The Tel Aviv-based illustrator has given a modern-day spin to portraits of Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, and Andy Warhol.
Caroline Goldstein
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If you’ve ever wondered what Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, or Picasso would look like if they lived in modern-day Brooklyn, Israeli illustrator Amit Shimoni has some ideas. The artist’s “Hipstory Artist Series” is a continuation of his original Hipstory project, which re-imagined world leaders as inked-up artisans who’d likely be found in a farm-to-table kombucha shop or shilling for their work as Instagram influencers.
The idea for the project came to Shimoni after he’d been surfing through endless Google images of world leaders, seeing the same boring portraits over and over. As a counterpoint to the anodyne images, he decided to channel his creativity and “hipsterize” everyone from the prime minister of Norway to Barack Obama. The goal? To “connect Generation Y to the political and cultural visionaries of the past,” according to the illustrator.
Although the project began with images of political figures, Shimoni has now expanded his portfolio to include new paintings of art stars, such as Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, and Andy Warhol.
Amit Shimoni, Salvador Dalí (2018). © HIPSTORY @hipstory_shimoni.
Shimoni’s illustrations wink at the viewer with a slew of urbane details. Salvador Dalí, for instance, looks like he’d be at home DJ’ing an EDM dance party, with a tattoo emblazoned across his chest reading “I don’t do drugs, I am drugs”—one of the Surrealist’s most quipped lines. Vincent van Gogh, who is being immortalized once again in Julian Schnabel’s film Vincent van Gogh: At Eternity’s Gate, sports air-bud headphones—a trendy and practical choice for someone with only one ear—and a retro bowling-style shirt festooned with his trademarked sunflowers.
Other highlights from the original “Hipstory” series include a dual-portrait of President Trump sporting an undercut and a jaunty Hawaiian shirt next to a beaming Kim Jung Un who has a rather timely tattoo of Banksy’s Girl With Balloon on his upper arm.
See more works from both “Hipstory” series below:
Amit Shimoni, Frida Kahlo (2018). © HIPSTORY @hipstory_shimoni.
Amit Shimoni, Picasso (2018). © HIPSTORY @hipstory_shimoni.
Amit Shimoni, Vincent van Gogh (2018). © HIPSTORY @hipstory_shimoni.
Amit Shimoni, Andy Warhol (2018). © HIPSTORY @hipstory_shimoni.
Amit Shimoni, Trump and Kim Jung Un (2018). © HIPSTORY @hipstory_shimoni.
Amit Shimoni, Queen Elizabeth. © HIPSTORY @hipstory_shimoni.
Amit Shimoni, Barack Obama. © HIPSTORY @hipstory_shimoni.
