Formal Analysis

Walking through the section of the Museum of Contemporary Art called I Was Raised on the Internet, I was not expecting to see anything resembling my favorite era of art, impressionism. In fact, there was very little resembling the free-flowing colors and organic lines within the geometric lines that represented the cold technological aspects of the internet. This is why I was stopped dead in my tracks when I reached a painting that at first bore the same likeness of Monet. On second glance I realized that I was looking at Monet's work only this time it was a digital version on the surface of a plane interior.
According to the Museum of Contemporary Arts wall text, Jon Rafman’s 2013 print titled Monet Economy Class utilized a 3D modeling computer program to turn works of art into a wallpaper that can be placed on digital objects which the artist calls “digital skinning”. According to the artists' website BrandNewPaintJob.com, this specific print is just one of a series of modern art pieces “skinned” onto different scenes of daily life.
This specific print shows the blend of the hard geometric lines of an airplane contrasting with the flowing organic lines of the impressionist painting. The underlying scene of the airplane cabin is very symmetrical. The computer-generated lines create a perfectly straight floor that continues from the foreground of the image all the way into the very back of the plane. The perspective of the scene is from is from the very middle of the plane aisle from the height of the chair arms. The first row of chairs visible take up almost the entire frame of the print and as you move from the first chairs to the back the chairs get smaller as they fade into the back of the cabin. Every seat in the print looks entirely identical in shape.
The painting that has been “skinned” onto the airplane scene is one of Claude Monet's paintings of water lilies, though it is difficult to figure out which specific painting considering that painted approximately 250 paintings of water lilies. The lines of the original painting are very fluid and moving, with cool colors of greens, blues, and a cool toned baby pink. The print used repetition by repeating the same exact pattern on every single chair, though you begin to see less and less of it as the chairs become less visible moving towards the center of the scene. Due to the painting being digitally skinned in the print, it loses all of the texture of the original painting because this print is completely flat.
The quote by the artist on the wall text best describes the overall theme and purpose of this art piece “realizing one of paintings greatest fears: becoming decorative”. Essentially, the artist is arguing that in the modern world we are not thoroughly taking in the meaning of the artwork, but merely keeping it around for its aesthetic beauty. One could even interpret the fact that a real person in this scene would be walking and sitting on this famous artwork, essentially “walking all over it” and disrespecting it. This piece could also be ignoring the very works of beauty around us because we lose them in the hustle and bustle of daily life. With both of these interpretations, we as the viewers can get the sense that this is not a future that the artist wants and indeed it would be very sad.
Personally, I feel a strong tie to this print due to the fact that includes Monet’s work and that probably creates a bias within me. Impressionism is my favorite style of art and Monet is one of the most well-known artists from that specific era. Because I have this connection to the artwork that has been skinned onto the background, I feel a deeper emotional connection with the piece than the other works within the same series that use artwork that I am less familiar with. In fact, to really understand the deeper emotional part of this artwork you would need to be somewhat familiar with Monet or at least understand that the specific painting is well known. Being that I do have a connection with the art, I get an intense feeling of sadness and almost disgust at the world within this print. I share the artists' dismay that this is one of the only situations in which people come into contact with art and that they completely ignore it or see that it has any deeper meaning. On the other hand, someone who is more within development might find this reality to be a triumph in which it has taken a bland public space and infused it with art, making it a public space in which everyone has access to art.
In the end, while this art piece was very different from its surroundings in the I Was Raised on the Internet exhibit it fits right in because using technology this artist has captured the potential future we could all be living. It tells a deeper meaning that acts as a warning sign for the entire museum surrounding it: art has to fit for its true purpose or else it will mean nothing. 

 http://brandnewpaintjob.com/