FATIGAH, 100 digital prints (framed), 160 x 125 cm, 2022

AI generated GAN* images. 

 

In 2017 H.R.H. Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud bought a painting entitled Salvator Mundi, Allegedly created by Leonardo Da Vinci, at auction at Christie’s in New York. The painting made a record breaking 450 million dollars, making it the most expensive painting ever to be sold under the hammer. Today, this painting allegedly resides on his yacht, somewhere docked at harbor or at sea, away from the public eye and still ever contested as an original Da Vinci.  

 

Salvator Mundi (Savior of the world) is a common theme throughout all of art history.

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We have given instruction to an AI computer to create 100 new images of Christ as the Salvator Mundi, which have been generated in an attempt to understand our large dataset of paintings, ranging from the early renaissance until now. In an attempt to create new paintings, the machine bears both angels and monsters. A selection has been printed.

 

In collaboration with Daan Heemskerk

*Generative Adversarial Network