PAINTINGS: 10 Pop Culture Versions Of Famous Paintings

10 The Starry Night

The Starry Night is one of the most famous paintings by Vincent van Gogh. It shows a stylized version of the town of Saint-Remy as seen from the window of the mental hospital where van Gogh was living at the time, in 1889.According to Ron English, what he saw out of his window was a sea of advertisements, and with that he made his own version, entitled McStarry.

9 Virgin of the Lilies

The Virgin of the Lilies is a painting by William Bouguereau from 1899. It shows a peaceful Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus, who even as a child has assumed a pose of authority with his outstretched arms. The halos around their heads were typical of Catholic art from that time period.As another statement on pop culture gods, English’s version puts the well-known KISS face paint over the two subjects, effectively turning Mary into Gene Simmons and Jesus into Paul Stanley.

8 Abraham Lincoln

In 1863, a daguerreotype, a form of print made on a copper plate, was created of Abraham Lincoln. This single image is where most of our modern perception of Abraham Lincoln comes from.In 2008, Ron English created Abraham Obama, a surprisingly subtle amalgamation of the faces of both presidents. This has since become one of his most famous political images, unless of course you want to count

7 Guernica

After the village of Guernica was bombed in 1937, Pablo Picasso created this massive oil painting, entitled Guernica, in an attempt to capture the suffering of the villagers. It has since become one of his most popular pieces and is often held up as a symbol for anti-war efforts.Ron English’s version features grade-school children in the same horrific poses as the original, surrounded by carousel animals while a young boy in the center drops bombs from a toy airplane. It’s entitled Guernica Go-Round. He also created this one, which features Mickey Mouse dropping bombs from the plane.

6 The Luncheon On The Grass