Meet the Polish collective finding fun in fine art
When the members of Dobre Sztuki were given four hours a week to work on their own projects by their bosses, they wasted no time in applying their animation skills to fine art. Their appropriation of famous portraits has since become an emerging tumblr sensation. We caught up with the collective to discuss the thinking behind their work.
How did you all meet each other? When did you start?
We met each other over a year ago at work and became friends almost right away. One day our bosses decided to give us four hours a week to work on our own project, so we’d seized the opportunity and started to work on Art Parody Project (in Polish we are called ‘Dobre Sztuki’ which literally means ‘good arts’ but mainly this term is used for defining good looking girls, haha).
How would you define your artwork and animations? Are you all different to each other?
Our styles are completely different – just as our personalities are. Ania loves subdued colours and she’s not that much into pretty and girly things. Dominika loves simplicity and pastels and Dixie is into details and vibrant colours.
What inspired you to start reinterpreting iconic classics by Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh and work together to create Dobre Sztuki?
Long before working at the animation studio, Dixie has been making illustrations, parodying famous works of art. We thought it would be fun to continue it, but we decided to take advantage of our access to animation programs and make animated gifs.
We are aware that reinterpreting pieces of fine art isn’t really the most original thing to do, but honestly – we don’t care.
Why do you think the project has resonated so widely on Tumblr?
Well, it’s very hard to predict what will be popular on Tumblr, but we don’t consider our project as one that resonates widely. That’s not the reason we are working on our parodies. It’s mainly our way to relax from the work we have to do in the studio, it’s fun. If someone likes the result of our work – we couldn’t be happier.
Who are your favorite animation artists?
Basically everyone who worked on the cartoons that somehow shaped our childhood and inspired us to grab a pencil. Dixie is a big fan of Gendy Tartakowsky, she loved Dexter’s Laboratory and she kept drawing DeeDee everytime the show was on. Ania is fan of Sylvain Chomet movies, especially Les triplettes de Belleville. Also, she could spend all days looking for short animated movies – for example Somewhere (Nicolas Ménard), Chick (Michał Socha) or the old Russian animation Film Film Film (Fiodor Chitruk). Dominika loves Cartoon Saloon studio’s movies and Studio Ghibli’s movies. Her favourite short movie is Old Fangs, directed by Adrien Merigeau and Alan Holly.
Advice for emerging young creative wishing to pursue a career in art and digital design?
For those who wants to pursue a career in this fancy-artsy world, we have a quote by the world’s famous contemporary philosopher: “Work, work, work, work, work, work…” – Rihanna.
