Sacred heart of Mario
For centuries, the art world was dominated by religious icons. If you painted, and you wanted to get paid for it, your subject matter was strictly Old or New Testament. The Church was your biggest patron, and the subject matter was something everyone around you understood.
See extended for more…
Nowadays if you want to paint icons (nearly) everyone can understand, then Mario is your new Christ, Super Mario Bros your Old Testament. The quantity, and quality, of Mario-related artwork is astounding. Below is just a small sampling of Marioart. The image from before the break is “Cheers” by Bob Dob.
Living Oxymoron with “Super Mario Brothers Fanart”
“Piranha Plant Fights Back” by Sebastien Harding.
“Super Mario Poster” by Makotron.
Knit Piranha Plant. Real-space representations of Mario icons are quite common:
Mario Instalation by Antionette J. Citizen.
Super Mario Pushpin Table by The Artist and the Ego.
“NYC Mario” by Wooster Collective.
Mario is often cast in new roles, like the Godfather Sopranos above, and Misha’s “Last Supper” below.
Bob Dob has more takes on Mario and friends:
Luigi and Mario Police Mug Shots above.
“Mario Land” by Emroca Flores.
Super Mario goes cubist from jimiyo.
Artist unknown for portrait of hundreds of dead lives for Mario above. Game over.
Tags: Antionette J. Citizen, Bob Dob, Emroca Flores, Misha, Sebastien Harding, Wooster Collective
June 21st, 2009 at 11:12 pm
James Maybe » Blog Archive » Sacred heart of Mario…
Writer explores the concept of pop culture and its influence on art. What happens in a society saturated in images of gaming heroes as oppossed to actual religious icons? Pop culture images replace the historical icon image….
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
interesting art. plus i love mario… but the only problem i noticed was the picture you referred to mario as the “godfather”, it is actually the “sopranos” you are thinking of. Thought you should know
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
@Jeremy:
Correction made. Guess it’s clear how much (or little) I follow the mobster genre. :-/
July 8th, 2009 at 3:33 am
You know it’s really funny that whenever i think about mario i always think about the times i was a kid and he looks so cute jumping around at the press of our buttons but the drawings i saw just now was way outta the box…i’ve never imagen him like that……VERY COOLL
August 16th, 2009 at 8:39 am
[...] failed to include in my big Super Mario Bros Artwork Roundup Peacock’s own take on Mario, headed off to work, lunch bag in [...]
November 11th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I saw some of these before, but they’re some nice pieces of art work. I especially like the somewhat creepy ‘realistic’ renditions of the Mushroom Kingdom, as well as the sheer amount of nostalgia in the picture when different forms of Mario and the humour of the one with all the dead Marios near those Goombas.