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COPIED
Consequential moments in American politics have long been depicted in the art world.
President Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 assassination is the subject of numerous works exhibited from institutions like The Metropolitan Museum of Art to Ford’s Theater, where the infamous shooting took place. Ditto for President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, which has been explored widely across contemporary art. Andy Warhol’s “Jackie” series famously depicted the former First Lady both at the peak of Kennedy’s powers and in the tragic aftermath of her husband’s murder.
Following Saturday’s (Jul. 13) assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., it should come as no surprise that several digital artists were quick to put their own stamp on the event. Given the striking nature of the photographs from the shooting, showing a bloodied but defiant Trump hoisting a fist against an American flag backdrop, additional pieces will likely emerge in the days ahead.
Here is a roundup of some of the notable digital artists who have posted their own depictions of the assassination attempt so far.
Beeple
Beeple has been creating daily artworks in his Everydays series for more than 14 years, famously selling a composite of his first 5,000 pieces for more than $69 million at Christie’s in 2021. As soon as the news of the shooting broke out, a number of web3 figures began speculating on how the top-selling NFT artist of all time would immortalize the incident. The artist that we’ve described as “a political cartoonist for Internet culture” delivered an austere interpretation of AP photographer Evan Vucci’s enduring image from the day’s events.
Yungjake
Yungjake (born Jake Patterson) is a Los Angeles-based artist who has garnered considerable attention with his emoji portraits of celebrities like Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian, earning features in The New York Times and W Magazine. In an early Sunday morning post, Patterson opted to reimagine Vucci’s photo through his pointillist, pop culture lens by isolating Trump and the female Secret Service agent on his right against a stark white backdrop.
Tim Grib
Mixed-media digital artist Tim Grib delivered a dystopian take on the scene that recalls Ralph Steadman’s gonzo drawings in Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72.” Complete with a monstrous Trump, distorted Secret Service agents, and a jab at Biden’s mental state, this is one of the darker portrayals of the incident to emerge to date.
Bold Leonidas
Recognized as a Next Up artist in January, Bold Leonidas regularly captures the topic du jour on crypto Twitter with light-hearted hand-drawn cartoons. Posted just hours after the news broke, Leonidas channeled “The Matrix” movies in showing Trump dodging a streaking bullet in full Neo fashion. Leonidas couldn’t resist posting a second piece on Sunday morning featuring Lincoln and lampooning the early media reports that attributed the incident to a “fall.”
Darkfarms
Darkfarms is a popular crypto artist and creator of the Book of Meme ($BOME) memecoin that experienced a meteoric rise in March of this year. A long-standing contributor to the Pepe art community, Darkfarms opted for a simple and straightforward representation of a froggish Trump with his fist outstretched beneath the American flag.
Foonie
After a poster compared Vucci’s ubiquitous photo of Trump to anime superhero All Might from the My Hero Academia series, digital artist Foonie created a dedicated work depicting a fist-pumping Trump in a similar manga-inspired style. At the time of publication, the post has garnered more than 4 million views.
Ifure Usen
Recognized on our Black History Month list of artists bringing unique art to web3, Nigerian artist Ifure Usen frequently demonstrates his prowess with the pencil through his prolific drawings. On Sunday afternoon, Usen unveiled his latest piece inspired by another Evan Vucci photograph from the scene, showing a blood-streaked Trump with a clenched fist beneath the American flag’s red stripes. He also shared a time-lapse video of the piece’s creation in an earlier post.
Arch
A beloved member of the Mog Coin community, Arch has been “mogging” Beeple’s Everydays by adding the memecoin’s trademark Pit Viper sunglasses and laughing cat to his works each day. Today was no exception.
