# General > General Chat >  Your favourite artist and Painting

## Niamh

I know this is a literary site but because everyone here appreciate the art that is literature i was wondering who your favourite Artists are and what your favourite painting, sculpture etc are as well. Maybe you could even post the image here and create a discussion about different paints and the like? I thought it would be a nice idea and a nice way to get to know more about what the people here like and dislike.

One of my favourite Artists is the Irish Artist Jack.B.Yeats, brother of W.B.Yeats and this is one of his Paintings, It is intitled Freedom.

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## Bakiryu

Starry Night~Vincent Van Goght

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## Shalot

The Scream - Edvard Munch

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## Niamh

I'm also a big fan of Brian Froud as you can see from my Avatar and Sig Pic.

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## srpbritlit

Aphrodite of Milos (Venus de Milo) by Alexandros of Antioch
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

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## cuppajoe_9

Oooh, I took Art History this term.


_Black Iris III_ by Georgia O'Keeffe. I wrote a paper about this one; just beautiful.


_The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons_: Joseph Mallord William Turner. Turner is nowhere near as famous as he deserves to be, in my opinion.


_Boulevard des Capucines, Paris_ by Claude Monet. Not much to say, really, it's just amazing.

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## kathycf

I mentioned in my blog about Pre-Raphealites. I am very fond of that style, although I like many others. My favorite artist is J.W. Waterhouse, and this is one of my favs of his work.

Hylas and the Nymphs.

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## Babbalanja

> One of my favourite Artists is the Irish Artist Jack.B.Yeats, brother of W.B.Yeats and this is one of his Paintings, It is intitled Freedom.


I too love J.B. Yeats. 

One summer I took a trip to Dublin and was floored by his painting _There Is No Night_ during a visit to the Museum of Modern Art there:

I've never seen a Jack Yeats painting that didn't impress me.

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## kiz_paws

Good thread, Niamh! It is very difficult to pinpoint a favorite artist, as there are so many fantastic artists who have come and gone and who are yet to be recognized...

In my blog I touched on two that I do call my 'favorites' (Dali and Monet). And I just wanted to post two small Dali's that I really love. [I loved the Monet choice of yours, by the way, cuppajoe! ]



"Destruction of Persistance Of Memory"



"Christ of St. John of the Cross"

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## grace86

Here are two that when I read the thread I thought of:

Martha Rebuking Mary for Her Vanity - Guido Cagnacci
http://www.nortonsimon.org/art.aspx?id=M.1982.5.P

David Slaying Goliath - Peter Paul Rubens
http://www.nortonsimon.org/art.aspx?id=F.1972.05.P

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## hyperinsomnia

Dali - The temptation of St Anthony

You can see a bit of it in my signature..

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## Niamh

> I too love J.B. Yeats. 
> 
> One summer I took a trip to Dublin and was floored by his painting _There Is No Night_ during a visit to the Museum of Modern Art there:
> 
> I've never seen a Jack Yeats painting that didn't impress me.


That is actually my favourite Yeats painting. You saw it in the Hugh Lane Gallery of modern art on Parnel street? You are lucky to have seen it as the collection of paintings fluctuates between there and the Tate i think. Duel ownership. The majority of his painting are in the National Gallery of ireland in the Yeats Gallery.

Kiz i also like Dali. The Metamorposis of Narsissus is my favourite!

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## manolia

I agree with *kiz* and *hyperinsomnia* concerning the painter but not the painting.
Dali- Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening
(what a name!!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_C...fore_Awakening

Due to proffesion, i have a tendency for buildings and structures in general. This one is amazing and trully a work of art (by the spanish architect Gaudi):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:S...a-overview.jpg

And it would be a pity if i didn't mention this one too

http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%95%...:Parthenon.jpg

Or a modern building

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image: DubAymx.JPG

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## andave_ya

I don't know a lot of art but my favorite sculpture of all I've yet seen is Donatello's "David."
Paintings would have to be any in kathy's blog. Those are absolutely breathtaking!

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## Lote-Tree

Favourite Artists include - Dali, Vangoh, Monet

One of my favourite paintings:

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## Shalot

> Starry Night~Vincent Van Goght


Who doesn't like Van Gogh? I wouldn't mind having any of his work (they'd be re-prints of course).

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## Adudaewen

Christ Carrying the Cross - El Greco

This is the first painting that ever made me cry.

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## GothMan

*Caspar David Friedrich* - Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Friedrich



A collection of some of my favourite paintings (and more):
http://www.ld50.hu/users/GothMan  :Yawnb:

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## Themis

Some of my favourite painters (Not my favourite paintings but just to give you an idea what their style was like) are:

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller


René Magritte


Peter Paul Rubens

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## SleepyWitch

> _The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons_: Joseph Mallord William Turner. Turner is nowhere near as famous as he deserves to be, in my opinion.


is he the same Turner who often gets mentioned together with Constable?

*kathy*, I like the Pre-Raphaelites too  :Smile:  very nice painting.

*GothMan*, are you a fan of German Romanticism? I notice you've got a Novalis quote in your sig and your taste in paintings ties in with that. 

I'm not really into art but I generally like Belgian, Italian and English paintings, anything younger than those garish Gothic paintings of 500 saints queuing in a market square is fine with me  :Smile:

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## Niamh

This Is also one of my favourite Paintings. Its by an artist called Francis Denby and is displayed in the National Gallery of Ireland. Its called The Opening of the Sixth Seal. Its an Apocoliptic art.
If you look closely you can see the greedy rich cowering on the grown and the poor and slaves with the arms wide rejoicing because they are finally free.

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## thevintagepiper

I really like Starry Night and Wanderer Over the Sea of Fog (or of Clouds, as I've heard it referred to), but my favorite painting was done by a close friend, for me. It's a girl sitting on a hill overlooking the sea, holding a set of bagpipes. It's absolutely lovely; she is truly talented. When I opened it a few Christmases ago I couldn't stop crying to think how beautiful it was and how much time and love she had put into it for me.

Wow, haven't been here in ages.

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## cuppajoe_9

> is he the same Turner who often gets mentioned together with Constable?


Probably. Constable was the one who made the 'airy visions painted with steam' comment in reference to Turner.

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## Riesa

Rancho Church, Georgia O'keefe, which in my younger more ignorant days, I had painted my own version of from a photo, I didn't realize she had painted the same until I lived in D.C. and visited the Phillips collection, (which is an amazing gallery with a vivid collection) I was chilled to the bone when I saw her painting. of course hers is better. 

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth...he's great. 



This has been hanging in my parent's house since before I was born. Some days this painting is more real then on other days.

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## Domer121

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot--Springtime of Life.....

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## SheykAbdullah

> is he the same Turner who often gets mentioned together with Constable?


It most certainly. Both of them are considered pre-cursors to the ultimate Impressionistic movement, particularly Turner whose paintings are usually hazy fields of pale hues with startling bursts of color. He didn't quite have the same sense of light as Monet or the other, nor quite the same elaborate understanding of color theory that eventually produced Seurat and Signac, but they were definitely tied together in the pre-impressionist movement.

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## Schokokeks

> Dali - The temptation of St Anthony


There is another famous _Temptation of St. Anthony_, although quite a different style. It is painted on wood on a triptychon (three-winged altar) now in France:



My favourites:

Anything by Franz Marc, particularly this one, called _Fighting Forms_:



One that never fails to scare me, _The Nightmare_ by Johann Füssli:



There are so many more, but I can't find most of them online.

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## Niamh

> One that never fails to scare me, _The Nightmare_ by Johann Füssli:
> 
> 
> 
> There are so many more, but I can't find most of them online.


Yeo that is a bit scary alright! I hate that concept of the hag sitting on your chest at night while you sleep and not being able to breath or scream from terror! :Frown:

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## Schokokeks

> I hate that concept of the hag sitting on your chest at night while you sleep and not being able to breath or scream from terror!


Veeery nasty idea indeed, was one of my horrors as a child. In German, that monster is called _Alb_, and nightmare is _Albtraum_ (_traum_ is dream). The English "nightmare" comes from _Nachtmahr_, _mahr_ being an old word for horse. 
I find it very interesting that both the _Alb_ and the horse are represented in the picture...

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## andave_ya

http://www.tfaoi.com/cm/2cm/2cm39.jpg

I really like Andrew Wyeth's work. There's a painting of an old man but I can't remember the name or find it on Google, so here's a painting of the woman who rejuvenated his art; her name is Helga.

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## cuppajoe_9

I love Füssli's _Nightmare_ paintings too. Here's my favorite:

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## andave_ya

Since we got into scary paintings, anyone see any of Francisco Goya's work? Specifically, "Chronos Devouring One of his Children?" That is one freakishly frightening painting.

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## Virgil

I must admit I prefer the Renaissance artists, Da vinci, Michanagelo, Raphael, and many others. To me that is the height of painting as an art form.

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## cuppajoe_9

> I must admit I prefer the Renaissance artists, Da vinci, Michanagelo, Raphael, and many others. To me that is the height of painting as an art form.


Not to mention the awesome ninja action!

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## kathycf

I like Degas as well. I was tempted to just post another pre-Raphealite, but no, I am going with Degas.







> Not to mention the awesome ninja action!


Heroes on a half shell?

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## grace86

> This has been hanging in my parent's house since before I was born. Some days this painting is more real then on other days.



It has been hanging in my house for as long as I can remember too. It always makes me sad.

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## Schokokeks

> Since we got into scary paintings, anyone see any of Francisco Goya's work? Specifically, "Chronos Devouring One of his Children?" That is one freakishly frightening painting.


Oh, how could I forget him among my favourites ?  :Smile: 
My favourite, though, is another one: _The Slumber of Reason produces Monsters_. Very interesting idea.

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## Virgil

> Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth...he's great. 
> 
> 
> 
> This has been hanging in my parent's house since before I was born. Some days this painting is more real then on other days.


I don't know much of Wyeth, but every time I'm shown something, it really does rock me. Great painting Reisa. Who would Christina be, BTW?

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## kiz_paws

These are all really cool paintings ... thanks for the enlightenment, guys!  :Smile:

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## Niamh

Here are another two of my favourite paintings think i've mentioned them before and posted one of them elsewhere but anyhoodle!




And yes, i also want her dress! :Smile:

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## andave_ya

http://herotwins.hypermart.net/corn_god/goya1.jpg

this is the Goya I was talking about. Absolutely gives me the shivers. It's called _Chronos Devouring one of His Children._

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## GothMan

> *GothMan*, are you a fan of German Romanticism? I notice you've got a Novalis quote in your sig and your taste in paintings ties in with that.


Yes, absolutely.  :Nod:  Here's an another one I like:
*Karl Friedrich Schinkel*: Gothic Cathedral by the Waterside (a copy by Wilhelm Ahlborn)

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## Themis

This is one of my favourites:



My grandmother has a copy of it, not the original painting by Rubens of course. But I love it and it looks exactly like the original. I'm a fan of mythology and I've always loved the scene.

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## Niamh

> Yes, absolutely.  Here's an another one I like:
> *Karl Friedrich Schinkel*: Gothic Cathedral by the Waterside (a copy by Wilhelm Ahlborn)


Wow. that cathedral almost looks real!

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## Bii

> Oooh, I took Art History this term.
> 
> 
> _Black Iris III_ by Georgia O'Keeffe. I wrote a paper about this one; just beautiful.


Is it just me that finds this painting a little bit suggestive?.....

Personally I love pretty much anything by Dali, but particularly Geopolitical Child.

I also love McKenzie Thorpe who ranges from some quite dark and disturbing work to childlike innocence.

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## manolia

> Is it just me that finds this painting a little bit suggestive?.....
> .


 :FRlol:  I thought that it was my imagination playing games. I am relieved now, since someone has the same impression.

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## cuppajoe_9

> Is it just me that finds this painting a little bit suggestive?.....


It's not just you. The paper I wrote contained about a page and a half on that subject.

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## kathycf

O'Keefe totally denied that her paintings resembled anything other than flowers. Maybe she didn't intend them to look like female body parts, but some of them do. Dunno. She said the following about the issue:




> Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.


I remember the squeals of outrage in my American Art class a couple of years ago, when the "kids" (sorry, but 19 and 20 year olds are kids to me) were showed slides of O' Keefe's work. I clearly remember some girl saying "Ew".  :Rolleyes:  I think I sprained an eyeball with all the rolling my eyes did that day. 

I think her paintings of poppies are among my favorites.

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## cuppajoe_9

> O'Keefe totally denied that her paintings resembled anything other than flowers.


She somewhat danced around the issue, actually. To quote my paper:




> "That’s something people themselves put into the paintings”, she told Dorothy Seiberling, “They’ve found things that never entered my mind. *That doesn’t mean they weren’t there*, but the the things they said astonished me." [Emphasis mine]


Oh, say no more, say no more, wink wink, nudge nudge, nudge is as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh?

Of course it's possible that she was ambivalent about it because Alfred Steiglitz, her husband and promoter, _insisted_ that they were girly bits.




> I remember the squeals of outrage in my American Art class a couple of years ago, when the "kids" (sorry, but 19 and 20 year olds are kids to me) were showed slides of O' Keefe's work.


Gah.

