Success story
How to enter the history of modern art, if you are not yet 30? Perhaps someone will be inspired by the example of Israeli artist Amit Shimoni.
He simply invented and portrayed in the pictures what the world leaders of the past and present would do if suddenly they decided to retire from the affairs of state importance and live like the young generation of Y does. In his works, politicians appear in the image of modern fashionable guys. The motto of the project called Hipstory, which Shimoni began as a thesis at the Bezalel Academy of Arts: “Why be a world leader when you can be a hipster?”
About the artist wrote an article influential British newspaper The Guardian, and the leading US publication The New York Times ordered him a portrait of Hillary Clinton. The Israeli version of Forbes magazine put his name on the list of young people who have achieved success and have a great future. The young talent also participated in the election of the head of the government of Norway, accompanying the election campaign of Erna Solberg, who was successfully re-elected as head of government in the autumn of 2017.
In general, thanks to only one successful art project, the boy came to success.
The impetus for the creation of images served as the painter’s reflections on the differences in the mentality of generations. In one of the interviews, he admitted: that he thought a lot about the difference in world perception among world leaders and his peers – the young egocentric generation.
Amit Shimoni portrayed iconic historical characters: the first US President George Washington, the first Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Israeli state David Ben-Gurion, the British queen Elizabeth II and the prime ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Indian independence movement Mahatma Gandhi, president France’s Charles de Gaulle, Latin American rebel Ernesto Che-Guevara, South African President Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana, and modern politicians: Barack Obama, Angela Merke eh, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. All of them are united by the unity of style, all have trendy outfits and tattoos.
Amit also composed stories about the leisure of each of them. Donald Trump has a connoisseur of Sufi poet Jalaladdin Rumi and Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, Margaret Thatcher rides a motorcycle around London, Winston Churchill became a fitness guru, bikram yoga lover and director of a network of health resorts, Angela Merkel – keyboard player and backend – vocalist fashion group, and her colleague in the musical field has become Queen Elizabeth II. Mahatma Gandhi became a great lover of coffee latte, and Hillary Clinton started producing jeans on vintage weaving machines.
So the author tried to make politicians clearer and closer for his generation. And the grandsons of politicians liked the project: the grandson of Nelson Mandela, for example, sent an e-mail to the artist, where he thanked Amit for the project and offered cooperation in the field of philanthropy. Teachers from around the world admitted to Shimoni that they use his work in history lessons. The Dalai Lama’s Foundation, whose portrait is also in the project, expressed delight at all and ordered new pictures.
After the politicians, the guy took up artists, and Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol became the heroes of his works. Shimoni turned around in an adult way, placing reproductions of his images on t-shirts, phone cases and key chains.
One can only wish the beginning painter that his new projects be no less creative and successful.
