Have a Heart to Heart with Frida Kahlo or Vincent Van Gogh

Playing Cards Grant Words of Wisdom from Famous Artists

It’s a good day when you can put your fate in the hands of famous artists. Pablo Picasso does have sage advice on your love life. Vincent van Gogh can offer you fresh perspective on how to deal with your boss. Frida Kahlo is the one to turn to with your burning fashion questions.

Art Oracles: Creative & Life Inspiration from the Great Artists is a deck of playing cards that offers up fortune telling from 50 well-known artists. From Laurence King Publishing, the deck features artists living and dead and a few words of advice from each artistic genius as interpreted by writer Katya Tylevich.

Of course, the advice is somewhat cryptic, as all trustworthy soothsaying demands. Illustrated by Mikkel Sommer and written by Tylevich, the deck is shy of a tarot stack’s 78 cards and a standard deck’s 52 but does include an instruction booklet of how to get the most out of the artist musings as well as bios in case you aren’t familiar with the backstory of every “oracle.”

Pick a Card

Shuffle the deck and pick a card. The oracle deck awaits the chance to dispense advice from the likes of Marcel Duchamp, Marina Abramovic, Leonard da Vinci and more.

From Ai Weiwei

When authority says be quiet, get a loudspeaker. Art must fight for freedom or the whole world is a prison. Some things are whole only when they shatter.

From Vincent Van Gogh

If committed, stay committed. Posthumous recognition requires a paper trail. Use daylight to face the night. 

The catch

Like all fortune telling, there is much left for us to interpret. The cards give you a bit of advice on life, work and inspiration but your destiny isn’t foretold by the artists themselves … not exactly … but when that Magic 8 Ball gets made, I’ll definitely let you know.