1172
Artwork
Street art piece
Birth of Venus (Botticelli)
Street Art Museum Amsterdam
Author:
Blub
Artist Bio:
Blub is an Italian street artist who has become particularly famous thanks to his series "L'arte sa nuotare" ("Art can swim"), which is gifted with a unique and daring expressive power. Started in 2013 with an experiment in a small village in Catalonia, the series was later developed by the artist entirely in Florence and then reached other cities, such as Cremona and even museum spaces with the exhibition 'Blub. L'arte sa nuotare' at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli in 2019.
Place:
Burgermeester van Leewanlaan 831
Date:
2018
Technique:
Paste Up
Material:
Wall
Acquisition:
Commission
Completed:
2018
Condition:
Gone / Illegible
Physical Description:
Stencil realistic artwork of The Birth of Venus with a sub mask. Blub's figures, created using the paste-up technique, are thus characterised by a vigorous realism and detail to the elements. The only agglutinative iconographic element between the different works is the diving mask, an object that has become the artist's distinctive element. Leonardo, Botticelli or Raffaello find themselves immersed in the ocean in a "dimension, suspended, timeless, without noise" as the artist himself states. The curious choice of setting the figures in these spaces is intended as a metaphor to indicate the cultural and eternal power of art which, despite the difficulties, is always able to "swim", resist and thus be a bulwark for our society.
Iconography:
The artwork depicts the famous artwork The birth of Venus by Botticelli. Artists are a constant theme in Blub's world that is mostly made up of figures from the Italian Renaissance tradition: Leonardo, Tiziano, Raffaello and Botticelli are just some of the artists from which the contemporary Florentine artist freely draws inspiration. In the process of artistic appropriation, Blub reinterprets these iconic figures from the history of art and projects them into public spaces in Florence, often in doorways or advertising spaces that also serve as a frame to reinforce the connection with the original artwork.
Gallery