Posted on 01/07/2007 4:44:09 AM PST by grjr21
A North Carolina artist intrigued by the public obsession with celebrity has found herself feeding that obsession with a painting of actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary hovering over a Wal-Mart check-out line.
Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous work has garnered the attention given "Blessed Art Thou," showing this weekend at Art Miami, an annual exposition of modern and contemporary art.
The painting has gotten much attention from celebrity web sites and blogs. Since the buzz started, the number of daily unique visitors to Kretz's own blog has jumped from an average of 30 to 15,000 on Wednesday.
"My intention was to ask a question and get people to think," Kretz said in a telephone interview Friday from Miami. "I had no idea so many people would be asking a question and thinking."
The painting — acrylic and oil on linen — depicts an angelic Jolie in the clouds, holding her newborn daughter, Shiloh, with children Maddox and Zahara at her legs. Below them is a Wal-Mart checkout line. The painting is for sale for $50,000 through Chelsea Galleria in Miami, which represents Kretz.
On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her child, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status."
Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, asked to comment about "Blessed Art Thou" on a Post blog, was unimpressed. "Once you've deciphered it, there's not much chance of giving it a second look," Gopnik wrote.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I think this falls under the category of art imitating life.
L
The woman's an athiest. This is weird.
No,it means that her honor, like everything else at WalMart, has a price. And that price is always discounted.
My 4 yr old kid could have painted stick figures that have more artistic value than this idiotic, POS.
btw, I think this painting sux! Could ya tell?
Could be, but that still sounds like art imitating life.
I think it's kind of clever. To me, the point is that the people there at Wal-mart, at the checkout counter with all the celebrity gossip magazines, put Angelina Jolie in the position of the Mother of God.
Fifteen years ago, there could have been a similar picture with Princess Diana.
I like it too.
subject matter aside, she's a talented artist
If millions of people go through the trouble of deciphering it, I would say that the artist has accomplished his goal.
It's not the sort of thing I'd want around the house, but the execution is good (at least as far as one can tell from the tiny photo), and it's a pretty sharp satire.
Good suggestion about the Madonna-whore idea, grjr21 - that might be in there, too.
Who is Angelina Jolie?
Actually, I think it is a great comment on modern society.
I've been ruminating lately over the artificiality of the popular culture we have created for ourselves. It's amazing the effort we put into things of no value.
Because Elvis on black velvet doesn't sell anymore.
Really? Are her other works any good, because the above painting is really bad.
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