Let’s face it, sometimes museums can feel a little pricey or intimidating. And art memes are like a shortcut that make old paintings not only fun, but also accessible.
They turn highbrow art — previously reserved for the elite — into something everyone can enjoy, no velvet ropes or guided tours required.
Even the ‘Scream’ by Edvard Munch has been memed in hundreds of different ways — the ultimate “when your Wi-Fi goes out” face or when you open the fridge and realize someone ate your leftovers.
“It’s something that’s been happening since the beginning of internet culture — as early as 2002, people started making image macros with the digitized version of the 11th century Bayeaux Tapestry,” meme librarian Amanda Brennan tells Bored Panda.
The best part about these art memes is that even if you don’t know the history and background of the art or the artist, you can still understand them through the juxtaposition of modern jokey captions on them.
While some memes edit or remix the paintings, others leave them as is and you can clearly see that those painters were pretty much masters of human emotion.
They captured expressions with such precision, that we are able to use them today to describe our modern-day emotions and problems.
“The feelings that are captured in this era of historical paintings are ones we identify with in modern times, but our modern reasons for feeling the feelings are often very different,” says Brennan.
“The humor that sits with this dissonance between the historical look and modern feeling is such a common topic in meme culture that resonates with a really wide audience,” she adds.
Brennan says her friend once photoshopped John Everett Millais’ Ophelia into a bowl of soup. “The idea ‘wow I wish I could drown in a bowl of soup’ is an absurdist modern thought, but resonates with the feelings evoked by the original painting. It gives new context that gets layered on.”
She says his original image is a meme of its own, with people reposting it as “Phophelia.”
"Then there’s another angle — the way that people will say modern images of groups of people are ‘a renaissance painting.’ This feeds back into the same concept, humanity has always done the same things, they just exist in a modern form now.”
Despite the fact that these memes make a joke of the classical paintings, they can also make some curious art enthusiasts dig a little deeper.
Because they get shared everywhere, they have the power to catch the eye of both seasoned art lovers and people who might never normally step into a museum.
You might even end up Googling the artist and learning the painting’s backstory just because a funny caption caught your eye. Basically, these memes can teach us art history without it feeling like homework.
“If anything, memes can draw more attention to art history as it puts the classic paintings where people are: on social media, looking at them next to content from their friends and family,” says Brennan.
“Seeing art through a memetic lens might start as something silly someone shares, but it can also grow into a new interest or open a door to something that the person hadn’t known or seen before. It’s a beautiful way to get people thinking about history differently,” Brennan says.
While some may argue that it devalues art, studies on online reception of these memes show that they mostly spark interest and encourage learning.
It’s not just meme pages, but even museums and experts of art encourage people to share and make memes out of old masterpieces.
Museums like the National Gallery in London have run workshops where visitors make memes out of their exhibits, while The Philadelphia Museum of Art even posts their own memes online.
Brenna notes that there will always be people that use memes in cruel ways that is disrespectful, whether they are doing it with art or not.
“It is important to, when creating these memes, be mindful of the context of the meme’s history. Especially for museums and educators that are using this as education. What was this original art created to say? If the context of the art is tender, maybe there’s a different painting you can turn into a meme.”
“I also love when museums are playful on social, like the Manchester Museum's recent collab posts with a 'My Chemical Romance' cover band. Art and history doesn’t have to be serious all the time. Social media should feel playful and exploratory,” she adds.
“These paintings already contain drama, ego, awkward silences, bad decisions, longing, and the classic side eye. Memes just give subtitles to emotions people have been feeling for centuries,” digital artist Varkey tells Bored Panda.
His Instagram page, that mixes timeless art with modern pop culture, has over 99K followers.
“Humor is a great way to capture people’s attention. Someone who’d never open an art history book suddenly recognizes a Caravaggio or a Raphael because it made them laugh once.”
