The triumph of Western Art is the triumph of the Catholic Church —ecclesiastic patronage invented The Portrait, the original Profile Picture. The church is made of mortal men who crave immortality.
The portrait of the Pope has traced visual registers, revealing the stark humanity of those men who claim divine authority. Titian painted Pope Paul III 20 years after Raphael's Leo X. Velázquez's Innocent X came 100 years later, famously unflattering. Bacon almost 300 years later produces over 50 studies—demonic, despairing, caged.
Today, 70 years later, Ito and Xanthrax confront this tradition in the new church of Cryptocurrency. 2000 iterations using generative processes, pure iconoclasm. The pope sits in an electric chair.
The ultimate derivative of the derivative. The portrait to end all portraiture, the Profile Picture to end all Profile Pictures.
