WorkArt & Culture

The Spectacle: Photo-realistic paintings of people taking selfies at art museums

It's a sign of our times when artists start to create work that features people visiting art museums, taking selfies of themselves in front of various paintings, i.e. paintings of people taking photographs in front of paintings, so to speak. This is exactly what Croatian artist Stjepan Šandrk has depicted through his latest series, The Spectacle, where he crafted realistic imitations of a photograph of people visiting museums and interacting with art.

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Group of visitors in winter clothing posing and taking selfies in front of a large painting displayed on a blue-lit gallery wall

A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, he began the series two years ago: "The scenes in question are not documentary, but rather a staged reality created through digital manipulation, and then transferred into the medium of painting. These artworks are at the same time the falsification of reality, as well as its product."

When you consider each painting, you wonder if Šandrk is mocking his subjects; disgusted, perhaps, by the rise of smartphones in galleries and exhibition spaces, when before people would simply enjoy an artwork without the need to document it. Or, quite simply, he is documenting modern culture – highlighting what has changed, in contrast to some of the classic paintings featured in the background. Discover more of The Spectacle at ssandrk.tumblr.com.

Three visitors point at and admire a vibrant abstract mural featuring pink skies, red mountains and colourful geometric shapes in Stjepan Šandrk's The Spectacle series
Two young women and a person in a Spider-Man costume pose together in a museum gallery, holding drinks and taking selfies in front of abstract paintings
A group of visitors take a selfie in front of classical paintings in an art museum, with one person holding up a phone to capture the moment
A person in a navy jacket and white collar views a classical nude painting in an ornate gold frame on a deep burgundy wall, from Stjepan Šandrk's The Spectacle series
Person wearing a blue hood and white Guy Fawkes mask taking a selfie in front of a classical painting in a museum
A visitor in a grey knit hat and black jacket photographs a colourful portrait painting on a gallery wall with her smartphone
Person in red jacket and mirrored ski goggles taking a selfie in front of classical paintings in a museum gallery
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