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## TEND

My favorite is Giorgio De Chirico

The Nostalgia of the Infinite


Melancholy and the Mystery of the Street


These both are earlier, around 1914 paintings, in later years he switched to a much more surrealist style, however these earlier paintings are the ones I fell in love with and my favorites. 
p.s. I was lucky enough to see many of his paintings within the Rome museum of modern art  :Biggrin:  .

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## byquist

Monet, including his haystacks which I once saw 20 or 30 together in one show.

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## Shalot

> O'Keefe totally denied that her paintings resembled anything other than flowers. Maybe she didn't intend them to look like female body parts, but some of them do. Dunno...........
> .............. I think her paintings of poppies are among my favorites.


Good to know. I thought her flowers were the most boring paintings ever before I read this thread and found out that some people think they resemble er, girl stuff. Clearly those are not just poppies. Wow.

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## jon1jt

NYC Line Artist Ty Wilson. he's a small fry compared to some of the names being dropped here. I have his Paris Blue and The Date prints framed. 

i'd like to post them but still cant figure out how.  :Frown:

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## kathycf

> Good to know. I thought her flowers were the most boring paintings ever before I read this thread and found out that some people think they resemble er, girl stuff. Clearly those are not just poppies. Wow.


Hmm, well it isn't just some people. Check out what cuppajoe says in his post. The resemblences to genitalia were remarkable enough to some people to cause quite a stir about O'Keefe's work. God I feel so stupid at my age being embarrased to write the word "genitalia" in a post.  :Blush:  I mean, some of her paintings look suggestive to me, and some don't and honestly...I don't really care. I mentioned a while ago when asked about symbolism in art that I am completely superficial, I like looking at the pictures and that's it. 

To me, those poppies look like poppies, and poppies are some of my favorite flowers...and wasn't it Freud who said "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". He was big on seeing symbolized "naughty bits" too. 



> Of course it's possible that she was ambivalent about it because Alfred Steiglitz, her husband and promoter, insisted that they were girly bits


According to at least one of O'Keefe's biographers, she pursued a lesbian relationship with artist Rebecca Strand, and her marriage to Stieglitz was one of convenience. I guess we could make an argument about her subconscious desires coming through in her art, but frankly, I'd rather quote Monty Python...*wink wink, nudge nudge*.  :Biggrin:

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## GothMan

*Claude-Joseph Vernet*: Storm on a Mediterranean Coast



Sentimentalism anyone?  :Yawnb:

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## cuppajoe_9

> i'd like to post them but still cant figure out how.


Kathy is all over it.

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## littlewing53

i really, really like o'keefe too..especially her painting called "the blue wave"...the colors are incredible...i have yet to be able to find it tho...i first saw it in one of her calendars in the 80s...

another one is edward hopper...a lot of people will probably will probably recognize his bar scene "nighthawks"...but he has many more...

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## cuppajoe_9

Is that it, littlewing?

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## Niamh

> Is that it, littlewing?


Is it just me or is there something about that painting that makes you want to stop and look at it for ages?

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## littlewing53

awesome cuppa joe !!!...***humbly bows** i have been looking for that picture 4ever...and could never find it...i wanted to get a print....thank you ever so much...can you tell me the link to go there and get it so i can hold it n hug it...i thought it was one of her best ones...and yes niamh i agree, the colors of blue are just beautiful...  :Smile: ...again this forum comes thru...i so enjoy everyone here... :Smile:

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## Niamh

> awesome cuppa joe !!!...***humbly bows** i have been looking for that picture 4ever...and could never find it...i wanted to get a print....thank you ever so much...can you tell me the link to go there and get it so i can hold it n hug it...i thought it was one of her best ones...and yes niamh i agree, the colors of blue are just beautiful... ...again this forum comes thru...i so enjoy everyone here...


I must admit, the more i look at it the more i like it. There is something quite captivating about it. It is calming and tranquil. :Nod:

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## cuppajoe_9

> awesome cuppa joe !!!...***humbly bows** i have been looking for that picture 4ever...and could never find it...i wanted to get a print....thank you ever so much...can you tell me the link to go there and get it so i can hold it n hug it...i thought it was one of her best ones...and yes niamh i agree, the colors of blue are just beautiful... ...again this forum comes thru...i so enjoy everyone here...


I've lost the original source, but you can take it off of my Flickr account here.

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## kiz_paws

Wow, that is one incredible painting, thanks for the request and thanks for the delivery. I fully agree that one can sit and gaze at that for a long time. Very beautiful.  :Smile:

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## Bii

> It's not just you. The paper I wrote contained about a page and a half on that subject.


Thank goodness for that - for a moment I can feel a little less depraved!

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## NickAdams

Rene Magritte
The Menaced Assassin

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## Big Al

My favorite artist or my favorite painter?

Bah, I know what you mean. My favorite artist is Salvador Dali, but I'm also a huge Picasso fan. Couldn't tell you my favorite works; that would take some evaluation.

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## Niamh

> Rene Magritte
> The Menaced Assassin


Fancy posting a pic of the painting so we can have a look? :Smile:

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## NickAdams

Rene Magritte










Incase the link is ever removed:

magritte4a.jpg

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## hockeychick8792

> Who doesn't like Van Gogh? I wouldn't mind having any of his work (they'd be re-prints of course).


I love Van Gogh. He is amazing who can not like starry night? :Tongue:

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## Annamariah

My favourite painter is probably Albert Edelfelt. I've got Queen Blanca on my wall  :Smile:

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## GothMan

> My favourite painter is probably Albert Edelfelt. I've got Queen Blanca on my wall


What a lovely painting! Thanks for sharing!  :Thumbs Up:   :Tongue:

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## Niamh

yikes nick! thats one crazy painting!

Anna i really like that painting! its amazing how he painted the silk of her dress!

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## NickAdams

I like it because I see each figure occupying the room at a different time. It reminds me of Faulkner's storytelling. It's a mystery that can never be solved!
His other work is interesting.

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## Il Penseroso

This one I'm actually unsure of, I'll have to look it up and check:



"The Garden of Earthly Delight" (I believe) by Heironymous Bosch:




One of Wassily Kandinky's "Compositions," I can't remember which:



I could just stare at that one for hours.

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## Annamariah

> Anna i really like that painting! its amazing how he painted the silk of her dress!


Edelfelt did amazing job with painting fabrics.  :Smile:  They just look so _real_.

This is another painting by Edelfelt. It's called "A Child's Funeral".



Edelfelt was in need of money, and so he "re-painted" this painting as a "happy version", where they are heading for a christening instead of a funeral. A picture of it can be found if you click the link below. Choose "aiheet", then "kansankuvaus" and find a painting called "Ristiäissaatto"

http://www.yle.fi/teema/teemagalleri...rt_swf.php?id=

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## Turk

Oh my... Use of light is amazing in this painting.

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## kenikki

favourite painters is vincent van gogh and francis bacon. The Starry Night is my all time favourite painting.

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## BibliophileTRJ

Johannes Vermeer's *Girl with a Pearl Earring*



I have seen both this painting and the Mona Lisa in person and was completely enraptured by the above and TOTALLY underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa.

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## Haven

_"I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint."_
Frida Kahlo 
_"I drank to drown my pain, but the damned pain learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good behavior."_ 
Frida Kahlo 




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo

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## Annamariah

> Johannes Vermeer's *Girl with a Pearl Earring*
> I have seen both this painting and the Mona Lisa in person and was completely enraptured by the above and TOTALLY underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa.


I was waiting for that one to come up. I would have mentioned it myself, if no one else did  :Biggrin:  There's something very fascinating in that girl. (And I liked the book Tracy Chevalier wrote about it  :FRlol: )

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## littlewing53

i really like fridas paintings...she was an incredible woman and painter...needless to say being impounded with a steel rod thru her body in a bus accident definitely influenced all her paintings....i don't think any stories or bios could do her life justice as she really lived..only her paintings truly tell the story

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## Haven

> i really like fridas paintings...she was an incredible woman and painter...needless to say being impounded with a steel rod thru her body in a bus accident definitely influenced all her paintings....i don't think any stories or bios could do her life justice as she really lived..only her paintings truly tell the story


I couldn't agree more. To have been as you say 'impounded with a steel rod thru her body' whilst still a teenager and then to have gone on to produce some of the best surrealist works that were in truth the biography of her life... I saw her paintings at Tate Modern in London and in actuality, they were even more intense than I had imagined possible. And of course disturbing too. But that was her reality.

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## Werther

This has been a really great thread! Thanks everyone for posting these fabulous images. Unfortunately, I could never figure out how to display an image myself, but I will suggest the works of Italian artist, Modigliani. I have always adored the eloquence, the simplicity and the note of sorrow in his portraits. One might say that Modigliani is to painting what Chopin is to music and Turgenev is to literature. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think he died very young as an emmigre in Paris. Well, as Nietzsche said, 'the gods love those who die young'.

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## Haven

Hi Werther
Re Modigliani I have a repro (of course) of "Woman with a Fan", approximation of the actual title. I love his style, the elongated faces and elegance of his subjects and the flatness of the space that they occupy. I have loved this site too. I hope we can continue on with more discussions and representations like this. Haven

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## Moira

I like Monet and Modigliani and yes Werther he died at 36.
I've seen the movie Modigliani with Andy Garcia and loved it.

But my favourite artist is Michelangelo and my strongest desire was to see one of his works live so to speak and two years ago i've been to Rome and i've seen PIETA in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City and it was just amazing.

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## stlukesguild

As an artist selecting just a single favorite artist or single favorite painting is as much of an impossibility as selecting a single favorite book as a bibliophile (although I would almost certainly need to go with Shakespeare as the writer :Biggrin: ). As such I've decided to post something along the lines of my top ten (or a few more) with the full knowledge that this list would probably change if I were asked again on another day.

*1. Michelangelo- The Sistine Cieling* - This work would almost certainly remain at the top of my list at any time. To my mind Michelangelo is the greatest artist ever... bar none. If I were to search for a literary equivalent to his achievements I would almost need to think of something along the lines of a combination of Homer, Dante, and Milton. he is the greatest grand epic poet of art:

IMG]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k255/Stlukesguild/Sistinesmall.jpg[/IMG]





I have have always found that any time I return to studying Michelangelo's work I find even something further to make me wonder and leave me in a state of awe and admiration.

*2. Heironymus Bosch- The Garden of Earthly Delights-* A good many of those works that I would think of as "favorites" are paintings that have such a degree of complexity that I find I can return to them again and again and never tire of them... never fail to discover something new. Bosh certainly lives up to this standard:



*3. Botticelli- Primavera-* Botticelli's great allegory of the arrival of spring certainly does not lack a complexity worthy of Bosch... in spite of it being far simpler upon first glance. The tapestry-like field of flowers, for example, illustrate some 100s of different species of flowers. The artist spent an entire year in rendering the obsessive detail of this painting. In spite of its laborious creation the work conveys a complete feeling of joy and lightness. The figures dance and float across this tapestry/frieze-like surface in an unabashed song to spring... rebirth... and love. I've never been able to look at the painting without thinking of Vivaldi and Petrarch and Spencer's _Amoretti_ and _Epithalimion_.



*4. Pieter Breughel- The Blue Cloak (Netherlandish Proverbs)-* Breughel is certainly a must among my favorite painters. With him the choice of the single representative work becomes difficult. I have always loved the painting of _August (Autumn)_, and _Hunters in the Snow_ from his series on the months. I'm also greatly enamored of _The Fall of the Rebel Angels_, the horrific _Triumph of Death_ and _Dulle Griet (Mad Meg)_... however I'd probably need to go with the fabulous _Netherlandish Proverbs_. This great painting appears at first to be but a highly detailed painting by a master of observation of a Flemish village of the era:



Upon closer inspection, however, we discover that almost every figure in the image is actually a visual representation of a traditional Netherlandish proverb or folk saying:



"One has to crawl to make one's way through the world" and "He holds the whole world at the tip of his thumb"



"He runs his head against a brick wall"



"She holds fire in one hand and water in the other" (She runs hot and then cold)

continued...

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## stlukesguild

*5. Rembrandt- Lucretia, Hendrickje Bathing, Self-Portrait 1669-* I have always imagined Rembrandt as the Shakespeare of art. While Michelangelo is the giant of epic heroic art, no artist has captured human emotions with such depth as Rembrandt. Where most artists paint figures, Rembrandt paints human beings... characters whom become as real as those created by Shakespeare or Dickens at his best. The painting, _Lucretia_, in the National Gallery of Art in washington is probably the single painting to have left the most profound emotional impact upon me... at least of those I have seen in person.



Of course the artist's great _Self Portrait_ or 1669 from the same museum is no less moving. One cannot help but feel the profound sorrows etched upon the face of this artist (the loss of his wife, his wealth and reputation, his only son...). All this says nothing of the brilliance of his handling of paint itself:



Of course Rembrandt was not all tragedy. His painting of his young lover/soon to be wife, Hendrickje wading in a stream is certainly one of the most loving of erotic images... erotic with absolutely nothing salacious about it. 



*6. Pieter Paul Rubens- Portrait of Susanna Fourment, The Judgment of Paris, Little Fur, The Garden of Love*- Rubens is another master from who I could not choose a single painting. He is most well known as the master of epic-scaled heroic narrative paintings... images of the Crucifixion and Deposition... battle and hunting scenes... and narratives from classical mythology. His finest works, however, are almost invariably the more personal. Perhaps his greatest portrait is this depiction of his lovely sister-in-law, Helena Fourment. The painting is so sensual and full of life that commentators throughout history could not help but imagine an illicit affair existing between the sitter and the artist.



