art.wikisort.org - Painting

Blessed Art Thou is an oil-and-acrylic painting by American artist Kate Kretz.[1] It depicts actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary, hovering in the clouds with her children above a Wal-Mart store.[2]

Blessed Art Thou
Artist	Kate Kretz
Year	2000s
Medium	oil paint, acrylic paint, linen
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Background

The painting directs attention to the celebrity worship cycle: each participant in the cycle perpetuates it while pointing a finger somewhere else.[3] The title of the painting, “Blessed Art Thou”, is gotten from a line in the Catholic prayer “Hail Mary”: “…blessed art thou among women...”.[4]

The painting was originally displayed in an exhibit that featured modern and contemporary art. The painting was exhibited at the Miami Art Fair in January 2007, and created a controversy that was covered by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox television networks, as well as The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and many other international news sources.^{[citation needed]} In 2007 the painting was for sale for $50,000.[2][5]

A full-size drawing study for the work was included in the exhibition "Beyond Re / Production: Mothering" curated by Felicita Reuschling for the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin in 2011. ^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Van Gelder, Lawrence, "Arts Briefly", New York Times, New York, NY, January 8, 2007
• Hoberman, J., "A Mighty Heart, A Mightier Spotlight", Village Voice, New York, June 20, 2007 Archived 2011-12-25 at the Wayback Machine

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