Retail Latin America: What Fine Art Would Look Like If It Were Sponsored By Nike

2013/11/19

What Fine Art Would Look Like If It Were Sponsored By Nike

Milan fashion director Davide Bedoni was not seeing many exciting advertisements in his field, so he turned to a new source of inspiration: fine art.

Bedoni started his "SwooshArt" project in January, combining his love of Nike with his love of art from the 19th century. He occasionally works with Renaissance works, as well, making Pop art out of masterpieces by embedding the Nike swoosh into some of history's most timeless artwork.

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He has created over 200 works in the series at this point.

"I've never wanted to criticize consumerism," Bedoni told Business Insider in an email, "for me it's just something aesthetic."

"I would like to see things like SwooshArt as real advertising, especially for a fashion brand," Bedoni said, adding that he's seen enough of the same models, poses, hairstyles, and makeup.

Bedoni, who is about to begin an architectural photography project, does not consider himself an artist ("because I'm not really sure what it means"), and started the project from a marketing perspective. He also said he will take SwooshArt to the streets soon, but in a "virtual/digital way."

Davide Bedoni/SwooshArt

This ghastly scene from Dante's 'Inferno' makes an inspirational slogan seem sinister when paired with William-Adolphe Bougereau's "Dante and Virgil in Hell" (1850)

Davide Bedoni/SwooshArt

The swoosh breaks the action between Mars and his victim, Cupid, in Bartolomeo Manfredi's "Cupid Chastised" (1605/1610)

Davide Bedoni, SwooshArt

These guys could be selling Nike products instead of hanging out in Hippolyte Flandrin's 1850 work "Rene-Charles Dassy and His Brother Jean-Baptiste-Claude Amede Dassy."