An artist gave famous paintings the video-game treatment, and the results are incredible

Adam Lister
"The Scream," today and yesterday. Adam Lister

Artist Adam Lister has brought Da Vinci, Vermeer, and van Gogh into the modern era.

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Lister recreates paintings geometrically, like in 8-bit video games. By doing so, the works seem both familiar and new. They make you think twice about how colors are distributed throughout the paintings, and how figures relate to one another.

"These pictures are like puzzles, carefully taken apart and then pieced back together to reveal the subject," Lister told INSIDER. "By referencing classical works of art, and nostalgic scenes and objects, I find these works to be transformations of images that have a collective familiarity."

Here are some of the highlights of his work.

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In Lister's work, paintings of all eras are rendered in the same style.

LG a sunday afternoon.JPG
Adam Lister

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884
"A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat, 1884. Wikimedia Commons
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Modernist and classical paintings get the same treatment.

Lister Gallery The Last Supper.JPG
Adam Lister

The Last Supper
"The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci, 1495–1498. Wikimedia Commons
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The style also renders the paintings with a new focus. In his adaptation of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," the colors make the sky more prominent than the screaming person.

LG The Scream.JPG
Adam Lister

edvard munch the scream
"The Scream" by Edvard Munch, 1893. Courtesy Sotheby's
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"These works were inspired by my love for geometric abstraction, color field painting, and old school digital graphics," Lister told INSIDER.

LG The Great Wave.JPG
"Under the Wave off Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai. Adam Lister

1024px Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa2
"Under the Wave off Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai, 1829–1832. Wikipedia
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Lister skillfully maintains the original paintings' emotions.

Lister Gallery Portrait of Dr Gachet.JPG
Adam Lister

Portrait_of_Dr._Gachet
"Portrait of Dr. Gachet” by Vincent van Gogh, 1890. Wikipedia
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He approaches art in 8-bit because it reminds him of his childhood and of "the way we remember things."

Lister Gallery Nighthawks.JPG
Adam Lister

Edward Hopper Nighthawks
"Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper, 1942. Wikimedia Commons
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The shapes are simple, but putting them together can be insanely complicated.

The School of Athens
Adam Lister

"The School of Athens" by Raphael
"The School of Athens" by Raphael, 1509—1511. Wikipedia
Read the original article on INSIDER. Copyright 2016.

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