Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse occupies a central place in the imagination of contemporary visual culture, regularly reinterpreted by artists through graphic appropriation, subversion, and homage to the great icons of the twentieth century. Created by Walt Disney in 1928, the character quickly moved beyond animation to become one of the most recognizable symbols of global mass culture and, as such, a key material for artists questioning the construction of popular myths and the power of images.

Andy Warhol was among the first to integrate Mickey into a fully articulated artistic approach, laying the foundations for a long tradition of appropriation in which Mickey ceases to be a character and becomes a motif, a sign, a formal device. Since then, he has been reinterpreted in painting, sculpture, limited editions, and urban art, often through contrasts between the reassuring familiarity of his silhouette and the radical transformations imposed by artists—whether political détournement, fragmentation, dark reinterpretation, or unexpected contextual shifts.

On Artsper, this selection brings together contemporary works in which Mickey is revisited through diverse approaches, ranging from urban language to colorful abstraction and references to modern art history, demonstrating the capacity of an icon to be endlessly renewed through artistic creation.