universal history of lockdowns

This series is not a tribute or a divertimento, it is my way of making the most of the hours of confinement, thinking with my brushes to rethink the important things in life; how to float a company, a salary or a family. Because this is what it's all about now, to see how we get out of this.

#I'mStayingAtlMauritsHuis
Johannes Vermeer - La joven de la Perla ( 1665-1667 )

"Try to stare at me" - I looked at him, we were 12 days into the confinement and I was very nervous. Johannes told me it was normal, that I was only 16 years old and didn't know anything about my family. I remember I had a hard time holding back the tears.

#I'mStayingAtMOMA

Pablo Picasso - Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)

- Dad, why are they wearing masks?
- I don't know son, ask the guide.

(Heard at MOMA )

#I'mStayingAtGalleriaUffizi

Piero della Francesca - Ritratti di Federigo di Montefeltro, duca d'Urbino e della moglie Battista Sforza (1472)

#I'mStayingAtZentralFriedhof
Joseph Karl Stieler - Retrato de Beethoven (1820)

Beethoven's famous Deafness found after suffering a 3-month confinement in the home of Leopold Christian, one of Vienna's most important trombonists.Leopold's skill was based on his military discipline inherited from his father.

During the 3 months that he shared his stay with Beethoven, he did not stop rehearsing the pieces that Haydn composed for him, causing the composer's famous deafness.

#I'mStayingAtElPrado
Diego de Velázquez - Las Meninas (1656)

- Nicolasito, why are you bothering the dog? -said Felipe. - Let him be, dad! the boy is bored with so much palace and so many masks. - No, don't let him! it works very well for my composition. said Diego.

#I'mStayingAtElPrado
La Maja desnuda - Francisco de Goya (1798-1805)

When the Inquisition asked Don Francisco de Goya who that woman was, the Inquisitors were so surprised that they did not dare to transcribe the name of that lady, and years later the sons of those Inquisitors tried to imprison a troubadour for writing obscene phrases against the king. It was then when Goya, already very old, thought of repainting the painting with a mask that he had left over after the confinement of 1825.

Nowadays, the great-great-grandchildren of those inquisitors are taking advantage of a stupid law to condemn and persecute rappers who, like that troubadour, write lyrics that question the performance of the country's monarchs.

#I'mStayingAtNasJonalGalleriet
Edvard Munch - El Grito (1893)

Much has been written about The Scream (Norwegian Skrik), one of the main issues is the title. How do we know that the figure depicted is screaming?

# I'mStayingAtMuséeD'Orsay
Édouard Manet - Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1863)

The authorities considered that the masks represented the degradation of the great French nation and rejected the painting in the official Salon, which is why it was finally hung in the Salon des Refusés.

It is said that when the epidemic was over, Manet painted several paintings with masks, but he did not sell a single painting with masks. When the painter died, his heirs burned all those paintings.

#I'mStayingAtMOMA
Andy Warhol - Marilyn Monroe (1962)

Warhol supposedly put a mask on Korman's original photograph, because in those days he became obsessed with viruses and bacteria. After the first series of works, he voluntarily locked himself at home, as chance would have it that the end of his voluntary confinement coincided with the announcement of Marilyn's death.

#I'mStayingAtElOlmedo
Frida Khalo - Autorretrato con changuito (1945)

Painting a monkey without a monkey is like dancing a tango without a partner - I commented.

- And why does he look scared? - said Diego.

- We have been locked up in the house for 23 days, he is scared because he doesn't know when this nightmare will end. 43 days later Frida was able to leave her house, and they agreed with Diego de Ribera on a temporary separation.

#I'mStayingAtconMichelle
Shepard Fairey - Back Obama (2008)

Some critical voices say that Obama won elections thanks to the epidemic. Shepard Fairey's poster united all Americans in a common sentiment to fight, united, against the life-changing virus.

#I'mStayingAtElPrado
Diego de Velázquez - Inocencio X (1650)

When Pope Innocent X ordered the confinement of the Vatican, he drafted a special clause for Diego de Velázquez to travel to Rome to immortalize him.Velázquez refused to portray the pope, without some system of protection. The Spanish nuncio accompanying Velázquez improvised a mask to protect the painter. In the eyes of Inicencio X, we can see the face of contempt towards the painter.

#I'mStayingAtNationalGalleryOfArt
Rembrant - Autoretrato (1659)

In 1659, Athanasius Kircher published a compilation of plagues in antiquity. That same year Rembrant had to confine himself to his home for 3 weeks, following a rumor that Kircher had died of a plague epidemic after visiting Amsterdam.

# I'mStayingAtGaleríaTretiakov
Valentín Serov - Niña con melocotones (1887)

The Moscow authorities decided to close Abramtsevo, and all the inhabitants were to be locked up in their homes with masks. Serov was able to carry out the order that Savva Mamontov asked him. When leaving the dacha, little Vera asked him if he knew when the confinement would end.

#I'mStayingAtVanGoghMuseum
Vincent van Gogh - Autorretrato en sombrero de fieltro (1887)

My dear Vincent: I loved your last self-portrait. Little by little I understand better your war against photography. As you know it's a bad time for art, Paris has become strange and nobody sells on the street, art is no longer interesting. It worries me that you are alone these days of confinement.

# I'mStayingAtColecciónPrivada
Autoretrato - Francis Bacon

Bacon confessed that the two months of confinement in his small studio at 7 Reece Mews helped him to tidy up his studio and make a fresh start. Years later, after the painter's death, the world was astonished to see the state of the studio.

#I'mStayingAtGalleriaDegliUffizi
Caravaggio - Baco (159 8)

- How long were you with the portrait? My sister asked. - "About 5 days, it's slow. The worst thing was the mask. He painted without a mask, saying that since we didn't leave his workshop we shouldn't worry."

- And he used the mirrors? Yes of course, it was magic!

#I'mStayingAtMuseumLudwig

Roy Lichtenstein - M_Maybe (1965)

In the New York of 65, there was the great Rat epidemic, the art of those times was influenced by the prevailing sense of alarm. There were great controversies about the confinement measures decreed by the city council, but thanks to them, the problem could be solved in time.

#I'mStayingAtlaNationalGallery
Jan van Eyck - El matrimonio Arnolfini (1434)

Even today, it is still a mystery that Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife continued with the project of his portrait once the confinement of all the people of Bruges had been decreed. Jan van Eyck had passed the illness and did not decline the succulent offer of marriage. Giovanni thought it safer to do the portrait with a mask.

In the portrait that can be seen today in the National Gallery there is no trace of the masks. The author of the "arrangement" is unknown, but thanks to X-rays, we know that the original is as shown in this series.

# I'mStayingAtColecciónPrivada
Jean-Michel Basquiat - Dos Cabezas (1982)

Monday, October 4, 1982. Wahol meets Basquiat at a lunch with Bruno Bischofgberger. At the end Basquiat goes to his highest and two hours after the delivery of the painting to Warhol, still wet.

Warhol left testimony of this in his diaries, what he does not comment is why the two wear masks. There are several theories, the most plausible one suggests that it was a copy of the Marilyn with a mask that Warhol painted 20 years earlier.