It came to our attention today that someone started creating art historical images of the “Pepper Spray Cop,” who in real life is Lt. John Pike, the U.C. Davis campus police officer who pepper-sprayed passive student protesters recently. One such example is the image at right, where Pike is pepper-spraying Christina from “Christina’s World,” a famous painting by Andrew Wyeth. You can see a collection of them here and also a Tumblr blog collecting them here.

We’re wondering if we can take any credit for the idea of putting an internet meme in art history, since we put the “Creepin’ A-Rod” internet meme into art historical paintings back on October 22nd …?