Tabloid Art History

Get to know the witty Twitter account connecting pop stars to Renaissance art
By Precious Adesina | Art | 16 January 2018

Deep within the crevices of the internet, there is a tiny space where Donald Trump and Francis Bacon are muttered under the same breath. Where Beyonce and Botticelli share no difference. Where Britney and Caravaggio are distant cousins. A twitter platform known as Tabloid Art History.

Faced with boredom, two Edinburgh university students began comparing the art in their lectures to photos in the mainstream media. But they were soon faced with a dilemma: “We had all this pop cultural and visual knowledge with no place to exercise it,” says Art History student Elise Bell.

Two later became three. And with art history grad Mayanne Soret, Chloe Esslemont and Elise gave birth to the popular account. A year and over 39,000 twitter followers later, it is safe to say they were not alone in their obsession. “The fact that it has grown so big and we’ve become so emboldened by it is testament to the fact that what we’re doing relates to a lot of people and fundamentally that’s what inspires us today: accessibility,” Elise adds.

Not only do they use their account to explore the relationship between the opposing yet similar aesthetics of ‘high art’ and ‘low art’, the three explore questions surrounding personal identity, class, and female empowerment. Having recently released their first zine and expanded to Instagram, the trio talk us through their unique brand of art appreciation.

Precious Adesina: What is the relationship between art and contemporary pop culture?
Elise Bell: I think certain writers and institutions would like you to think that the relationship between art and pop culture is a thin one at best but they’re lying. It’s fluid and symbiotic and mad but it’s there. You see it all the time, in glossy mag ads, fashion choices, tabloid shots.
Mayanne Soret: Pop culture is hardly definable, and any attempt is political and needs to be contextualized in a specific geography and time frame. I feel more and more like there’s also “levels” of pop culture, and what’s acceptable or “cool” to like & how we’re expected to think about it — it’s ok to love Britney as long as you define it as “bad” music and say it’s your guilty pleasure. We’re not about that; you love what you love and how you love it.

Precious: How do you go about finding the images to compare?
Elise: It’s a pretty organic process. Finding the images comes pretty easily when you’ve had ten years of watching MTV, TLC and reading whatever tabloid mags you can find on the bus into school. This, paired with the fact we study paintings every day makes it surprisingly easy. However, there are times when we prepare and plan. While most of the time it’s a sudden lightbulb moment, we do collaborate on images. So if there’s a Beyoncé photoshoot or a particular popular tabloid image circulating the internet we’ll put our heads together and actively search out something to compare it with. It’s all about finding the perfect composition or mood and that takes work.
Mayanne: Usually it comes sort of instantly and naturally, like we’ll have seen a pop culture image or a painting and stumble upon its comparisons, or we feel one or the other has a “vibe” to it, like it reminds us of a programme or an era of art history, and we’ll try to figure out what it is.
Chloe Esslemont: If you spend enough of your time looking at images pretty much exclusively from these two topics, you just sort of start to make connections.

Precious: What are your favourite comparisons so far?
Elise: Personally, I will always be proud of the Spice Girls alongside Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. It just works really well and is a great example of the ridiculousness of what we do.
Mayanne: We always get asked that question and I can never pick one! Mostly because all of us are followers as much as creators, like we don’t necessarily tell each other we’re going to do a post so we discover it in real time.

What are your thoughts on Gucci’s spring campaign? Is photorealism making a comeback?
Mayanne: Ignasi Monreal really did a wonderful job putting these together in a creative way with recognisable and relevant references. I’m not sure it’s more about the photorealism than it is about giving a space for the craftsmanship of fashion to be shown fully via linking it to a more conventionally “respected” art form.
Chloe: I think it’s amazing how it has really captured people’s imaginations – I’d love to see more fashion houses go a little outside the box like this with their advertising, it’s a fantastic example of when and how advertising can be art.

Precious: There is a tendency for the art world to be seen as elitist or pretentious, how do you think TAH changes this view?
Elise: The art world has a tendency to be seen as elitist or pretentious because a lot of the time it is, there’s no other way to say it. Of course, this has nothing to do with the art itself and far more to do with the barriers that have been put up as a means to elevate art to the status as a luxury commodity. I suppose what TAH does is it humbles art, maybe. It takes it down from this lofty and very intimidating status whereby only the privilege few have access or knowledge of it and shaves it of its seriousness. We like that we poke fun and don’t take it too seriously… I feel like we are, in a small way, part of this new effort to change things.
Mayanne: We’re earnest, and I think that breaks down the pretentiousness of it all, especially when we chat history or write more stuff about our comparisons.

Precious: What can people look forward to in your next zine? And how does this differ from your twitter account?
Elise: TAH Vol.2 is going to be bigger and more risky than vol.1. In vol.1 we were dipping our toe in the water to see if it’s the kind of thing that people want to read and want to support. The feedback we’ve had has been beyond anything we anticipated and this has definitely been huge motivation for us.
Mayanne: What’s great about the zine is that you have to stay with the stuff you’re seeing or reading longer. So, our twitter and zine are different in that way, but they very much emerge from the same enthusiasm, and the same ambition. It also offers an exploration of pop culture and art history as concepts and themes, more than exact visual references. Vol.1 set the tone, but we want to go deeper in that direction, make sure our contributors are truly diverse, and that our topics are too.

Follow Tabloid Art History on Twitter.


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