Jolie and children in the clouds

painting 9 191

Inspired by the masters Van Dyck and Raphael, a North Carolina artist Kate Kertz latest painting ‘Blessed Art Thou,’ depicts Angelina Jolie and her children hovering on a cloud above shoppers in a Wal-Mart check-out line.

Kertz writes on her blog,

The painting addresses the celebrity worship cycle. The title ‘Blessed Art Thou,’ is taken from a line in the Catholic prayer ‘Hail Mary…blessed art thou among women. Our culture is deifying celebrities, but in the Bible, it is the meek who are blessed, so the title presents a question for the viewer to ponder.

The painting is on sale for $50 000 (R361 890) and has created a buzz on the internet. Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous works has acquired the attention given ‘Blessed Art Thou,’ which was to show at Art Miami 2007 beginning on Friday. One reason for the attention was a posting of the painting on the popular gossip site, www.perezhilton.com.

Kretz, who is an associate professor of Visual Arts at Florida International University, said in a telephone interview from Miami,

My intention was to ask a question and get people to think. I had no idea so many people would be asking a question and thinking.

With the popularity of ‘Blessed Art Thou,’ her blog, which used to average 30 unique viewers daily, is getting more attention from strangers these days with 15,000 unique views Wednesday.

Blake Gopnik, an art critic for The Washington Post asked to comment about Blessed Art Thou on a Post blog, said that the painting’s message is too obvious. He wrote,

It’s more like a puzzle-picture than a probing work of art. Once you’ve deciphered it, there’s not much chance of giving it a second look. Its van-art technique, especially, is so generic that it hardly has a thing to say that hasn’t been said a thousand times before – often, much better.

Well I don’t know about others but Jolie and Pitt are surely going to buy this painting.


Read

Today's Top Articles:

Scroll to Top