Of course the artist didn't need to run to a sister-in-law to find his erotic pleasures... in his late 50s he would marry the 16-year old Helena Fourment, called by many the most beautiful woman in the Netherlands. Several years after the death of his first wife, Isabella Brandt, whom he had deeply loved, Rubens showed himself to be absolutely enthralled and enchanted by the young Helena. He would paint her again and again and again. His life-sized portrait of her dressed in only a fur wrap (inspired by his artistic idol, Titian) is perhaps the most erotically charged of these paintings:



Helena showed up not only in portraits, but she also became an actress of sorts... posing for various mythological paintings. In _The Judgment of Paris_, Helena has become the triumphant goddess of love, Venus, in the beauty competition set to spur on the Trojan War.



She also arrives with her consort... the artist himself... in the _Garden of Love_, a masterpiece of young lovers dressed in satins and lace engaged in flirtations in a courtly garden. This painting would become the very foundation of the entire Rococo... especially of the paintings of Watteau.



Continued...

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## stlukesguild

*7. Pierre Bonnard- Perfume, The Toilette, Terrace, Landscape at Vernon*- From Rubens I end in jumping to the 20th century. In spite of the fact that I have no doubt as to the absolute dominating presense of Picasso... his innovation... his amazing scale and breadth of output... still, for whatever reason, I have ever been absolutely enchanted by the work of Pierre Bonnard. Matisse himself upon seeing the great collection of Bonnard's work in the Phillip's collection in Washington admitted that Bonnard might just have been the greatest of them all. In spite of this, many critics have dismissed him as nothing more than a late Impressionist. I must admit that he is something of a "painter's painter"... he slowly grows upon you with exposure to his real paintings in person. Whether we are looking at one of his intimate scenes of his wife at her toilette (_Perfume, The Toilette_), a marvelous still-life, a scene of a family gathering, or one of his brilliant landscapes (_The Terrace, Landscape at Vernon_) the effect is always of the mundane transformed into the magical. Forms are fragmented or devoured by shimmering glittering light in a manner the reminds me always of one of those great Byzantine mosaics.:









*8. Vermeer- Pearl Necklace, Woman with Water Jug, Woman with Scales*- If anyone is truly a painter's painter it is Vermeer. In spite of his small output (less than 40 small paintings) his stature is that of one of the giants. This is owed, unquestionably, to the fact that his paintings, seen in the flesh, are absolutely magical. His subject matter was nothing new for the time: intimate scenes of everyday life by the women whom he lived with. How they are painted, however, is breathtaking. Vermeer used only the finest of materials and built up his paintings in layers until they have an absolutely jewell-like appearance. The paint in many places appears to still be wet, so limpid does it appear. His color absolutely glows... as does his mastery of light (Thomas Kinkade, "master of light"?! Give me a break!!! :Sick: ) Vermeer shows us that the creation of the few small perfect works of art can be an important and as moving as the grand oeuvre or the epic scaled narrative masterpieces:







Continued...

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## stlukesguild

*8. Max Beckmann- Bird's Hell, Death, The Begining, Woman with Mandolin, Falling Man*  Beckmann is another among the Modernists whom may not have been one of the first picks of many others... but I have always found him to be incredibly powerful. With the passage of time his reputation has begun to grow greatly. Beckmann always struck me as something of a medieval or primitive artist among the moderns. In contrast to the elegance of many artists his work conveys something brutal. In spite of the brilliance of his color and the sensuality of his paint handling the works always convey something dark and menacing. The colors actually glow against the bituminous black of his outlines like the reds and blues of a medieval work of stained glass glows against the black leading. _Bird's Hell_ is a brilliant image of the growing horrors of Nazi Germany seen as an almost Bosch-like fantasy. _Death_ is an even more surreal fantasy with a monstrous choir and musicians turned topsy-turvey. The Falling Man... an image of man falling into a void... through the clouds... against the backdrop of burning buildings... has taken on an even more profound "meaning" post-9-11.











*9. Titian- The Rape of Europa, Danae, Venus D'Urbino, Venus with Mirror-* To my mind the greatest school of art ever was that of the Venetian "colorists". Wanting to paint large but unable to paint frescos in a city prone to flooding and extreme humidity... and equally wishing to paint slowly and with the brilliance of color possible in the new Flemish techniques of oil painting, the Venetians hit upon painting in oil on canvas. Artists such as the Bellini's, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Titian essentially pushed the abilities of oil painting to new levels establishing the techniques that are almost second-nature to the painter today. Starting rapidly with only a simple underdrawing they were able to slowly build up paintings over time with a combination of direct painting, scumbling, and transparent glazes until they had wove something with a magical surface and absolute brilliance of light and color. Titian was the greatest master of this school and realized the female nude as the perfect subject best suited to the sensuality and warmth possible in the new techniques. While the Florentine and Roman nudes seemed carved of stone, Titian's women were warm... made of flesh and blood... and bathed in the shimmering light of Italy:









Continued...

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## stlukesguild

*10. Degas- Bathers*- In some ways Edgar Degas (along with Edouard Manet) was the last of the "old masters". Degas was trained in the "old master" atelier manner stressing drawing of the human body, sculptural form, composition, and narrative painting. He imagined himself as being the latest "history painter" in the footsteps of his great artistic predecessors, especially Raphael. Like his living hero, Ingres, however, he soon found himself unable... or unwilling to realize this goal. The history painting as he knew it was "dead"... an absurdity best left to such salon painters as Bougeureau. Instead, Degas sought out contemporary subjects where he might best discover the same movements of the human body which were the essential core of the history paintings. He thus turned to the race track, the ballet, the bars, and late in his career... to the female bather. Rather than staging his figures, Degas studied his subjects obsessively, capturing poses that conveyed tension, exhaustion, thought, etc... His images have an intimacy unseen yet in art... and yet for all the naturalism there is an absolute brilliance of composition and color. Often building upon rapidly executed drawings made from life, Degas turned more and more toward the use of pastel:

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## Il Penseroso

A very sincere thank you to stlukesguild for the determination to provide such amazing art work and explanation. Very beautiful pieces.

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## Turk

Two paintings by Dix, first one is about WW I, and the second one is clear enough; you can easily recognise Hitler.





Gernica by Picasso, if you look careful you see a skull in the middle of painting, which symbolizes death in war.



Arearea by Gauguin, i like the expressions on those two people's face.



And many works of Dali are my favorites because of his perfect technic and imagination, that's why i am not going to put one of his paintings.

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## Literature<3

I think Edvard Munch's Scream is absolutely insperational, the story that I see in it really means something to me.

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## Niamh

I want to share painting with you. These are done by my sisters bestfriends dad. 

to back myself up for copyright;
http://www.paulmaccormaic.com/RHA.html

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## Sweets America

One painter I like very much is Turner. I have chosen to study him this year in painting class. I love this painting, it's called 'Rain, Steam and Speed':

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## kilted exile

Ok, so somehow I missed this one, my favourite painting is the Christ of Saint John on the cross by Dali. A pinting I remember fondly from seeing the original in the Kelvingrove Art Galleries & museum in Glasgow.

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## stlukesguild

I posted a few more of my favorites to a posting (What are the 20 Works of Art You Want to See Before You Die?) on my blog:

http://stlukesguild.wordpress.com/

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## Lily Adams

I LOOOOOOVVVEEEEE art. I love making it and I love interpreting it! My favorite museums are art museums. take me to one and I'll squeal like crazy and will love you forever. I don't really have _one_ favorite piece of art, and I'm too lazy/in too much of a hurry to post any now, but I might later. My favorite artists are Mark Mothersbaugh, (_Western Fundamentalist_, _Eastern Fundamentalist_) Andy Warhol, (self portrait and _Flash: November 22, 1963, JFK Assassination, c.1968_-I've seen both in person! I also LOVE that video of him eating a hamburger. "The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting."  :Biggrin: )) Roy Lichtenstein, (_Whaam!_ and _Cold Shoulder_) Magritte (_Cici n'est pa une pipe._ On my binder it says "This is not a binder."  :Biggrin:  No one ever gets it, though... :Frown: ) Degas, (I'm quite fond of his ballerinas-I love how he makes them so deformed) Van Gogh, (that's a given-I have _Starry Night_ in my room) Renoir, (Don't have a favorite of his, either. There's a few with him dancing with his wife and I like those.) Monet, (perty landscapes) Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (_Spring_-that's in our front entrance) Jaques-Louis David, (painter of the Revolution-I adore that painting of Marat) and Jean Honore Frangonard (_The Swing_). I've also always loved portraits of royalty. Like that one portrait of Louis IV.  :Biggrin:  Him and his man-tights.  :Tongue:  I also just recently another potential favorite of mine-scatch that-a now favorite of mine, Keyth Ryden: http://www.krkland.com/index.html So amazing! It's all the stuff I like: cartoony-pop art-surrealism. I also found this lady's art similar and interesting: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...6safe%3Dactive




> *Caspar David Friedrich* - Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Friedrich


I love that one! Gorgeous!




> I like Degas as well. I was tempted to just post another pre-Raphealite, but no, I am going with Degas.


Degas pwns.




> *Claude-Joseph Vernet*: Storm on a Mediterranean Coast
> 
> 
> 
> Astonishing!





> Rene Magritte


MAGRITTE!!! I've never seen this one before! Amazing! I love surrealism.




> Two paintings by Dix, first one is about WW I, and the second one is clear enough; you can easily recognise Hitler.


Whoah! I like those. Very disturbing.

I also liked the one with the girl in the field, those medevial.renaissance ones stlukesguild posted, and the one with the very realistic-looking cathedral.

I LOVE ART!!!!!!!!!!!

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## manolia

Here's another one of my favourites

It is called "The magic circle"

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## *Classic*Charm*

I love Dali. See my signature for my fav of his works. It's called Metamorphosis of Narcissus

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## Sweets America

> I love Dali. See my signature for my fav of his works. It's called Metamorphosis of Narcissus


I agree, Dali's paintings are great.

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## NikolaiI

I've heard of Dali-- Lovecraft got inspiraition from him sometimes.

What a wonderful thread Niamh! I only can recall one painting by Jack B. Yeats, it was at the beginning of an Irish art book, I think black and white, someone writing a letter! This is very cool!

I've only glanced at this page 7, I'm interested in looking at the rest of it...I just want to say to you all: You have superb taste in art!!! Beautiful..

Here's on by Van Gogh I like

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## Niamh

> I love Dali. See my signature for my fav of his works. It's called Metamorphosis of Narcissus


Thats my favourite Dali painting.  :Nod: 

And Nik, you really should look back over the pages. There are some really fantastic pieces of art posted...

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## NikolaiI

> Thats my favourite Dali painting. 
> 
> And Nik, you really should look back over the pages. There are some really fantastic pieces of art posted...


I will.

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## Janine

> Here's another one of my favourites
> 
> It is called "The magic circle"


Hi *Manolia,* I love this painting! I know I have seen it before somewhere. I love things about gyspies and this is how I perceive this, but also it makes me think of Eustashia from "Return of the Native", keeping a bonfire burning in the night on the heath.




> Thats my favourite Dali painting.


I agree with you *Niamh,* this is my favorite also, asside from 'Pieta', which is used as my Avatar. I need post it large in here. 




> Ok, so somehow I missed this one, my favourite painting is the Christ of Saint John on the cross by Dali. A pinting I remember fondly from seeing the original in the Kelvingrove Art Galleries & museum in Glasgow.


Hi there, *kilted exile,* thanks so much for posting this painting of Dali's. I knew it resided in Glasgow and was mortified when it had come to Philadephia, two years back, for the big Dali Exhibit, and I somehow :Bawling:  missed seeing it. By the time I went to the show, and I went twice, it had been sent back to Scotland! I was on the verge of tears. It was the one piece, I had prepared myself to see and missed out on. I will post 'Pieta' and the other Christ's crucifixion that Dali painted. Both are stunningly beautiful!

I must say, I have not fully checked out this thread but there are so many great pieces in here. *Sweets* I love that Turner painting; *Niamh,* that baby picture is so adorable and clever; your sister's friend's dad truly has talent. I love it since I will soon become a grandmother. It is really sweet. *StLukesguild*, the Degas Bathers are lovely. *NikoliI*, my son had that Van Gogh print framed and hanging in his appartment. I think now it is on his stairway. I always loved it. The cafe seems so inviting, doesn't it? 

*Everyone,* Good job on this interesting thread! Here I am an artist, and had not yet posted a thing. I have tons of artwork copied to disks, so shame on me :Blush: . I must upload some soon, so I can post them and share the best ones with you.

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## Domer121

This is my favorite.. It is Jean Baptiste Camile Corots Springtime of Life. It is shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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## Lily Adams

I'm quite fond of Bruce Conner, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Conner

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxLcZStUCus

I love that video. Guess where I got my muscle protein avatar?

Nobody even cared...

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## Igetanotion

No matter how much art I see, The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso (From his blue period) is it for me. I saw it in an exhibit when I was 13 in Washington DC and ever since, it is my absoloute favorite.

