History Repeats Itself: David LaChapelle on Old Masters

Contemporary artist David LaChapelle looks to Old Master paintings for inspiration, sourcing ideas and concepts from these centuries-old artworks. “I have a strong love of the history of art, especially when you can make it relevant today,” he says. This affinity for and trust in the Old Masters has led LaChapelle to tackle history, mythology, and still lifes in his hypersaturated large-scale photographs; the works produced in these veins are, according to LaChapelle, a way of “rescuing the ideas of the Old Masters and reclaiming them in a contemporary context.”