Enter the wondrously free-from-doctrine world of creative advertisement, where artists get to play around with some of the greats of art history. Here are 8 examples of famous art in advertisements.
1. Da Vinci’s Last Supper
This familiar advert for an online casino is as blasphemous as it is well executed — the only thing missing is that touch of sublimity Da Vinci had a knack for.
2. Van Gogh’s Self Portrait
If there’s one thing we can learn from this optician’s ad, it’s that a distorted vision sometimes makes for a great portrait. You couldn’t get much more famous than this van Gogh piece, and this advert makes an instantly understood point.
3. A Picasso lookalike
This advertisement for a fitness center could pass as a forgery, it doesn’t only imitate Picasso – it’s also paired with words of wisdom that might as well have come from the master painter himself.
4. Mondrian in rubbles
Very cleverly done by an art logistics company. After all, nobody would want their shipped-and-delivered Mondrian to turn up on their doorstep in a pile of rubble.
5. This is not a Magritte
We love this Allianz insurance ad because it resembles Magritte’s famous work both in form and meaning. It tells us to look past the hammer we think we see and understand that it’s really something else – a common finger squasher.
6. Rodin’s young thinker
A witty German ad for brain-nutrient vitamins. This little genius has already learned that there’s no better place for contemplation than the bathroom.
7. Dali and the weird world of investments
This rendition of Dalí’s Temptation of St. Anthony shows how business is doing on a global scale. We’re sure Dalí would feel this way about affairs in the economic sector as well.
8. Another take on Picasso
Sometimes all it takes to make a great ad is by linking two seemingly unconnected things. Picasso certainly didn’t think his style of portraiture would be related to car crashes.