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## LadyW

My favourite painting would have to be...
*"The Nightmare"*
_By Fuseli_



I think it's so dramatic and haunting, yet beautiful  :Smile:

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## Janine

*LadyW,* this painting was used in a very strange film I saw the other night, called "Gothic" - an early Ken Russell adaptation, about the weekend when author Mary Shelley, came up with the idea for "Frankenstein". The film takes place the Gothic mansion/estate of Lord Byrons; Mary was accompanied her then betrothed, Percy Shelley and her half sister. Pretty much this film was a horror film and not very good; totally strange and weird; it was more a 'free-love feast', 'halucinatory drug fantasy trip' film....pretty funny, really. I picked up the DVD in a $1 bin way back. If anything it certainly was entertaining. Hate to admit I watched it. 

So funny, I recognise this painting now from that film; but I do recall seeing it much earlier than that, in some of my art books. Interesting painting, isn't it?

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## LadyW

> *LadyW,* this painting was used in a very strange film I saw the other night, called "Gothic" - an early Ken Russell adaptation, about the weekend when author Mary Shelley, came up with the idea for "Frankenstein". The film takes place the Gothic mansion/estate of Lord Byrons; Mary was accompanied her then betrothed, Percy Shelley and her half sister. Pretty much this film was a horror film and not very good; totally strange and weird; it was more a 'free-love feast', 'halucinatory drug fantasy trip' film....pretty funny, really. I picked up the DVD in a $1 bin way back. If anything it certainly was entertaining. Hate to admit I watched it.


What a shame for it sounded rather good in your descrption  :Smile: 
But for $1 dollar... I suppose you can't expect much huh? Typical.




> [So funny, I recognise this painting now from that film; but I do recall seeing it much earlier than that, in some of my art books. Interesting painting, isn't it?


Yes I think it's fascinating.
I did a little research on the painting and discovered a few facts about it from:
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhib.../nightmare.htm 




> *THE IMP OR MARA*This creature may derive from ancient sculpture, but it also alludes to contemporary ideas about savages and halfhuman simians. His features have been taken as resembling Fuselis own. The painter may have been inspired by folklore relating to the Mara  spirits who visit in the night, causing bad dreams  or classical stories about incubi  wicked imps who assault women sexually in their sleep. Fuselis contemporaries detected references to Shakespeare.
> 
> *THE VICTIM*
> This voluptuous young woman has been connected with Anna Landolt, the object of Fuselis unrequited passion when he was in Zurich in 1779. Her provocative costume and pose suggests a queasy mixture of pain and sensual pleasure.
> 
> *THE HORSE*
> Although the word nightmare derives from mara (imp) rather than mare (horse), these terms are often mixed up. The prominent presence of the wild-looking animal in Fuselis painting compounds this confusion.
> 
> *THE FURNITURE*
> The setting appears to be contemporary to the 1770s and 1780s, creating a sense of fashionable luxury. It is not clear what the pots and jars to the left contain. Perhaps cosmetics  reinforcing the feeling of decadence  or even laudanum, the mix of opium and alcohol that was widely used in the eighteenth century.


Hope you found this interesting  :Smile:

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## Janine

> What a shame for it sounded rather good in your descrption 
> But for $1 dollar... I suppose you can't expect much huh? Typical.


*LadyW,* well, I found it was worth viewing for only $1. Oddly entertaining, but some scenes were rather silly, others just plain disgusting. I did like the huge mansion they filmed it in. I wish someone else would do a better film on Byron. Maybe Johnny Depp could play the famous lord, he was quite handsome and multilayered/complex in personality, etc. I bet Tim Burton could do something with this film. 





> Yes I think it's fascinating.
> I did a little research on the painting and discovered a few facts about it from:
> http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhib.../nightmare.htm 
> 
> 
> 
> Hope you found this interesting


I did find this interesting. Thanks for posting it. This line could probably describe the film "suggests a queasy mixture of pain and sensual pleasure"! :FRlol:

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## addictedtobooks

Who's your favourite Artist .....

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## stlukesguild

As an artist myself this is almost an impossible to choose a single favorite. Even the top ten would be difficult... but I'll try something along that line.

*1. Michelangelo Buonarotti-* What can one even begin to say about this artist? He stands as an almost mythic, superhuman figure having produced a body of work on such a grand and masterful scale as to rival the achievements of entire societies (the cathedral builders of Notre Dame or Chartres, the Pyramids of Egypt, etc...). By age 18 he had carved the Drunken Bacchus which could rival any work of sculpture created since the days of Rome and Greece. A few years later it is the Pieta where the artist magnificently pulls off a very difficult subject to portray without any sense of awkwardness... that of a full-grown male figure lying in the lap of a woman. Not only does he do this but in the process he creates one of the most moving and masterful works of sculpture ever:



And then he surpasses himself with the David... perhaps THE symbol of the Renaissance ideal of the thinking hero.



From here it is on to the Sistine, where in the course of 4 years (less than 2 and a half actually engaged on the project) this sculptor who had no real experience with fresco and who was reluctant to do the job, produced what is perhaps the single greatest painting ever:



I am always awed by the scene of God swooping through the heavens:



… and the super-human Jonah who at one bursts forth from his too-restraining architectural setting and falls back stunned by the scenes of creation before him… both those of God… and of Michelangelo himself:



…but especially by the glorious and stunningly beautiful Libyan Sybil whose body appears so natural and elegant (perhaps even more so considering she was based on a male model)… and yet is posed in what is obviously an impossible pose… her toe on her left foot facing directly toward us, her back turned away from us while she lays down her heavy tome at the same time as she daintily steps forth from her dais... thus conveying such a sense of motion...



And he did not stop there. The only real challenges to his paintings of the ceiling of the Sistine is his own _Last Judgment_:



At this pint his figures attain such a superhuman grandeur that Michelangelo must truly be credited with having anticipated Mannerism... the movement which will immediately follow the Renaissance:



All of this does not even take into account his achievements in architecture... which include the famous Dome of Saint Peter's in Rome:



...nor the fact that the artist also stands as an important figure in the realm of Italian poetry:

THE DOOM OF BEAUTY

by: Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

HOICE soul, in whom, as in a glass, we see,
Mirrored in thy pure form and delicate,
What beauties heaven and nature can create,
The paragon of all their works to be!
Fair soul, in whom love, pity, piety,
Have found a home, as from thy outward state
We clearly read, and are so rare and great
That they adorn none other like to thee!
Love takes me captive; beauty binds my soul;
Pity and mercy with their gentle eyes
Wake in my heart a hope that cannot cheat.
What law, what destiny, what fell control,
What cruelty, or late or soon, denies
That death should spare perfection so complete?



CELESTIAL LOVE

O mortal thing enthralled these longing eyes
When perfect peace in thy fair face I found;
But far within, where all is holy ground,
My soul felt Love, her comrade of the skies:
For she was born with God in Paradise;
Nor all the shows of beauty shed around
This fair false world her wings to earth have bound:
Unto the Love of Loves aloft she flies.
Nay, things that suffer death, quench not the fire
Of deathless spirits; nor eternity
Serves sordid Time, that withers all things rare.
Not love but lawless impulse is desire:
That slays the soul; our love makes still more fair
Our friends on earth, fairer in death on high.

English translation by John Addington Symonds (1840-1893).

to be continued...

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## stlukesguild

*2. Rembrandt van Rijn-*

I have always imagined Rembrandt as something akin to Shakespeare. Within the realm of painting, Rembrandt invented the most human characters ever... as memorable as Hamlet, Puck, Lady MacBeth, etc... Where Michelangelo aspired to the superhuman... to the image of man created in the image of God... Rembrandt forever seeks out the beauty... the spirituality... the emotions in the earthbound and truly human. No other artist has ever matched his ability to create images of human beings who stare at us... through us... with such profound depth of feeling... so that we almost imagine that we know them... and can never forget them.

In an image like _Hendrickje Wading_ one cannot help but sense this eroticism of the artist contemplating his lover in a manner that never approaches the lecherous, but is absolutely loving of this woman as she is... and never even attempts to idealize her:



In the great _Bathsheba_ the artist has again turned the entire notion of this Biblical tale as every other artist has ever portrayed upon end and into the most human and tragic of dramas. Bathsheba, whose unidealized body plainly shows the ravages of time is still lovingly portrayed... glowing with an almost internal light. Her sad eyes face down as she contemplates the letter from Kind David... caught in a drama of passions beyond her control:



_Lucretia_ is always the last painting I look at upon every visit to the National Gallery in Washington. The artist's masterful handling of "stuff"... materials... the glittering gold and jewels, the satins and other fabrics, the flesh itself... is without equal... and yet all of this but serves to further the human emotion. One cannot help but feel the pain etched in Lucretia's eyes as they well up with tears and tear into your very soul:





No artist has ever looked at himself as unflinchingly and unsparingly as Rembrandt. In his final years, after having lost almost everything: his fame, his wealth, his home, his first wife, his only son... he looks back at us with with eyes that have known as much tragedy as those of _Lucretia_ and _Bathsheba_:





-To be continued...

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## stlukesguild

*3. Sir Peter Paul Rubens-* 

Rubens is another of those super-human artist whose achievements seemingly surpass that which is humanly possible. He produced literally thousands of paintings... most on a heroic scale, ran the most successful studio workshop in Europe, was an expert in art and antiquities, spoke several languages fluently, was entrusted by the French, Spanish, and English courts with diplomatic missions for which he was given multiple awards and raised to the level of an aristocrat (at an era when being a mere "pop star" would not have afforded such an honor). On top of all of this he was one of the most fluent and brilliant painters to have ever taken up the brush, merging the masterful drawing manner of the Florentine/Roman masters (Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael) with the brilliant color and sensuality of the Venetians (Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Giorgione) and the Flemish love of landscape. 

The least of his paintings are but spectacular decorations displaying a mastery of drawing, movement, anatomy, brilliant color, and composition to rival any artist. These often employed the assistance of his formidable studio... which employed artists who were as masterful in their own right as Anthony Van Dyck, Jan Breughel, and Frans Snyders:



Subjects that held a deeper personal connection for the artist, were often reserved solely for his own hand... and contain a far greater depth of feeling. As a deeply religious man the _Crucifixion_ was a theme of profound import to him. To these he brought a brilliance that echoed the color of stained glass or Flemish primitives (such as Rogier van der Weyden) as well as a depth of feeling:



The landscape of his native land was a beloved subject long before the theme was accepted as a worthy subject matter in and of itself for art. His landscape paintings are among his most personal... and in the long run... his most influential, impacting the whole genre of landscape painting in Holland, France, and England during the rococo and Romantic eras:



Images of his family and friends, however, may rank among his greatest achievements. His portrait of his first wife, Isabella, is presented with all the nobility that Titian might have afforded to a Venetian noblewoman, and conveys the deep respect and tender feeling the artist had for her:



His portrait of his sister-in-law, Suzanna Fourment (painted after Isabella's death), is so sensuous and loving that endless writers have suggested a probable love-affair:



In his late 50s Rubens took a second wife, the stunningly beautiful 16-year old blonde, Helena, rejecting his friends suggestions that he should mary a lady of aristocratic rank. The artist was absolutely infatuated with Helena and painted her endlessly. Again he confronts Titian (his famous "liitle fur") with his life-scale portrait of his near naked wife, clothed only in a fur wrap:



He would use Helena as a model for his lyrical, poetic mythological paintings, turning her into Venus in this magnificent rendering of _The Judgment of Paris_. 



Helena and Rubens would have several children together, and following the loss of one beloved child, the artist obsessively painted his wife an children producing images of a veritable "Garden of Love":



Indeed, one of his final paintings was an actual "Garden of Love" presenting young aristocratic lovers, including the artist and his young wife (standing) lounging in a bucolic garden landscape. This painting would almost single-handedly establish the model for such scenes by Rococo masters such as Watteau.

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## stlukesguild

*4. Pierre Bonnard-*

While I will certainly be the first to admit that he was not the greatest artist of the 20th century (that honor must surely go to Picasso... or possibly Matisse), Pierre Bonnard has surely remained my own personal favorite. Historically Bonnard was often relegated to the rank of a latter-day Impressionist. Bonnard is surely far more than that. Like Vermeer, Morandi, or even the compoer, J.S. Bach, Bonnard is a painter whom at first look appears conservative... even behind the times... but with prolonged exposure reveals a profound original vision that surpasses the mere novelty of innovation. Bonnard stands as one of the greatest colorists of the 20th century... perhaps the best, as his only real rival to such a title, Matisse, admitted. His handling of paint is absolutely spectacular as the surfaces of the canvas (and those can only be rightfully experienced in person) dance with blobs, dabs, swirls, smears, and the faintest whispers of color. What is most spectacular, however, is Bonnard's ability to transform the most mundane subject matter into absolute magic. Like the Impressionists and the "little Dutch masters" before them, Bonnard is a master of the "intimate". His wife, his family, his friends, his house and his backyard are all he needs to create the most resplendent visionary paintings.

