This Australian art historian is helping educate millions of people
In some of her witty videos, she explains how we can impress our friends by learning to recognize different art movements and artists
#1 "If It Looks Like The Chaos After A Blackout Where Everyone Is Stumbling Around In The Dark Under One Solitary Emergency Light, It's A Caravaggio"
#2 "If Its A Portrait Of Rembrandt, It's A Rembrandt"
After Mary graduated from the University of Melbourne, she started on the path of making comedic and engaging video content for TikTok and YouTube about visual culture history. TikTok is a way for her to reach and educate millions of young people.
I was curious to find out what Mary thought were the main challenges keeping some people from delving into art history. "A lot of people think that art history is very serious and very important and this leads to them feeling overwhelmed—or even feeling like art history isn't for them. This isn't true! I've said it before and I'll say it again, art history is just old memes. Once we start to see the humor and the humanity in art, it becomes far less intimidating," she shared how we can change our perspective and embrace the complicated subject. Art as memes? Sign me up!
#3 "If It Looks Like You Need Your Glasses Prescription Updated, Then It's Impressionism"
#4 "If Everyone In The Painting Looks Unreasonably Jacked, Including The Women, It's A Michelangelo"
Mary revealed that she's always had a knack and a passion for art history. Her tale started in her early childhood, having been raised by an art history teacher and a museum curator. "You could say it's 'in my blood!'" she quipped.
"Ever since I watched John Berger's 'Ways of Seeing' in high school, I knew I wanted to be able to reach people the way he did, and demystify the often stuffy and elite world of art history," Mary shared how her passion grew from there.
Meanwhile, if she finds that she's losing faith in her project, she simply re-watches 'The Da Vinci Code' movie. "The fiery rage it sparks within pushes me to go on. Nothing like pure hatred to fuel creativity," she said.
#5 "If It's Got Palpable Female Rage And/Or Vengeance - It's An Artemisia"
#6 "If There's At Least One Person Looking To The Camera Like They're On The Office, It's Diego Velázquez"
Bored Panda also reached out to talk about art history with Shelby Bercume, a former gallery director from Florida. According to Shelby, art history isn't a subject that's taught in all schools, so it's often "intimidating and difficult to grasp" for those of us who don't have a background in it. However, she pointed out, that's true for pretty much every subject that we're unfamiliar with!
"I don’t necessarily think art history is an inaccessible entity, but I know that people tend to feel intimidated by things they aren’t experts in. Since art is often, if not always subjective, it feels even more intimidating than a subject with a 'right answer,' like math for example," Shelby shared with Bored Panda. "I think often that leads to a disconnect between the desire to dive into the subject of art and by relation art history, and the execution of it."
#7 "If Its Got Rich People Frollicing Outdoors Then Its Rococo"
#8 "If She's Blonde And Has This Exact Face, It's A Botticelli"
Former gallery director Shelby believes that the idea of educational art history TikTok videos is absolutely great. They help make difficult subjects more accessible, less lofty, and far less scary. "Art is something to be enjoyed and shouldn’t be reserved for an exclusive group," she said.
A major part of the appeal of art, according to the art expert, is that there's no wrong answer. "Art is aesthetics and feelings. If you love something, voice why you love it... if you can’t find the words, that’s ok! Talking about art is really discussing how the art affects your emotional state and what thoughts it provokes," she told Bored Panda.
"And remember, it is ok to not love everything, believe it or not, certain artworks are meant to be disturbing or disliked. Just don’t be intimidated to speak up because that’s really all we’re doing when we talk about art. We’re voicing opinions."
#9 "If It Looks Like A Tupperware Drawer, Then It's Cubism"
#10 "If It Looks Like A Nightmare You Once Had About Being Stranded In The Desert Then Its Surrealism"
Meanwhile, TikToker Mary isn’t just a great art historian—she also knows that humor helps people remember her lessons better. That’s because humor activates the dopamine reward system in our brains, meaning that our long-term memory gets stimulated.
If you want to become an art history buff, making humorous associations between art movements and artists is the best way to make things easier for yourself. So when Mary makes a quip about Cubism artworks looking like your Tupperware drawer, you’re quite likely to remember. In fact, this particular example stuck with me so much, I can’t wait to share it with my friends.
Pssst, that’s also one of the reasons why you’ll remember things for your exams that much better if you rephrase things to sound funny (or even a tiny bit rude). Peculiarity and weirdness also tend to stick out more in our memories.
#11 "If It Looks Like An Amateur Theatre Production, Then Its Neo-Classical"
#12 "If It Looks Like Angsty Male Ego, Then It's German Romanticism"
#13 "If It Looks Like A Scene From Madaline, It's A Jean Dufy"
#14 "If It's Got Ugly Babies, It's Medieval"
#15 "If It Looks Like ... It's An O'keeffe"
#16 "If It Looks Like A Cottagecore Pinup Girl, Then Its Art Nouveau"
#17 "If It's Got More Flesh Than A Nudist Beach - It's A Rubens"
#18 "If Its Unfinished, It's Probably A Leonardo"
#19 "If It Looks Like A Really Satisfying Game Of Tetris It's A Mondrian"
#20 "It Looks Like A School Nativity Play Where Everyone's Made A Toga Out Of Different Colored Bedsheets It's A Giotto"
