Art Awakens
Enter the Inner World of Iconic Masterpieces
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Exploring masterpieces spanning five centuries, from Jan van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. Each artwork is transformed into a cinematic moment that invites audiences to step inside the painting’s world.
Project infos
- Status
- In production, first proof-of-concept complete
- Genre
- Arts, Culture, Documentary
- Producer
- Imaginae Studios (Fremantle / RTL / Bertelsmann)
- Format
- 6 × short films, 3 mins each
- Technique
- Generative AI animation of iconic paintings
- Launch
- The Scream, released in April 2026
- AI Models
- Runway, Google Nano Banana Pro, Eleven Labs
The Six Artworks
Each painting was selected for global recognition, visual dynamism, cultural diversity, and unambiguous public domain status. The six works span five centuries, four continents, and six galleries.
| The Scream Munch | 1893 Munch Museum, Oslo |
| Nighthawks Hopper | 1942 Art Institute of Chicago |
| The Great Wave Hokusal | 1831 Tokyo National Museum |
| Starry Night Van Gogh | 1889 MoMA, New York |
| Whistler's Mother Whistler | 1871 Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
| The Arnolfini Portrait Van Eyck | 1434 National Gallery, London |
The Artist
Hilario Abad is a Spanish filmmaker and AI specialist who heads the AI department at La Claqueta, one of Spain’s established production companies. He won the Silver Award at the inaugural Runway GEN:48 competition and was a finalist in its second edition. He brings a cinematic sensibility and serious tone that aligns directly with Art Awakens’ creative ambition.
The Times (April 2026)
"If you want to see The Scream, you could buy a plane ticket to Oslo, book accommodation, reserve a ticket in advance and possibly queue outside the museum for entry before feeling the impact of the painting. Or, you could experience the artwork through an AI-created animation on social media. An AI studio has created a video of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece to make art more accessible to Gen Z and millennials. The three-minute film zooms into the painting, where the petrified figure walks in the moments before he grips his face in existential dread. Over the moving painting, a voice reads Munch’s haunting description of the walk that inspired him, when the sky turned “blood red” and “flaming tongues” hovered above the “blue-black fjord”."
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