One of my absolute favorite paintings of all time must be Bonnard's "Bottle of Perfume". In this painting the artist's lover/later wife, Marthe stands before a window bathed in light as as brilliant as anything painted by J.M.W. Turner. The devours everything... fragments or shatters everything into shards of pure color... just like the spectacular Byzantine mosaics at Ravenna:



Again and again the artist transforms the intimate world of his wife bathing into the most fabulous images of color and light:



His wife never ages in Bonnard's eyes. In her 60s she is as magnificent as ever, floating in her tub she could be a Byzantine queen encased in her porcelain sarcophagus dyed by the glittering hues of light bouncing off the surrounding mosaics.



Bonnard discovered the same sense of magic in all of his surroundings. A view of his patio with a few visiting relatives becomes a rainbow-hued scene of absolute magic:



A young niece standing before the receding landscape and simple dwellings in the south of France becomes a lush tropical wonder-world... the young girl fanned by palm leaves like some poetic Renaissance vision of the Virgin Mary:



The mere landscape seen from his back porch explodes into a sultry garden that might illuminate an Arabian Nights or a book of Persian fairy tales...:



... while even a mere collection of objects on the dining room table provide an explosion of heated colors:



Still almost nothing prepares us for his view out of his studio window, painted during his final years. Here the brilliant yellows of the Mimosa explode into light... like the sun bursting through a stained-glass window or a blinding sunset as imagined by Turner:

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## stlukesguild

*5. William Blake-*

I should state that from this point on the number has no correlation to where I imagine the artist falling in my personal pantheon. The first 4 are permanent fixtures in my mind. From here onward the order might (and probably would) change from day to day... depending upon my mood.

As an artist obsessed with books, William Blake would most certainly need to included among any list of my idols. I've already written an extended post upon Blake here in the "Poetry Redux" thread on the Poetry Forum: 
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=29869

I'll not go into such depth... but focus more exclusively upon his contributions as a visual artist. Blake has also been one of the most misunderstood and maligned of any major poet/artist. He is often portrayed as a half-mad genius/visionary who spoke to spirits, a political naif, a curmudgeon and "outsider", a self-taught artist and poet who had little knowledge or experience of the art of his predecessors or of his own time. Most of these stereotypes have little reality to them. 

Blake attended virtually no formal school but was largely self-taught through his own voracious reading. He was exceptionally well-read and often of literature which was not part of the accepted canon of his time. Of course Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, Chaucer, Ben Jonson, Spencer, and especially the Bible were more than familiar to him... but other sources of inspiration include Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft, with whom he was friends and a political ally, Emanuel Swedenborg, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Plato, Plotinus, the Hermetica and the Bhagavad Gita, mythologies of the world from Egypt to Iceland to India to ancient Britain and even the Kabbalah. 

Blake's talents as a visual artist, however, were recognized far earlier. He developed an early love of drawing by copying engravings of masters such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Albrecht Dürer. In this he was was fully supported by his father. Unable to afford apprenticeship to a painting master, Blake was initially apprenticed to the fashionable William Ryland, engraver to King George. Blake however would request that his father find a more suitable match for his talents, declaring that Ryland had "the hanging look about him". (In fact Ryland would end on the scaffold some years later, convicted for forging currency.) Blake spent his apprentice years under James Basire. Basire's manner of working was rather out-dated stressing the linear contours and avoiding the more painterly affects that would allow for replication of paintings or the creation of more atmospheric elements. His manner, however, was perfectly suited to Blake's own personal preferences for the linear sculptural form. Basire's chief source of income was the result of commissioned engravings to be made of architectural and sculptural details of English churches and cathedrals. Through his apprenticeship to Basire, Blake was exposed to the stylistic abstractions of Romanesque and Gothic art which would have been largely dismissed by most artists of the time. Blake's own art was often criticized as being crude and amateurish... full of incompetent distortions of anatomy... but in reality its stylizations are clearly consciously thought out and rooted in the artist's love of the linear art of medieval sculpture (among other sources). 

Blake entered the Royal Academy but immediately rebelled against the painterly masters then favored: Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, etc... and well as their British heirs, Gainsborough, Turner, Raeburn, Romney, etc... At a time when landscape and portraiture in oil paints reined supreme, Blake had the audacity to produce his own versions of the illuminated manuscript ala medieval artists...



...books printed and watercolored which illustrated his own writings... or his own unique interpretations of the Bible, Milton, Dante, etc...

Among Blake's earlier works are his Songs of Innocence and Experience in which the short, lyrical poems are illustrated in a simple, almost child-like manner (It should come as no surprise that Blake's work has been mined for generations by children's book artists). Perhaps the most famous image and poem from these volumes is _The Tyger_ :



The poem itself is a lyric I have long held in my memory like so many nursery rhymes and poems learned in my youth. Not unlike a nursery rhyme, it's hypnotic and chant-like... seeming oh so simple at first... but soon revealing far greater depths of thought... questions about the very nature of good and evil and creation. I'm always struck with chills as the poet finally confronts us with the ultimate question, "Did he who made the Lamb, make thee?", before returning once again to the beginning, "Tyger Tyger..." and leaving that question unanswered... but perhaps provoking a little spark in our minds.

Among one of Blake's most fascinating works is his _Job_. 



This work is built of a title page and 21 engraved illustrations. At first glimpse one might assume that Blake has merely illustrated the Biblical text of Job... but as is usual with Blake, nothing is as simple as it first appears. The usual orthodox interpretation of Job is that he represents an admirable figure of faith and patience... a good man who is tested by God by having all of his worldly belongings stripped from him, the loss of all of his family and loved ones, and his own body stricken with painful disease... and yet he does not lose his faith in God. Blake's Job is something of a critique of this interpretation. Utilizing images as well as inscribed quotes from the Book of Job and other Biblical texts, Blake presents the idea that Job does not begin as a man deeply faithful to God... but rather as a figure who is faithful only in appearance. He may do the right things... but for the wrong reasons. Blake suggests that the various trials that Job undergoes amount to a spiritual journey... from a false believer to a truly spiritual man. In what in perhaps the most powerful image, Illustration XI:



Blake presents a Job condemned to the fires of Hell. Devils reach out from the hell fires below in an attempt to drag him down. Still his hands are clutched in prayer as he looks up to the Hebrew God, Jehovah, hovering over him. Jehovah points to the tablets of the law which condemn Job while the lightning bolt of damnation leap around him. And yet... as Job glances down at Jehovah's cloven foot and at the serpent of materialism with which he is intertwined... he realizes that this immovable God of the law is one and the same with Satan. The inscription "I know that my redeemer liveth" suggests that Job has begun to imagine that there is a better God.

In the _Book of Urizen_ Blake presents some of his most powerful visual images: muscular demi-urge figures in the process of creation of the universe:









continued...

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## stlukesguild

Beyond his illuminated books, Blake produced endless volumes of larger watercolor paintings as designs for never realized books... books that perhaps would have demanded technical facilities beyond those possible at the time. These watercolors include some of Blake's most memorable images: 

Scenes from Dante:







Marvelous imaginings of Milton's _Paradise Lost_:



Biblical narratives:





This final image... a _Last Judgment_ almost blends the iconography of the Last Judgment with Christ's Harrowing of Hell or a Fall of the Rebel Angels in a manner that is very much suggestive of some Asian paintings!

Blake's impact was slow to evolve... in art as well as in literature... but there are numerous obvious heirs. A group of young followers of Blake, including Samuel Palmer and Edward Calvert, who titled themselves "The Ancients" would produce a body of graphic works clearly inspired by their idol:


Samuel Palmer-_Early Morning_


Edward Calvert-_The Bride_

Even more important was the great British artist/writer/political figure, William Morris, whose masterwork, _The Kelmscott Chaucer,_ designed by himself and Edward Burnes Jones, was deeply indebted to Blake:



Perhaps most fascinating is the early 20th century figure of Adolf Wolfli, an artist confined to an asylum for most of his adult life, Wolfli produced a body of illustrated books, the central tome being a volume some 25,000 pages long, which tells the mythical story of Adolf Wolfli, later King Wolfli, later Emperor Wolfli, and finally Saint Wolfli. The tale is told in text, endless pictures, and even a musical score which utilizes a system of notation invented by the artist. There are endless similarities of style and vision in both artist's self-created universes... except that the latter artist is usually accepted as having been insane... a genius... but insane... which when looking at both his and Blake's achievements leads us to some difficult questions about what constitutes genius... and what constitutes insanity.

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## Lily Adams

Hey, I seen that Blake guy's art!


...

^^;

...

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## stlukesguild

Lily... where did the rest of your post go off to? You declared a love for "modern" art, and as a contemporary art I surely share a love of a great many Modern and Contemporary artists... although they might not be my absolute favorites from among the entire history of art.

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## Lily Adams

> Lily... where did the rest of your post go off to? You declared a love for "modern" art, and as a contemporary art I surely share a love of a great many Modern and Contemporary artists... although they might not be my absolute favorites from among the entire history of art.




I deleted it because the mods merged that other thread with an art thread that I posted in previously and I mentioned much of the same stuff in it.

Hence the ^^;

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## Niamh

Are you sure you had mentioned all that previously Miss Lily? I'm certain you didnt mention one or two of those before. should have left it to refreash our memories! I do that all the time!  :Tongue:

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## Lily Adams

Ha ha, okay, here's something along the lines of what I had:

Mark Mothersbaugh

http://www.mutatovisual.com/

Keyth Ryden

http://www.krkland.com/

Roy Lichtenstein





Bruce Conner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxLcZStUCus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QLXTsviMxk

Last summer I went to a modern art museum and it blew my mind and I really got into modern art. I was brought up on impressionism because of my parents, and I still like it. But I like modern now, too, even though my parents hate it. At that museum there was a piece of art that was a black room with a projector showing a single sine wave progressing along. That was great. You could walk into it. Awesome. I like abstract stuff because you can get so much from it. Usually it's nothing, like just images or sounds, but I like it. I like the look and sound of things falling apart.

Andy Warhol is a given.

I don't really much care for cubism, though. Some of it is alright. I like Dada.

I like cartoons, too. That's one reason why I like Keyth Ryden so much.

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## Trystan

This is my favorite painting, though bear in mind that I don't know much about art. I love the defiant look in the man's eyes.

I like 'Little Cinders' by Salvador Dali, too:

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## stlukesguild

I must admit that as a contemporary working artist I certainly have been interested, prodded, even inspired by endless modern and contemporary artists. Again, it would be more than challenging for me to select a list of the modern/contemporaries whom I imagine to be the best (although Picasso is certainly a given), but I can reasonably offer up a selection of the artists who have had (and continue to have) the greatest impact upon me.

*6. Paul Klee*-

Paul Klee was the first true Modernist artist whose work I admired. As a first year art student I worshiped the great old masters (still do) and struggled to grasp the innovations of Impressionism... and Post-Impressionism (Van Gogh, Gauguin, etc...) Modernism, however, was another beast altogether. With my love of the well-rendered figure or landscape what was I to make of the distortions and fragmentations of Picasso, Matisse, and Beckmann... to say nothing of the absolute abandonment of imagery with Abstract Expressionism?

In spite of this I attended a major Paul Klee exhibition that had come to Cleveland. Logically, I should have disliked everything this man did... but for some reason it piqued by curiosity... I actually found I liked it,,, even without knowing why. Today I am certain that it had something to do with the manner in which Klee played with many of the same influences that were central to me: books, writing, games, music, etc... Klee continues to stand as one of the greatest influences upon my work, and I am happy to see that his reputation within the history of art has also continued to grow. I can hardly come across a well-stocked selection of art books without there being at least one or two books on Klee. One artist wrote that Klee had virtually invented the whole of 20th century art... on a miniature scale. It would be hard to refute this. I can think of no other artist, not even Picasso, that has conveyed himself masterfully in such a varied manner.

*Writing/Texts/Books*- Klee was one of those artists who are not locked solely into a single genre. He was trained and quite talented as a musician and was also deeply in love with books, reading and literature (His own journals are certainly worth reading for anyone interested in the artist's thought process). From the start Klee struggled to find a visual language that might blur the boundaries between painting and other art forms. He was long fascinated with writing and from early on in his career made attempts at infusing the written word with a visual impact:



In _Once Emerging from the Gray of Night._.. Klee took a poem he had composed and not only infused them with a visual element, but building upon some of the theories of synchronism currently being explored by the French artist, Robert Delaunay, he sought to also convey something of the movement, rhythm, counterpoint, and harmony of music. 

In the painting, _Ad Marginum_...



Klee playfully echoes the flora and fauna grotesques that were commonly slipped into the *margins* of medieval illuminated manuscript.

The simple pictographic form was an element that would fascinate Klee for most of his career. In a painting such as Arrow in the Garden...



Klee built up the surface of his painting with plaster (or some such material) into which he scraped simple pictographic forms reminiscent of some ancient writings... like a tablet from Mesopotamia. In other instances, such as the painting, Contemplating...



... the pictographic forms dance across the filed-like surface in a manner that would have a profound impact upon Abstract Expressionism. Late in his career Klee would reduce his images to a single bold pictograph... 

 

...painted in a manner that suggested Asian Zen painting and surely influenced painters such as Gorky, Gottlieb, and Motherwell.

*Geometry/Architecture*- One of the most fascinating aspects of Klee's work is the manner is which he could freely move from total abstraction to figurative work... and from playful biomorphic imagery to hard-edged geometric abstractions at ease... and yet always maintain an ineffable something that was clearly his own. 

His earliest breakthroughs as an artist came in responding to the landscapes/cityscapes of Tunisia... 



