Digital creator Varkey (@_varkey) runs a very popular Instagram account where he features some of the wittiest, funniest, and most relatable memes that use classical art as a template. We’ve collected some of the very best, amusing, and sarcastic ones to share with you. Scroll down to take a look, and remember to upvote your favorite ones!
Bored Panda got in touch with Varkey, the curator of the popular account and the artist behind these memes, and he was kind enough to share a few thoughts with us. Scroll down for our interview with him.
We were curious to get Varkey's opinion on why so many internet users from all corners of social media enjoy the mix of classical art and memes. He noted that there's a lot that resonates with them.
"I think people enjoy them so much because of the humor and the aesthetic appeal of the painting," he told Bored Panda that it's a powerful combination.
Meanwhile, with so many talented content creators posting their classical art memes on social media, we were interested in what advice Varkey would give everyone to help their content stand out from the crowd.
From the creator's perspective, visual clarity is absolutely essential. "I personally prefer to only post where the paintings are aesthetic," he says that he chooses the template very carefully.
"And I use the same font so that my posts stand out," he said.
The creator also shared that there are a lot of artists that he respects. He revealed that some of his favorites include Carl Bloch, Vida Gábor, Peter Baumgartner, Carl Spitzweg, and others.
Varkey, who is widely known on Instagram, blends insights from contemporary life with classical paintings on his account. At the time of writing, his project has 104k dedicated fans from all over the world.
Some of the most well-known classical artists include geniuses like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Gustav Klimt, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Rembrandt. Others that you’ve likely heard of include Claude Monet, Johannes Vermeer, Francisco Goya, Jacques-Louis David, Frida Kahlo, and Eugène Delacroix.
The very terms classical or classic art first started becoming widespread in the 17th century. In the West, during the Renaissance and later periods, classicism in art mainly focuses on classical myths and legends, as well as gods and heroes. From the mid-18th and 19th centuries, the aesthetic is referred to as Neoclassical.
It’s easy to instinctively understand the appeal of the classical art meme genre. Classical paintings have incredible energy, fantastic details, and feature very expressive characters. On the one hand, they’re a perfect fit for the comments about modern life. No matter how much time passes and how much technology advances, human beings still deal with similar fundamental issues in their daily lives.
On the other hand, there’s also a delightfully playful contrast between the epic scenes in the background of these paintings and the little mundane scenarios being played out on top of them. Humor is, essentially, found in the unexpected and the surprising. And classical art memes capture this essence very well by throwing a curveball every time.
There’s also the fact that these memes are so incredibly relatable to consider. Any good meme, no matter the type, needs to be relatable at least on some level. That’s how you connect your thoughts (as a digital creator) with those of your audience (anyone browsing social media).
Classical art memes connect with internet users by linking up to their internal monologue and touching on their everyday struggles, both large and small.
During a previous interview with Bored Panda, Varkey shared a bit about himself and his relationship with art.
He shared that he’s a safety engineer with a passion for classical art, history, and geography. “I don't have any background as a creator or artist but I have always loved classical art,” he said.
According to Varkey, he got the inspiration to make humorous classical art edits at the beginning of 2020, as the major Covid-19 lockdowns started happening. “I came across the posters by the ministry of culture of Ukraine about the Covid precautions in which they had put masks and gloves on characters in some famous classical paintings. I fell in love with this idea instantly and I wanted to do something like that,” he told us earlier.
“Whenever I see a painting, I try to imagine how the painting would look if it was painted in the 21st century. I also try to correlate it with pop culture,” Varkey told Bored Panda.
Back then, he admitted that he does sometimes face creative block. “Sometimes it is difficult, it depends on your mood or if you are busy with something. But classical art always brightens up my mood. I am an aesthete, I like looking at beautiful things, and what is more beautiful than a classical painting by Bouguereau or Carl Bloch or Vida Gabor? I have some friends who are very funny and are extremely sarcastic, so I also get ideas when I talk to them,” he opened up.
