ART HISTORY x LYRICS

I’ve been busy with work and haven’t really had the chance to update my tumblr, but I saw this ask in my inbox and I wanted to reply.

First of all, I’m sorry if you feel offended by this blog; it was never my intention to insult or disrespect these works of art. While I can’t speak for the other art history tumblrs, I’m sure all of us love the art we feature as well as the song lyrics we put over them - we see some resonance, be it in themes covered, or in characters or tropes being portrayed, and want to bring across these parallels. Wow I sound really pretentious but what I want to say is that while these ‘trashy, impertinent mainstream pop lyrics’ mean nothing to you, I do think that what they attempt to convey, while obviously not exactly the same as the messages of the painting I’ve paired them with, share some similarities. Obviously the artworks speak for themselves and can’t ever be divorced from the context they were created in, and neither can these lyrics. All in all, these are some of my favourite paintings and some of my favourite lyrics, and I’m just trying to express what I love best about them. ALSO some of my pairings are tongue in cheek and meant to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Second, I’m not in any way claiming to be an artist, or even the artist behind all these artworks. My posts are all credited with the name of the painting and the painter; I’ve also credited the singer and the song title. I’m obsessive about details like that, and I die a bit inside whenever I forget to put up the right link or misspell ANY OF THOSE. As much as possible I have also tried to use artworks in the public domain - which are free for modification - although there are some works of art for which I may have overlooked this aspect in my eagerness to use them. For that I’m sorry, and I can remove those at the request of the rights holder.

Third - yes, I’ll be angry if someone defaced whatever I draw or paint in real life. But digital manipulation, I’d like to think, accords some leeway because of its impermanence. I’m not explicitly and permanently vandalising these works of art, that’d be a crime for sure. Feel free to disagree, I’m not here to convince anyone; was just in a particularly verbose mood.