... in which forms began to shatter under the blinding light as if the colors were seen through a prism.

These geometries of architecture became more and more complex until they danced across the surfaces playfully:



Color itself could lend a variety of mood to these images... such as the more mysterious _Dream City_:



Architecture was a key element of his most famous... perhaps his most important painting, _Ad Parnassum_...



...in which the ancient mythic worlds of the Egyptian and Greco-Roman Empires are reduced to the architectural elements of the arch, the pediment, and the pyramid... all seen under the brilliant red Mediterranean sun as if shattered into a million points of light... like a Byzantine mosaic.

... to be continued...

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## stlukesguild

*Music*- Music was a central element of Klee's entire life. He had studied as a musician himself, and his wife supported him early on in his career through her own efforts as a music teacher. Klee was highly fond of musical theater, and produced any number of paintings based upon the opera or puppet theater, such as the mysterious _Carnival in the Mountains_...



the silly Bavarian Don Giovanni...



or the _Battle Scene from the Comic-Operatic-Fantasy, "The Seafarer"_:



Music had an even more profound impact upon Klee than merely the subject matter of operas or theatrically staged scenes. Klee was very much of the same belief as Walter Pater who had declared that "All art constantly aspires toward the condition of music." Music, unlike any other art form, was seen as having succeeded in attaining a perfect merger of form and subject (or content). Klee stated early on, "What an attractive destiny it would be to master painting today (just as musicians once did)...Achievements made in music by the end of the 18th century remain (for the present) in their infancy in the visual arts." Klee's notion of a visual art that might convey ideas, movement, passion, emotion through the purely abstract elements of color, form, repetition, rhythm, texture, line, etc... were reinforced by the writings of others with whom he was well aware. Tieck and Wackenroeder spoke of a "poetry" that might be attained by elimination the imitative element in art and replacing it with the purely formal organization of colors and forms. The French painter, Robert Delaunay, and his compatriots at the Bauhaus school, especially Vassily Kandinsky were exploring similar concepts. 

Much of Klee's geometric work was inspired by musical concepts of repetition, counterpoint, gradual transition, variation, and harmony. The titles themselves often made this link obvious:

_Color Table in Gray Major:_



_Nocturne:_



_Fugue in Red:_



_Aeolian Harp:_



_New Harmony:_



_Harmony in Blue=Orange:_



... to be continued...

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## stlukesguild

*Poetry*- Klee was certainly inspired by poetry... read poetry... even wrote poetry... but his works also have a constant poetic strain that runs through them. Like a great lyrical poem they are often quite small in scale, and yet display a heightened sensitivity to the most subtle nuances of visual form. The images themselves are often quite suggestive in symbolic or metaphoric ways. Klee also made great use of the poetic title. While many artists are somewhat ambiguous... even hostile toward the idea of titling their works... many feeling that the visual image should not need words to clarify or explain it... Klee, on the other hand... took full advantage of the use of the title. Certainly the paintings succeed without any recourse to words... nevertheless, in many cases the title seems just as much a part of the work and an element key to its understanding as the title might be in certain lyrical poems. One cannot look at the title of some paintings without arriving at that state of "Aha!" where one nods in full agreement with the artist... acknowledging that what his title spells out is just exactly what the image conveys:

_Twittering Machine-_



_Ghost of a Genius-_



_Ancient Sound_-



_Wintry Mask_-



_Refuge-_



_Fire at Evening-_



*The Art of Children*- Children develop their artistic abilities at set stages. There are certain abstractions... certain stylizations or ways of attempting to depict objects, people, and space that in the large sense follow observable stages of development. Obviously even the greatest old masters once drew like a child. Rembrandt and even Michelangelo must have produced drawings like this at some stage of their development:



Children's art certainly lacks a certain finesse of finish, and surely we accept that it will not display a mastery of anatomy or illusionistic depictions of form and space. Children's art is also often erratic... largely because the child lacks the experience to recognize when something is truly brilliant. On the other hand... children's art has a certain audacity... a willingness to try anything... simply because "they don't know any better". In other words... they haven't reached that state that most people eventually head toward around the age of late-middle-school (and that most never abandon)... the state in which they begin to master certain rules for "drawing well" ... for achieving a degree of veracity to the visual object they are depicting. The younger child doesn't yet think this way. Objects are often depicted pictographically or symbolically... The scale of images and objects will often have little to do with the logic of perspective and everything to do with the "importance" of that element to the child. Colors need not have anything to do with reality, and people, animals, objects can be readily bent, twisted, or otherwise deformed in order to make them fit the confines of the space. I find it almost miraculous that none of these elements of children's art were ever appreciated prior to the 20th century. We have little or no examples of children's art from the past... even from the most talented artists. There is almost no mention of children's art... and certainly none that is in any way appreciative... until the last century. Perhaps one of the greatest contributions of artists such as Picasso, Matisse, and Klee is that they recognized the value of children's art. Conversely... their art was profoundly influenced by the art of children... and through them, the whole of Modern art.

Western artists have long been inspired by the notion of the "other"... the Moor or Turk or Japanese or African or Native American Indian whom they imagined as something more savage... but certainly also closer to the real passions and emotions that inspire "real art". Gauguin found such inspiration in the art of the peasants of Breton and the natives of the Pacific Islands. Matisse was profoundly inspired by Islamic and Asian art. The Surrealists sought out inspiration from any source outside that of the logical/rational world: the art of the insane, self-taught artists, the art of "outsiders" such as William Blake and Henri Rousseau. Pablo Picasso, Matisse, Max Beckmann, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, and Jean Dubuffet were all profoundly inspired by the art of children. Klee saved art by his own children and children in the family... but also collected art by other children. There is an element in children's art that is almost impossible for the adult to mimic. Almost any experienced art teacher can discern the art of a child from that of an adult mimicking the look of children's art. The strength of Klee (and the other Modernists inspired by children's art) lie in his/their ability to synthesize the influences of childrens art and make it his/their own.

Paintings such as _Ventriloquist and Crier on the Moor_...



..._Adam and Little Eve_... 



...or _Portrait of Mrs. P. in the South_...



... as well as any number of paintings posted above, were profoundly influenced and informed by the art of children... an fact that has often led to the comments of certain Philistines that "a child could draw that"... but they also display elements... a mastery of color harmonies... a certain sureness to the surface and materials... a compositional control... a crispness of line... a sophistication of pattern, design, balance... that is unquestionably adult... and quite masterful. 

Klee's influence upon my own work is quite obvious. His impact upon subsequent art has been profound. The Abstract Expressionists, the Surrealists, Joan Miro, Adolf Gottlieb, Matta and certain other South American Modernists, Jean Dubuffet and the "_Art Brut_" movement, the CoBrA, Geometric Abstractionists, Henri Michaux and other "text/calligraphic" artists, and many more have had to acknowledge Klee as an important predecessor.

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## wessexgirl

What a great thread. I'm not sure if you want modern artists or old masters, but I love so many of them anyway. Just a few that come to mind....

Henri Matisse

www.mathewlu.com/mat_blue_nude.jpg

I have this one on my stairs, (not the real one obviously)


I really love Matisse and the Fauves, and he's the only artist Picasso was ever professionally concerned about, wanting to know what he was doing etc. 





I'll be back, I just want to check these links have worked, as I'm finding it difficult to add the pics.
I've removed some of the links that didn't work.

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## wessexgirl

Oops, a couple of them haven't worked.  :Blush:  I'll try again.

www.ngv.vic.gov.au/orangerie/images/46_389.jpg

https:/.../Assets/4creati1_michaelangelo4.jpg
I have this in my lounge.


I love the Pre-Raphaelites too, I have a really eclectic taste in art, loving lots of schools, periods, styles etc. I have lots of PR stuff around the place. 

persephone.cps.unizar.es/.../Big/Proserpine.jpg


www.arbib.org/.../JWW_TheLadyOfShallot_1888.jpg

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## wessexgirl

Whoops, I'm rubbish at this....I'll be back later.  :Blush:

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## stlukesguild

You can simply make an account at a hosting site such as Photobucket:
http://photobucket.com/login/?link=topmenu
At that site you simply download an image that you have saved to your hard-drive. You can then simply copy the IMG code beneath your saved image (all you have to do is click on it at Photobucket) and paste it to your post here at LitNet. Of course you always have to worry about some Puritan with nothing better to do sending in a complaint for the least nude posted and Photobucket will delete the image. :Frown:

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## ex ponto

Stlukesguild, I agree with what you have said about Rembrandt - human beings... I am excited when I look at almost every single one of his paintings. I love ''Man with a golden hat'', and now I've read it wasn't made by him.

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## stlukesguild

Attribution of older art is a slippery game. The "experts" far too often have reasons that go beyond a mere search for the truth (establishing their own reputations as "experts" often being foremost among these) for attribution of works of art to one artist or another... or for questioning such attributions. Certainly Rembrandt had a number of very talented followers and students... the best of whom could certainly imitate the master's manner quite well. Willem Drost, for example, produced some exquisite paintings that echo Rembrandt's manner quite well:



Starting in 1968 and continuing through the 1980s the Rembrandt Research Project sought to make the most trustworthy _catalog raisonne_ of Rembrandt's paintings utilizing the state of the art scientific techniques. They brutally de-attributed endless paintings such as The Man in the Golden Helmet and even the Frick Museum's great _Polish Rider_. Obviously if one discovers a painting pigment or canvas or some such material that does not fit into the proper time-frame (or documentation proving the creation by another artist) then attribution is an easy matter. In many case, however, the proof is not conclusive. One expert or group of experts feel a painting does not display the artist's signature manner of applying paint and attribution is called into doubt. This often ignores equally persuasive arguments in the opposite direction. The _Polish Rider_, which the Frick refused to list as "Attributed to Rembrandt" or "School of Rembrandt", insisting all the time that it was authentic... now appears to be seen as an autograph work by the majority... with the possible assistance of efforts by students. The Man with the Golden Helmet still seems to remain as a work from a follower of Rembrandt, in spite of the fact that it has long been, and still is, a greatly revered paintings among art lovers. Then again, as an article in the New York Times put it "Hamlet is Hamlet whether it was written by the shadowy figure known as Shakespeare or by Sir Francis Bacon or even by one of those lesser claimants like the Earl of Oxford." Unfortunately the "cult of personality" in art is always such that even those who should know better... even those institutions that act as caretakers of our cultural heritage... are often more interested in the name than in the actual art. Most museums would rather own a really bad painting by a great or important artist, than a really good or even great painting by a mediocre... or unknown artist. :Confused:   :Frown:

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## stlukesguild

*7. Joseph Cornell-*

Although there are a number of Modern artists I prefer to Cornell (Picasso, Matisse, and Max Beckmann being the most obvious) I thought I'd throw something out here about ol' Joseph because he was such a fascinating figure. Cornell was born in 1903 and died in 1972 and lived most of his life in Flushing, Queens. He never left the U.S. and probably never traveled further than some 40 miles from his own back yard during his entire adult life. In spite of this he created a body of work that evoke a magical, poetic, old world charm, and yet remain uniquely American. 

Cornell was born into a wealthy family and attended the Phillips Academy, Andover. Cornell had no formal art education but was exposed to a good many literary figures, especially the French Symbolist poets, who would be deeply influential upon him. At age 13, Cornell's father died and several years later Joseph went to work as a textile salesman, and became the virtual head of the family that included his mother, sister, and brother who had been stricken with cerebral palsy. Cornell's job entailed constant trips through Manhattan, during which time Cornell took up the habit of collecting a vast array of _bric a brac_, Victorian _chintz_, and other paraphernalia. The small Cornell home that he would live in all his life was overrun with books, classical music recordings, old reels of film, magazines, and all the "prizes" found by Cornell on his various journeys into the city.

At some point in his 20s Cornell began to assemble various objects and images together into three-dimensional collages (or "assemblages") which acted essentially as toys to entertain Cornell's mentally handicapped brother. He also began to create his own two-dimensional collages drawing imagery from various old Victorian book engravings. These images were combined in a manner that created a new fantastic dream-like image that defied any logic and certainly echoed what the Surrealist artist were then doing at the same time in Paris. 



In 1932 Joseph Cornell witnessed the unloading of a collection of Surrealist art objects and collages, most importantly Max Ernst's _La femme 100 têtes,_ which was essentially the first collage novel... constructed of 100s of steel plate engravings reassembled in a disconcerting manner. Cornell went up to Julian, the proprietor, and announced that he had similar works himself. Thinking to humor a mere eccentric, Levy invited Cornell to bring them by the gallery. Upon doing so, Levy was immediately enthralled and offered to exhibit the artist in his gallery along with the work of the Surrealists. By 1940 Cornell was largely able to leave his full-time job and focus solely upon his art. 

Cornell has been passed off by many as something of an "outsider artist"... a talented lunatic, an uneducated visionary poet, etc... The reality is that although Cornell was certainly eccentric... and deeply protective of his privacy... and although he had no formal training in art and could not draw, paint or sculpt, he was nevertheless a highly educated and culturally sophisticated figure. He kept a vast library which included endless books of French poetry, Victorian novelists and story-book writers, writings by visionaries such as Novalis, Nerval, and Mary Baker Eddy, books on astronomy and botany, etc... He owned thousands of classical music recordings and regularly attended the opera, the theater, and the ballet. More importantly, he maintained continual contact and friendships (often via the mail) with many of the central figures of Surrealism, Dada, and Abstract Expressionism... as well as talented figures in other artistic fields: photographers, film-makers, poets, writers, ballet dancers, actors and actresses.

