Blessed Art Thou

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Blessed Art Thou
Artist	Kate Kretz
Year	2000s
Medium	oil paint, acrylic paint, linen
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Blessed Art Thou is an oil-and-acrylic painting by American artist Kate Kretz. It depicts actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary, hovering in the clouds with her children above a Wal-Mart store.^[1]

Background[]

The painting directs attention to the celebrity worship cycle: each participant in the cycle perpetuates it while pointing a finger somewhere else.^[2] The title of the painting, “Blessed Art Thou”, is gotten from a line in the Catholic prayer “Hail Mary”: “…blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb...”.^{[citation needed]}

The painting was originally displayed in an exhibit that featured modern and contemporary art. The painting was exhibited at the Miami Art Fair in January 2007, and created a worldwide controversy that was covered by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox television networks, as well as The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and many other international news sources. In the year of 2007, the painting was for sale, and its price was going for $50,000.^[1][3]

A full-size drawing study for the work was included in the exhibition "Beyond Re / Production: Mothering" curated by Felicita Reuschling for the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin in 2011.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

External links[]

• Van Gelder, Lawrence, "Arts Briefly", New York Times, New York, NY, January 8, 2007 [1]

Hoberman, J., "A Mighty Heart, A Mightier Spotlight", Village Voice, New York, June 20, 2007 [2]