In the past, important people (or people with money) were immortalized in portraits created by the greatest masterminds in art. Not only because a painting was an expensive piece of art and a show of money and power, but also because they had a high rank in society. If this practice were to continue today, who would be the people to be appreciated in the museums of the future? Whose faces would be on the paintings? For the French artist Kyès, it would be celebrities such as Rihanna, Rosalia, Debbie Harry, or Miley Cyrus.
On his Instagram account, Kyès shares his works, which are digital artworks that simulate Renaissance portraits in which the human figure was the center of everything.
In his art, he replaces the people who starred in them with celebrities of our time, and the results are as beautiful as they are uncanny. Here, for example, we see the profile portrait of Kanye West:
And here is a portrait of Scarlett Johansson, with a classic look but a contemporary face, as we know the Black Widow and Girl with a Pearl Earring actress:
The portrait of Eva Green, for example, is very much in keeping with her dark personality and the roles she usually plays. Kyès made this portrait, especially for Halloween:
This portrait shows The Queen’s Gambit star, Anya Taylor Joy, in all her renaissance splendor:
Kyès also does commissions, works with musicians and other artists to illustrate their album covers, and does portraits of pop culture characters, played by the most famous actresses in cinema. Here is Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, in a portrait based on Gabrielle Cot’s portrait by William-Adolphe Bouguereau:
A beautiful renaissance image of Rosalia:
And here is a portrait of the great Debbie Harry of Blondie, based on a photo by the legendary Mick Rock:
Story originally published in Spanish in Cultura Colectiva
