There's something about Beyonce that invites mashups with masterpieces. First there was the viral gold that is Beyonce Art History, a Tumblr that captions great artworks with apt Bey lyrics (full disclosure: it was created by Leigh Silver, a former HuffPost Arts intern).
Now, we present The Carter Family Portrait Gallery, a study in well-tuned anachronism.
It's a Tumblr stocked with images of the Carters -- Beyonce, Jay Z and Blue Ivy -- pasted into iconic paintings. Frankly, we're digging some of the updates more than the originals. The reworking of a portrait of Madonna with child, for instance, is a) pitch-perfect -- if obvious -- commentary on the ascendance of Beyonce and mania of the Beyhive. And b) doubly striking given the whole white-Christ mythos.
(Plus, if the Tumblr's tags are to be believed, Blue Ivy Jesus is reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is nice.)
All that photoshopping is paying off. TCFPG is up for a few Webbies, and it's even getting criticism! A recent review on an art blog called out its "sketchy" art historical range -- which, truthfully, is pretty limited to the dorm-room-poster genre (Klimts galore). It's all good though. As any Carter can tell you, all press is good press.