Meme Culture

Posted on by The Wandering Art Historian

I am so grateful to Harry Sayer and the Winter Park/Maitland Observer for the article published today on my upcoming class at the Rollins Center for Lifelong Learning.  “Art History in Pop Culture” takes a closer look at how art history influences today’s pop culture trends, including memes.

Here is a brief excerpt from the article…

Although some members of the art community can be reticent of the idea that repetitive online images measure up to the works of Andy Warhol and other pop artists, Lee believes they are doing themselves a disservice by ignoring online culture’s impact. 

Rather than looking at pop culture art from the 20th century, the class poses a different question: What will art historians be looking at 100 years from today? Lee believes it won’t be an easy endeavor. Although much of human history has had clear, defining paths that have marked different art periods, the frenetic and ever-shifting nature of memes makes a through-line harder to track. 

“When you look at scope in art history, we have to change the way you study it,” Lee said. “You could study a hundred years — the Baroque period, 1500s to the 1700s — as a block where things changed, but you could say this is what you expect. Now, it’s only three weeks that you know what to expect.”

Any child who has grown up with the internet is familiar with meme culture, but Lee will be teaching to a less-acquainted audience — adults age 50 and up. She plans to introduce her students to iconic memes and discuss their unpredictable and unexpected origins. A popular meme of Kermit the Frog sipping tea, for example, was originally a Lipton ice tea marketing campaign in 2014 that quickly shifted into a online shorthand for throwing shade today. She explains while the meme’s text is always different for various contexts, the image of Kermit gives off an attitude that’s recognizable by image alone.

To read the full article, please visit…

https://www.orangeobserver.com/article/rollins-college-to-host-meme-class-in-july

To register for this class, please visit…

https://www.rollins.edu/evening/senior-enrichment-courses/

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The Wandering Art Historian's avatar
I am writer and artist with a degree in art history who loves to talk to people about art. I have spent the last seven years building up The Wandering Art Historian “brand” as a way to connect with people who want to learn more about art. I give lectures and presentations and teach classes and host book club discussions with a creative or artistic connection. I also write about local artists, events, museums, and exhibitions to promote the arts in Central Florida. In 2021, I had a creative crisis. I struggled with authenticity in the art making process. I decided to make myself vulnerable and find out what a real, genuine Adrienne H. Lee artwork would look like. The process was challenging and emotional and revelatory. I learned that if necessity is the mother of invention, then authenticity is the mother of reinvention. I reinvented myself and learned an entirely new medium. The resulting artwork surprised me, and it will surprise you, too. Some people wish for a fairytale ending. For me, the fairy tale is only the beginning.