4kpx-angiolo-doni 4kpx-kiss 4kpx-madame-cezanne-in-a-yellow-chair 4kpx-marilyn-monroe 4kpx-maya-desnuda 4kpx-mona-lisa 4kpx-quappi-in-blue-on-a-boat 4kpx-saint-francis 4kpx-scream 4kpx-tahitian-women-on-the-beach 4kpx-the-song-of-love 4kpx-treachery-of-images 4kpx-vangogh-self-portrait 4kpx-virgin-annunciate

Minimal Art History

Gallery of low-fidelity art reproductions

2011-2016 | Illustration, Research

Every digital translation involves a loss of information from its analog origin. With this ongoing research I’m trying to determine how much information you can subtract to a digital art reproduction and still keep it recognizable and enjoyable, focusing on famous artworks since the Renaissance. I pick up a JPEG of a famous artwork and then manipulate it:

reducing its size to a maximum of 64*64 px (4kpx);
decreasing color-depth to max. 16 colors (chosen from the web-safe palette);
ending with some manual retouching.

The results are these tiny low-res images, which maintain some kind of aesthetic value and an obvious link to the original artworks. But can they be considered art reproductions in these days of technological struggle for high definition and maximum likelihood?

In 2021, most of the artworks of “Minimal Art History” have been minted as NFTs and can be collected via hic et nunc.

4kpx artworks 02 - Mona Lisa transformation phase 1

4kpx artworks 03 - Mona Lisa transformation phase 2

4kpx artworks 04 - Mona Lisa transformation phase 3

4kpx artworks 05 - Mona Lisa transformation phase 4

The entire transformation process for 4kpx-mona-lisa.gif.
From left: a digital reproduction of the original artwork, 64px-height bicubic resizing, 13 web-safe color reduction, manual final retouching.