumChallenge

I recreated “Woman In A Fish Hat” by Picasso for Getty Museum's Recreation Contest from r/pics

My sister in-law's Getty Museum challenge. Innocence by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. from r/pics

Frida Quarantine from r/GettyMuseumChallenge

Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Magdalene as Melancholy from r/GettyMuseumChallenge

Love this challenge. I live by myself so I had to set set a 10s timer and run into position. from r/pics

My take on Rosie the Riveter from r/GettyMuseumChallenge

You'll be surprised at how faithful these recreations are—especially as people work with limited (and often precious) resources.

Lady 1-Ply, Keeper of Non-Perishables and Protector of the Soap. from r/funny

My wife’s Getty Museum Challenge from r/pics

My Dad's Getty Museum Challenge; Saturn devouring his son by Goya from r/pics

Getty Challenge – Frida Kahlo from r/GettyMuseumChallenge

 

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The Getty Museum, while not the first to think of this project, helped it grow in popularity by posing the creative challenge to their followers.

Anyone can do the art history challenge; these four roommates have been keeping themselves busy by recreating artworks and sharing them as Covid Classics.

 

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This article has been edited and updated.

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Celebrities, Artists, and Museums Are All Doing the #DollyPartonChallenge

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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