Museum asks people to recreate artwork with objects (and people) at home, and they don't disappoint

Our workplaces have issued work-from-home orders. Our governments have ordered lockdowns across our towns and cities. Our public places have all shut down. Life as we know it has been confined to the walls of our homes. However, that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun of our own. Due to the various directives telling everyone to stay at home, The Getty Museum decided to start a challenge of their own. Taking to Twitter, they asked their followers to grab household items and recreate their favorite pieces of art from scratch, CBS News reports. Needless to say, the responses were absolutely hilarious. They also provided some relief from the otherwise mundane routines we've all become used to.

The Getty Museum posted last week, "We challenge you to recreate a work of art with objects (and people) in your home. Choose your favorite artwork. Find three things lying around your house. Recreate the artwork with those items. And share with us." Soon enough, the responses came flooding in. People were getting creative with all the things they had in their homes. The challenge proved to be fun for the whole family, with children and even pets getting involved in the recreation process. Those self-isolating found household objects that looked like or reflected the meaning of those used in original artwork from centuries ago. Whether it was cans of Coca-Cola that were used to mimic teacups or a fluffy bathrobe used as a substitute for a flowing gown, Twitter users had an absolute ball clicking photos of themselves as masterpieces.

Individuals recreated art by Italian artists Pontormo (also known as Jacopo Carucci) and Master of St. Cecilia, French artist Jean-Siméon Chardin, German painter Martin Schongauer, and even more famous names like Édouard Manet, Edvard Munch, and Banksy. While some recreations were absolutely hilarious, others did admittedly have some artistic quality, Annelisa Stephan, The Getty Museum’s assistant director for digital content strategy shared in an interview with Smithsonian Magazine. She stated, "There’s a really great one where a woman took an ancient Greek sculpture and recreated it to a tee by posing with a canister vacuum. There have been thousands of amazing ones. Some of them are brilliant artistically, but they’re all just really funny."

The activity was a break from the monotony of staring at a screen - whether for work or leisure - and gave everyone a breather from all the negative news about the deadly Coronavirus. It was also a great way to have a look at some art that people may not have otherwise been interested in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, both the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu, have, after all, been closed to the public for the foreseeable future in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. "Being at home, people are feeling isolated, so this has been a fun way to have a community not only with friends and family but also with friendly strangers on the web," Stephan noted. "It’s really an attempt to build community around art for people who love art and appreciate it, whether or not you’re an artist."

All The Getty Museum wanted to do was offer individuals a way to connect during this challenging time. The assistant director said, "The heartening part of this is not just the creations, but how generous and kind people are in the comment [sections] by holding each other up. When [the Getty] was thinking about what we could do during this time when so many museums are closed, it seemed to us that what art could really offer is a sense of community." Hopefully, this brightened everyone else's days as it did the staff's at The Getty Museum.