Cornell's real breakthrough occurred upon the discovery of several empty shadow boxes initially used to mount butterflies. Cornell utilized these shallow boxes in creating what essentially was a collage within a stage. The various objects he collected were carefully selected for their poetic resonance... for their metaphorical suggestiveness... and for the way in which they triggered various associations in his mind. In a way, he used objects like actors on the stage in a magical miniature theater... but also in a manner that echoed the way in which poets...especially of the Sybolist/Surrealist strain... might use a specific word or verbal image. Cornell's works have been repeatedly refered to as visual poetry or "poetic objects". It should be no surprise then that Cornell has been one of the most beloved artists among poets. Octavio Paz, Elizabeth Bishop, Raphael Alberti, John Asberry, Richard Howard, Stanley Kunitz, etc... have all written poems in homage of his work:

Hexagons of wood and glass,
scarcely bigger than a shoebox,
with room in them for night and all its lights.

Monuments to every moment,
refuse of every moment, used:
cages for infinity...

Joseph Cornell, inside your boxes
my words became visible for a moment.

Octavio Paz-from_ Objects and Apparitions_-_tr. Elizabeth Bishop_

Any apartment lobby is a necropolis,
every dresser drawer a forbidden city-
so much you taught me, intimated, warned:
colors are trite, edges not to be trusted,
textures behind glass, refuse to explain
a world where fate and God himself have grown
so famous only because they have nothing to say.
The tiny is the last resort of the tremendous.

-Richard Howard from _Closet Drama_

Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated, began his literary career with _A Convergence of Birds_... a collection of writings edited by Foer that were "inspired" by Cornells "aviaries" or "dovecotes." The poet Charles Simic offered up the greatest homage, acknowledging that his own initial attempts at poetry (which admittedly failed) were attempts at combining "found" verbal images in the same manner as Cornell constructed his physical "poetic objects", ended in writing an entire book of poetic meditations and poems upon Cornell, entitled, _Dimestore Alchemy_, one of his most lovely works.

Cornell's boxes drew inspiration from a world of source materials... artistic, poetic, historical, literary, etc... He was repeatedly inspired by astronomy... the stars and the heavens, and repeatedly combined old astrological and astronomical maps with spheres (suggesting the sun and moon and planets) and old pipes through which one might smoke... or blow soap bubbles... either act suggestive of the passage of time in the face of infinity:


-Soap Bubble Set


Untitled (Solar Set)


Untitled (Solar Set)

...continued...

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## stlukesguild

Cornell also built upon the image of the Victorian writing box from which the sophisticated young man would probably compose his love letters while traveling the world. This results in _L'Egypte de Mlle Cleo de Merode cours elementaire d'histoire naturelle_:



... in which the artist collects various images and items (sand, images of the nile, locusts, etc...) related to the tale of of the ballerina (Cleo/Cleopatra) for whom an Egyptian prince purportedly falls madly in love.

The jewelry box offers other possibilities as in Taglioni's Jewell Box:



From the brief narrative enclosed in the box lid we can immediately understand Cornell's poetic interpretation:

_On a moonlight night in the winter of 1835 the carriage of Marie TAGLIONI was halted by a Russian highwayman, and that enchanting creature commanded to dance for this audience of one upon a panther's skin spread over the snow beneath the stars. From this actuality arose the legend that to keep alive the memory . . . TAGLIONI formed the habit of placing a piece of artificial ice in her jewel casket . . . where, melting among the sparkling stones, there was evoked a hint . . . of the starlit heavens, over the ice-covered landscape_.

Even something as mundane as the medicine cabinet in the old pharmacy becomes something altogether wonderful in Cornell's imagination as we wonder what sort of magic is being doled out of this "Pharmacy" with jars of colored marbles, cork balls, butterfly wings, red sand, letters and notes, etc...:


Pharmacy

Perhaps Cornell's greatest works are the so-called _DeMedici Slot Machines_. In these works Cornell blends the image of the old slot machine where the gypsy might tell one's fortune with portraits of DeMedici children painted by Renaissance masters staged in boxes that are clearly structured upon the floor-plans of DeMedici churches (the floor-plans themselves included in the boxes) and surrounded by toy balls, blocks, etc... The child princess and princesses... children of the DeMedici who most probably were forced into growing up fast are now presented as eternal children surrounded by toys in what is essentially a poetic game for adults:


DeMedici Slot Machine (DeMedici Princess)


DeMedici Slot Machine (Pinturicchio Boy)


DeMedici Slot Machine (DeMedici Prince)

Among Cornell's later works are endless "hotels"... boxes which evoke the subtle colors and peeling paint and imagery suggestive of a now-lost... perhaps never-existent world of French hotels as imagined by an American in love with the French culture of poetry and fairy tale and beloved literature and art... an American who had never traveled to France and probably never would have wanted to do so, and chance destroying his dreams and illusions:


Hotel du Nord 


Hotel Etoile

I have always imagined Cornell as a visual artist who was most akin with a writer such as Emily Dickinson. Like Dickinson, Cornell was a very private individual... almost reclusive... who never really traveled, except such as he did in imagination. Like Dickinson, he exhibited a characteristic New England sensibility: somewhat stark... minimal... even severe at times. Both the poet and the artist are often imagined in romanticized or sentimental terms by those who have not spent time with their work... but in both the poet and the artist have the ability to have shaped an entire world within tiny "boxes" that are formally rigorous... austere... and hard as diamonds, resulting in a truly original American art that seems unprecedented... and has never been emulated. 

Further looks at Cornell:

http://pem.org/cornell/
http://www.artseditor.com/html/featu..._cornell.shtml
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/
http://www.josephcornellsdreams.com/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=1523240

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## Niamh

Wow! Thank you so much for all the info and art you have contrabuted to this thread St Lukes! There are some real gems! I cnat stop staring at some of klee's paintings! :Thumbs Up:  keep the info coming and links to sites about the Artists too would be great! :Biggrin:  

Any thank you to everyone else who has posted some of their chocolate favourites for all of us to look at! :Smile:

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## ex ponto

> "Hamlet is Hamlet whether it was written by the shadowy figure known as Shakespeare or by Sir Francis Bacon or even by one of those lesser claimants like the Earl of Oxford."(


You're right, thank you!

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## stlukesguild

*8. Max Beckmann-*

Beckmann ranks among the giants of early Modernism just behind Picasso and Matisse... yet he is certainly far less well-known than many artists of less influence or genius. This was certainly due in large part to the fact that he was German at a period of time in which being German was not something popular with a good majority of the world. Unlike many of the artists of Europe, Beckmann was unable to negotiate a passport to Britain or the United States during the Nazi era, and as such he sat out more than a decade in Holland, before and during the war, isolated from most of the art world. Beckmann was damned by the Nazis for not being German enough, his manner of painting was not French/formalist enough (too German) to gain him the support of figures such as Alfred Barr (director of the Museum of Modern Art) or Peggy Guggenheim in assisting him with an escape from Europe, and after the war his manner of painting... Expressionism... was damned by his native country for being "too German" at a time when Germany wished to present itself as a good international partner... following whatever was the dominant international style.

But in all of this I'm getting ahead of myself. Max Beckmann was born in Germany in 1884. He attended art school and was academically trained as a painter. By the time he had entered his mid-twenties he was earning recognition by both collectors and the state. His ambition was to be a great history painter in the manner of Rubens or Delacroix, and he was openly dismissive of a great majority of Modern art, including German Expressionism... of which he would become the greatest practitioner. When he was 30, the First World War broke out and Beckmann was sent to the trenches as a medical orderly. Initially he was excited... looking forward to witnessing the sort of acts of grandeur and heroism that he had long read about, and that he imagined would inspire his work. Quickly, however, his excitement turned to horror as he witnessed the absolute grotesque destructiveness, waste, death, suffering, and stupidity that was the first major war of the modern, mechanized world. Like many, Beckmann left the war an absolutely changed man. He had a nervous breakdown, and upon returning home was unable to function living with his wife, a talented and successful opera singer. For almost 7 years he lived with a close friend and family and struggled to create an art that could speak of this new world as he now saw it.

Where Beckmann had once dismissed the distortions of Modernism and Expressionism as so much "fancy", he now saw it as a means of conveying the fragmented, broken world. His paintings from the late 19-teens are among his first mature works. In these he combined the distortions of German Expressionism and Cubism with those of Munch, Van Gogh, and the German Gothic painters and sculptors such as Mathias Grunwald, Tilman Riemenschneider, and Lucas Cranach.

His breakthrough painting... and one of the most harrowing masterpieces of Modern art... was the large canvas entitled_ Night_:



This painting portrays the sort of random acts of violence committed in Germany during the unsettled days following WWI. (A good film that offers a similar view of the time is Fritz Lang's _M_). In Beckmann's painting a group of thugs have broken into a family's apartment and they begin to reap havoc. The father is strangled and hung, the mother half-stripped in preparation for rape, no doubt, and tied to a support beam. A young daughter is thrown out of the window while another daughter/relative witnesses it all in horror. The shallow space, the stark coloring, and the gaunt and wooden forms of the figures recall medieval paintings...



and sculpture...



... especially scenes of martyrdoms and brutal crucifixions. The father in Beckmann's _Night_ distinctly recalls a Christ-like figure... with his rigid limbs (ala the Grunwald's Rigor mortis-laden _Crucifixion_), and palm open to us... shadowed in such a way as to suggest the very wounds of Christ.

A good many of Beckmann's paintings of this era utilized Christian iconography as a sort of analogy to the sort of suffering of the war and post-war era. At the same time... he made great use of the theater/stage/night club. Beckmann began to take on an absurdest philosophy... believing that all the world was most certainly nothing more than a stage... a meaningless, but somehow brutally beautiful show... a noisesome sound and fury... "signifying nothing". Nightclubs, clowns, masked carnival revelers, trapeze artists, and magicians all began to populate his paintings... which grew as crowded and shallow as puppet theaters:





By the mid 1920s, Beckmann's paintings began to take on a calmer, more "classical" look. There was a greater simplicity of form and an opening up of the space... and the figures themselves began to grow more robust... healthy. In part this was in response to the general shift toward classicism or Neo-classicism during this time, and it echoes the similar directions taken by Picasso, Matisse, and many others. It was also due to the revival of Beckmann's love life through his marriage to a second far younger wife, "Quappi":





The greatest "tension" in his paintings at this time are sexual in nature... usually taking the form of powerful, muscular, Amazon women. Beckmann was a prolific reader a was deeply fascinated with philosophy, theology, mysticism, gnosticism, psychology, and mythology. His images of these powerful "_femme fatales_" were certainly rooted, in part, in his readings. They also mirrored his own feelings of being somewhat at the mercy of his own passions when it came to his young wife... to sex... to his animal urges... and he may have recognized that there was perhaps something universal in such feelings:





continued...

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## stlukesguild

While the male figures in many of these paintings were certainly surrogates for Beckmann himself, the artist was also more direct in exploring himself through self-portraits. Only Rembrandt and Picasso may equal Beckmann in the intensity and number of self-portraits. Beckmann explored all the various guises of himself. The artist as entertainer/performer (dressed in a gymnastic/trapeze costume beneath his dressing gown and clutching his saxophone):



The artist as the intense young man with empty eyes... a powerful woodblock print that gives some notion of the artist's abilities in the graphic media:



most important was the artist as a success:



This painting of the artist dressed in his tuxedo, nonchalantly smoking (an image that would be echoed in the famous photograph of Marlena Dietrich) perfectly conveyed the image of Beckmann as the most famous German artist of his time... a Modern success story. And shortly before his fall. Beckmann had only a few more years of attending soirées with well-to-do art collectors and beautiful young women:



With the rise of the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler, who adamantly despised Modern Art, Beckmann was declared a "cultural Bolshevik", and dismissed from his teaching posts. His paintings were soon confiscated from museums across Germany, and he became the best represented artist in the so-called "Degenerate Art Show", an exhibition staged by the Nazis to mock Modernism in art. Beckmann fled Germany for Amsterdam, never to return to his homeland.

The works of this period are very telling of the political upheavals of the time. The self-portraits show the artist in shackles:



... as a clown or circus performer in a hellishly lit circus:



... or trapped in his apartment... the landscape outside his window reduced to an empty black... a void... his ear held to his horn listening for the tramp of marching boots:

... 

The key painting of this period was his first triptych (a three-panel painting format usually reserved for altarpieces), _Departure_. This painting portrays a central group with a woman and child that echoes a Madonna and Christ-child and a Christ-like fisherman/king and protective masked Greek hero. This group stands in a a small boat before an open sea... before an unknown but open and free future, as the artist flees his homeland. The two flanking panels portray an enclosed, crowded space filled once more with noise and acts of violence.

Similar ominous images show up during this period. Figures caged or imprisoned:



Still life paintings on the traditional _Memento mori_ ("remember death") theme with skulls and other images such as burning candles suggestive of the continual march of time:



continued...

