Here’s a look at the beautiful new painting of Margot Tenenbaum by artist @Sandi Calistro, debuting this weekend at Spoke Art’s Wes Anderson art show tribute.
Holy smokes — no pun intended! This is Tumblr, to speak to Mr Richardson’s point from earlier. The ontology of this painting — which (the painting) is something I suspect basically ‘no one’ would ever have seen if it weren’t for Tumblr, but by being showcased on the Tumblr Radar is assured, what, a couple million impressions? — is radically worked upon by Tumblr. Ie, it just isn’t what it would have been if it weren’t for Tumblr, and necessarily. Not only by its exposure, but by its sort of situational meaning/s, and also, though I have no way of knowing except by, you know, reporting, I suspect it wouldn’t even have been made if it weren’t for the Tumblr-effect on image making for young artists ‘today’. So its ontology, if you’re keeping track, has been changed at least three ways: 1) By increased reach of Tumblr Radar; 2) By its meaning-function for viewers on Tumblr (with literally all that that means); and 3) By the effect of #2-type events on the artist who painted the original image. Plus a whole host of other stylistic tics apparent in the image. (Ie, Gwyneth’s “eyes”, “tattoos”, social status of Paltrow-on-the-internet, fan-fictive nature of the image (ie, Margot’s being the falconer instead of her brother), and so on. This image agogs the mind.
I think, plus, this person depicted looks a lot more like Christina Ricci than Gwyneth Paltrow. But even that sort of fluid identity dynamic — while filmic, essentially — is also a hallmark of internet imagery.
