I reached out to the super-friendly founder of the Classical Sarcasm project, Adnan. He told Bored Panda that he's from Bosnia and Herzegovina and that he started the Classical Sarcasm page one year ago.
"My inspiration is to promote Art and also young artists who are painters and creators," he told Bored Panda.
Adnan shared with Bored Panda that his page is "followed all over the globe, from USA to Europe and Asia," which goes to show that art memes break even cultural barriers.
"The success behind the page is original content and constant hard work. My team consists of me and my parents," he spoke about his mom, Sifa, and his dad, Sefik. They also host two other similar Instagram pages, @classicalfuk and @classicalartmemesofficial.
According to Adnan, classical paintings perfectly work as templates for memes. "Paintings are perfect because they all have a story behind, also everyone has an opportunity to tell the story in their own way," he said that the freedom to interpret things adds to the appeal of the art and, by extension, the memes.
I was curious to find out a bit about the way Adnan creates the memes themselves and wondered whether he ever hits any creative blocks. "When creating memes, I just need to look at one painting, and immediately the brainstorming starts in my head. Also many followers are sending their own creations. I'm so proud that my page has motivated soo many people to express their own creativity."
Adnan added that he's looking forward to cooperating with anyone who wants to. "I would like to invite all young artists and also companies to work together as a team. My business email is: balkaninfluencer@gmail.com," he shared.
The Classical Sarcasm page is part of a whole series of sister-projects, one of which is Classical Art Memes. Classical Sarcasm has over 107k followers on Instagram. Meanwhile, on Facebook, it’s got a bit over 30k fans who eagerly await for the next meme to drop.
Previously, I spoke about classical art with art historian and video creator Mary McGillivray, from Melbourne. She makes fun educational videos to help people understand more about art, including what movement a particular painting is from.
"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!" Mary told Bored Panda.
"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," Mary explained to Bored Panda that art is far more relatable than many of us might think. There's plenty of humor hidden throughout as well! (So it's no wonder that old paintings work so well as meme templates.)
Meanwhile, former gallery director and art expert Shelby Bercume, from Florida, told Bored Panda that because art history isn’t taught at all schools, some people find it intimidating, as well as difficult to grasp.
"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 explained.
