The Art of the COVID Copy

In her article “The Art of the COVID Copy,” art historian Dana E. Katz investigates the global phenomenon of pandemic-era re-creations of famous artworks within domestic settings, arguing that these digital tableaux reconfigure historical acts of emulation as expressions of modern subjectivity under lockdown. Katz applies an art historical lens to the act of copying in Western art tradition and analyzes popular quarantine copies shared across platforms like Instagram, particularly those inspired by Renaissance and classical art. In the making of those copies, many of them elude a conventional approach, but “feature stuffed animals, vacuum cleaners, macaroni noodles, and plastic pails. Isolation within the house inspired domestic improvisations” (Katz). For example, Instagram user Brenna McMann reproduced Portrait of Martha Thannstetter by Bernhard Strigel, replacing the scripture with a roll of toilet paper; meanwhile, u/squidrobots on Reddit reenacts Andrea Mantegna’s Madonna and Child with a fitted blue bedsheet, instead of the Virgin’s lapis lazuli headcove. These whimsical recreations replace museum reverence with domestic improvisation, making sacred art secular and personal. By making copies in their own homes, everyday people became both artists and performers, engaging in a form of visual culture that brought art to life outside traditional institutions, and evokes a quarantine subjectivity.

The act of recreating historical artworks serves as a deeply personal form of self-expression. It is an opportunity to project one’s humour, frustrations, or desires for connection into iconic images. At the same time, it functions as a collective artistic expression, linking participants through shared cultural references and the playful reinvention of art history. Katz contextualizes these copies as products of physical immobility and emotional need. “Quarantine encouraged a museological practice in which physical immobility created a new cyber community focused on the copy” (Katz), she writes, as through digital circulation, copying a famous art piece connected people to a broader community also dealing with isolation, during the difficult time of global museum closure. It made the static scenes of the museum come alive in quarantine. The significance of the art of copying also lies in how it redefines authorship, originality, and creativity during the pandemic. Katz suggests that these domestic recreations turn isolation into spectacle, helping to reclaim self-agency and cope with crisis.