We’re drooling over this clever shirt featuring our favorite crime-fighting turtles. But wait a second, looking closer, I don’t recognize these reptiles!
Instead of the traditional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who are named after the famous Renaissance painters Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo, this shirt depicts four scaly dudes in the visual styles of other artistic masters. Cowabunga!
Here’s the Sartle lowdown for ya:
- Picasso: This turtle looks cartoon-y and cubist. Spanish artist Picasso popularized the style of art known as Cubism, which meant taking whatever you’re painting and trying to view all angles of it at the same time. The result is a bunch of crazy angles and shapes.
- Miró: Spanish painter Joan Miro is a famous Surrealist known for his abstract automatic drawings that are created by painting subconsciously. Close your eyes and make random doodles to be an automatic drawing surrealist, it’s just that easy!
- Monet: Why you lookin’ so fuzzy, turtle? To match the Impressionist period that Monet is famous for, of course! Impressionist painters used bigger, softer brushstrokes to create non-detailed impressions (heh, see what they did there?) of a fleeting moment. They even included Madame Monet’s parasol from one of Monet’s paintings.
- Rothko: Um, where’s the turtle here?? Rothko’s abstract art is famous for being just plain, flat fields of color on a canvas. Yep, millions of dollars for a painting that is literally just one color. You could’ve done that, but you didn’t!
Well, there you have it! Can you imagine if other famous artists created a teenage mutant ninja turtle? I’d like to see a Koons one, myself!
If you would prefer seeing our heroes as their Renaissance name-sakes have a look at Angelica‘s TMNT blog.
By: Carolyn
Contributor