We’ll be the first to admit it. Bringing our queer eye to the art museum is somewhat redundant.

The great works so clearly speak for themselves, and often in accents we recognize as native to our own little corner of the universe.

Digital artist Harald Seiwert decided to take this idea over the top and do explicitly homosexual versions of great masterpieces, calling his new series Inspired by …

Using a combination of Photoshop and photo shoot, he enhanced already homoerotic works like Caravaggio’s nubile boy cupid in Amor Victorious, at left (click here to see the Caravaggio original), by switching in a live model.

But why limit himself to the handful of often marginally attractive men — mostly burghers, popes and patrons — in great art? The vast majority of masterpieces envisioned beauty in an exclusively female form. He needed to throw in a few transgendered curves to widen his scope, often to pranksterish effect.

At left, for instance, we see his wry take on that infinitely strange portrait, Gabrielle d’Estrée and the Duchesse de Villars (original) by an anonymous artist from the School of Fontainebleau.

The tweaking of the nipple, which seems so casual and familiar in the Seiwert image, remains, in the original, one of art history’s most tantalizing puzzles.

Some scholars believe that the nipple tweaking was an attempt to increase the chance of pregnancy, a supposed superstition of the 16th Century. Others see it as a bit of the ol’ girl-on-girl in high places: Gabreille d’Estree was the mistress of Henri IV of France, who commissioned this bathtub portrait, and is shown in the painting with her mirror-image sister. Erotic and incestuous, then — this clearly is the view Seiwert takes. (For more on the left-handed strangeness of this painting — a favorite of the Surrealists — click here).

Seiwert intends to turn the Inspired series into a book (at left, his lovely take on Maxwell Parrish’s Stars). It will accompany his first volumn of digital puns, Cumrades.

Nightcharm had the pleasure of interviewing the artist recently by email. Born in Germany, serving as an art director at several European ad agencies, Harald Seiwert now lives in Amsterdam “with my husband” (Seiwert and his partner were legally married in 2001 — eat your heart out, citizens!) He is 49 years old.

Nightcharm:Tell us a bit about your technique.

Harald Seiwert: First, I make little notes, draw scetches — none of the photos are a result of improvisation. Then I search for very brave men willing to pose for my bizarre fantasies.

I photograph them against a neutral background — kind of like bluescreen — lighting them without a specific shadow direction, so that I can twist the image later in Photoshop. The background I build with with 3D software — Cinema 4D and Bryce — then I compile the finished montage in Photoshop CS.

NC: And the aim of the works?

Seiwert: Important for me is to maintain the mood and color atmosphere of the original painting. I don’t want to make a straight-forward copy, that would not be very challenging. My intention is to give the original masterpiece a new — often funny — twist. Of course all the female characters are men in my version. This already gives the series a skewered perspective.

NC: I find your self portraits fascinating. You inserted yourself into the self-portraits of famous artists. [Clockwise from top, Seiwert as Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol.] It was sort of like the work of Cindy Sherman, but one step bolder. Why those particular artists?

Seiwert: That’s quite simple. I wanted to do a series of self portraits in the style of gay artists. That was the only reason why I’ve chose people like Hockney and Mapplethorpe and Pierre & Gilles. The fact that they were openly gay, more or less, made me feel connected to them.

Interesting that you’ve mentioned Cindy Sherman. When people criticize my Inspired by … series as not being original, I point to her. She does exactly the same thing with her photos, creating hommages to well-known people and remakes of movie scenes. By the way, I don’t need to prove anymore that I have original ideas; I’ve done that already with my Cumrades set.

NC: The Inspired series eventually branched out to include not only the great masterpieces of the past, but iconic images of movie stars and pop divas. Male transformations of Madonna, Jane Fonda in her Barbarella moment, Grace Jones (left), and a hilarious leatherboy take on Holly Golightly’s whistful breakfast at Tiffany’s. [Click here to see image.]

Seiwert: Yes I wanted to include the living art of our time, movies and music. In fact, I got to meet Jane Fonda. She visited Amsterdam in 2005 for the opening of the Jane Fonda Retrospective at the film museum. Because a friend of mine works for the museum, I’ve asked him to give her a photo of my Barbarella. The people who organised the event said, good idea, but why don’t you give it to her?” So I got a free ticket and now Miss Fonda has a copy of that photo in her posession. I hope she was not too shocked by the all-male version.

NC: Current plans?

Seiwert: Right now I’m finishing up my Inspired by ... series and looking for a publisher. I can be reached at my website.

More on Harald Seiwert
(at left, in the manner of Pierre & Giles)

The Inspired by … series
A demonstration of how a photo is assembled
The Cumrades series
The Cumrades book
Home site

Nightcharm Feature: Married with Children