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## stlukesguild

Two of the most powerful paintings of the war-years are the huge _Bird's Hell_ and _Death._ In the former, Beckmann portrays a crowded hell (his compositions growing ever more crammed and echoing the horror vacuii or "fear of emptiness" ..."of the void" that is a common element of medieval art) in which giant Heironymus Bosch-like birds torture and kill their human prey before a great German Eagle, a noisy marching band, and arms/wings raised in a _sieg heil!_salute:



_Death_is a surreal scene in which the deceased is surrounded in a darkened room by an upside-down choir and various monstrous sea-creatures and figures carrying out obscene acts... all overseen by a black, multi-footed priest:



During the war, Amsterdam was occupied by the Germans and Beckmann was under orders not to create any art under penalty of death. In spite of this... and in spite of the difficulties he faced in earning an income, obtaining supplies, or selling his art... he continued to paint... and paint prolifically. He produced at least 6 of his triptychs during this period and dozens, if not hundreds, of other paintings... many of them quite large. His paintings grew increasingly crowded as figures butted up against each other, interlocked like so many puzzle pieces. His imagery grew increasingly dense and symbolically-laden, as he built upon his knowledge of history, mythology, gnosticism, etc... These paintings immediately strike one as powerful and darkly brooding... the lush and sensuous colors (purples, oranges, neon-greens) glow brilliantly like stained glass surrounded by the bituminous black leading... yet a specific or easily defined "meaning" of the symbolism often alludes the viewer. Such paintings certainly include the triptych, _The Actors_, in which a King-like actor unexpectedly commits suicide on the stage before his horrified co-star, while the director checks his notes looking for a scene that obviously wasn't in the script... while to the right a scene almost certainly suggesting Christ's arrest is underway:



It might be noted that these paintings are all quite sizable... 



...heroic-scaled mythologies prooving that Beckmann had surely achieved his goal of becoming a great history painter... unfortunately a history painter in an age in which history had become horror.

The last 5 years of Beckmann's life were spent in the United States. There the artist captured images of the immediately recognizable landscape of the American South-West:



... or images of the modern urban landscape/cityscape of highways, high-rises, and high-tension bridges surrounding great cities such as San Francisco:

 

Beckmann taught painting at the graduate level (in spite of his severely limited abilities in English) in San Francisco and in St. Louis, where the painter, Philip Guston, one of the rising stars of Abstract Expressionism, recommended the artist... as a personal hero. The great muscular Amazon women again make their appearance in his painting... inspired by what he imagined as a uniquely American type of woman as witnessed in the cinema and on the beaches:





The artist continued to paint himself... now as something of the cool and collected American sophisticate, dressed in his casual dress jacket... still sucking on the very cigarettes that would speed his early death. Beckmann spent his final year in New York City... a city that awakened in him his former love of extreme spectacle. He spoke of the city as a Babylon beyond anything imagined by the "provincial" Europeans, where he could hear the wild beasts roar. He died in New York of a massive heart-attack... on the way to take another final look this last self-portrait as it hung in a gallery space. In his apartment on an easel was his final completed painting, _The Falling Man_:



The painting portrays a partially-nude male figure falling through the skies... flanked by towering buildings that billow with smoke and flame... high-rise buildings that could only have been found in New York. The painting again leaves one partially puzzled... but moved. The image echoes that of the "Hanged Man" and "The Tower" from the tarot deck (imagery that Beckmann was certainly familiar with). Perhaps even more disturbing for the contemporary viewer is what almost amounts to a premonition of the fall of the World Trade Center buildings and the people falling after leaping from the flames. And yet what does one make of the winged angel-like figures in the distance? As Babylon's towers eventually crumble and fall and and mankind with them... something in the distance... on the horizon... waits?

Beckmann's reputation after his death rapidly faded. His style of painting placed him firmly at the head of the German Expressionist movement at a time when German artists/art collectors/art critics were seeking to avoid anything that looked "too German"... or too intense or powerful. German art of the era preferred to present a weak shadow of American abstraction... the new "International Style". In the United States, on the other hand, Beckmann was simply too much representative of the "old world" at a time when American painting was asserting itself as the dominant and most advanced art of its time. The Museum of Modern Art and the Met (among other Museums) would both turn down the chance for a Beckmann retrospective as recently as the early 1980s. By the mid-1980s, however, Beckmann's reputation began to grow. Philip Guston's late figurative work, Francis Bacon's Expressionistic triptychs and Picassos late paintings began to have a major impact upon young artists of the so-called Neo-Expressionist movement. Major new figures suddenly burst upon the scene out of Germany... painters such as Anselm Kiefer, George Bazelitz, Jorge Immendorf, Gerhard Richter, etc... who all rejected the cool, detached formalism and minimalism of the current "international style", and began to discover their own artistic roots in earlier German art. It soon became obvious that Beckmann was a forgotten precursor and giant to all of these. Once "rediscovered" his reputation continued to grow (there have been at least 3 retrospectives of his works at major American museums in the past decade or so) until he now stands deservedly among the greatest painters of the 20th century.


I'll be leaving for a brief trip to New York and Washington D.C. so no new postings 'til next week.

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## Quark

I like the Goya that Trystan posted earlier:




> 


The way he dehumanizes the soldiers on the right by grouping them together is very clever. They become a faceless battery rather than individual people. Meanwhile, between the agonizing peasants about to be executed and the pile of bodies is the single man with his arms in the air. He's in this oddly heroic and simultaneously despairing pose, too. Also, we know he's about to be murdered. The body directly to his right is in almost the same pose--prefiguring the white-shirted man's death. This adds something dramatic. It's not just a moment of confrontation between the man and the soldiers. It's also a process that can't be stopped. Above the drama, though, is the cityscape which is solemn looking. Its dignity contrasts with the gruesome action in the foreground. 

Altogether, I really enjoyed the painting. Thanks for posting it Trystan.

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## stlukesguild

Oops... double post.

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## stlukesguild

Yes... the Goya is certainly a powerful painting. The artist masterfully leads our eye... down the sloping hill to the faceless phalanx of soldiers who stand more as a "thing"... a machine... than as individual beings. From them we are lead along their rifles and bayonets to the poor souls awaiting imminent execution. These persons are seen as distinct individuals. The central figure, dressed in white, gestures in a manner that shows no fear... no cowering to these mindless purveyors of death and destruction. He is also clearly portrayed as an almost Christ-like figure... his pose echoing that of the crucifixion... the monk with his clutched crucifix before him reinforcing this symbolism and his left arm leading the eye to the church tower in the background which acts as a symbolic and visual axis upon which the painting is divided. Like the painting of the _Execution of Lady Jane Gray_, which we discussed earlier, the stark white of Goya's "martyr" creates a great deal of tension as we cannot help but recognize that this virginal color will soon be stained in the blood of the wearer. The painting is a marvelous Romantic-era masterwork: loosely or boldly painted... dramatic... theatrical... emotionally charged.  :Thumbs Up:

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## Kafka's Crow

I like the various portraits of Ezra Pound by Wyndham Lewis:

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## Kafka's Crow

> Yes... the Goya is certainly a powerful painting. The artist masterfully leads our eye... down the sloping hill to the faceless phalanx of soldiers who stand more as a "thing"... a machine... than as individual beings. From them we are lead along their rifles and bayonets to the poor souls awaiting imminent execution. These persons are seen as distinct individuals. The central figure, dressed in white, gestures in a manner that shows no fear... no cowering to these mindless purveyors of death and destruction. He is also clearly portrayed as an almost Christ-like figure... his pose echoing that of the crucifixion... the monk with his clutched crucifix before him reinforcing this symbolism and his left arm leading the eye to the church tower in the background which acts as a symbolic and visual axis upon which the painting is divided. Like the painting of the _Execution of Lady Jane Gray_, which we discussed earlier, the stark white of Goya's "martyr" creates a great deal of tension as we cannot help but recognize that this virginal color will soon be stained in the blood of the wearer. The painting is a marvelous Romantic-era masterwork: loosely or boldly painted... dramatic... theatrical... emotionally charged.



I think it is from the series called 'The Horrors of War' or something. Goya only gets better with _Saturn Devouring One of His Sons:_


And who can forget the two Maja paintings? I incorporated the above painting of Saturn in an essay on Lautreamont once, I think he makes use of it in _Maldoror_.

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## Mr. Vandemar

The Goya painting with the man in white is startling. Notice that his shirt is so brilliantly white, while the others are so dark. He is in the moment of truth. His comrades are dead, they are lifeless (and so is their colour). He is about to become a martyr, and this is his time to shine. While the others, aside from the monk, are trying to escape and avoid death, he is not. He is (like Christ) putting his hands up in acknowledgement and acceptance of his death. That is why his shirt is so white.

Also, notice the monk praying beside him. This also leads me to the Christ-like comparison that Goya gives. I think he is there so that we can make that connection. Is he just praying, or is he praying for protection and exemption? His anxious expression lead me to the latter. I think that he is there so that we make the religious connection and to amplify and accent the faith of the man in white.

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## stlukesguild

I think it is from the series called 'The Horrors of War' or something.

It was one of two paintings. The first portraying the Spanish uprising against the Napoleonic forces on May 2nd. The second displaying the Napoleonic response. The painting was certainly one of many works "inspired" by the horrors of the French invasion of Spain, but the series you are referring to, _The Disasters of War_, is actually a series of prints:











There are many more prints from this series... a good many far more explicit in their violence: scenes of rape, executions, mutilations... on both sides of the conflict. Goya's graphic portrayal of the horrors of war combined with his expressive handling of his media... and the expressive distortions of his later "Black Paintings" such as _Saturn Devouring his Children_, made him a major influence upon Modern art and especially upon Expressionists such as Otto Dix:





... George Grosz:



... and Max Beckmann (who we looked at above). 

... continued...

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## stlukesguild

Goya's late painting... including the _Saturn Devouring his Children_... are often referred to as his "black paintings"... both because of the predominance of the color black, but also because of the darkness of the themes of most of these paintings, including witchcraft...



...exorcism...



...religious fanaticism and the inquisition...



...the asylums for the mentally disturbed...



One of my favorites is _The Dog_: 



In this stark and almost empty painting a lone dog... seemingly lost at sea and facing the swelling waves that threaten to drown him... looks up... with very little hope... for a non-existent master... God?

Returning to the painting of Saturn Devouring his Children I must say I have always been struck by the fact that in spite of the horrific image, Goya's painting strikes me as less shocking than Ruben's version of the same theme:



... because of the realism that the elder master brings to the subject that strips away a distance between us and what is portrayed.

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## stlukesguild

*9. Sultan Muhammad, Bihzad, the Shanameh and Classical Persian Book Illumination.* 

So let's leave the modern era... and let's leave the art of the West and turn to the Middle-East. As an admitted and unrepentant bibliophile I have long been enamored of the book as an art object: everything from William Morris _Kelmscott Chaucer_, Aldus Manutius _Hynerotomachia Poliphili_, Albrecht Dürers _Apocalypse_, Henri Matisses _Jazz_, Dores illustrated classics, Chagalls _Four Tales from the Arabian Nights_, and of course William Blakes visionary illuminations of his own poetry... on through contemporary works of "book arts" have in their way, been as familiar and as important to me as an artist as almost any work in the more traditional genre of painting. Being something of a medievalist as well (medieval art offered me the first real understanding of the world of art beyond realism) I must admit that it has been the medieval book more than anything that has kept me obsessed with the book as a visual art form.

I have had a long love affair with the medieval book in all its splendid variety: the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic manuscripts (the _Book of Durrow_, the _Book of Kells_, the _Lindesfarne Gospels_) with their ornate calligraphy woven into the most magical of knotted and intertwined abstractions the boldly graphic, expressively colored and often horrific Hiberno-Islamic illuminations of the _Commentaries of Beatus of Liebana on the Book of Revelations_ (works which most certainly were a major source of inspiration for Picasso), the marvelous French Gothic manuscripts such as the beautiful _Paris Psalter_ and the expressionistic _Hours of the Rohan Master_. Of course I was forever enchanted with the exquisitely delicate works of the Limbourg Brothers, especially the _Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry_, perhaps THE masterwork of late medieval book arts in Europe.

Naturally, I was equally drawn to the wonders of the book as an art form as it existed beyond the West especially the Moorish, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian books. The marvelous gilded labyrinths of Islamic calligraphy to be found in the finest volumes of the _Quran_ dazzled me like nothing else...



...save perhaps the most ornate examples of Anglo-Saxon/Celtic interlace. Even more fascinating were the magical manuscripts illuminating the most illustrious work of Persian poetry: Nezami (Nezami-ye Ganjavi),Omar Khayyám, Attar (Abū Hamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm), Shams (Shams-e-Tabrīzī Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn al-Dīn Khusrow), Saadi (Saadi-Muslih-ud-Din Mushrif ibn Abdullah), Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi), Hafez (Khwāja ams ud-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e īrāzī). These enchanting illuminated miniatures, gilded and spectacularly patterned, teeming with tiny, elegant figures and staged in the most sumptuous bedecked interiors or the most sensuous and idyllic garden settings immediately brought to life the whole resplendent, exotic, and sensual atmosphere of the _Arabian Nights_... the exotic Middle-east as a Westerner might dream it. These were the most fabulous of visual fairy tales and dreamscapes in which one might lose oneself for hours.

Persian culture is ancient and Persia had existed as a stable empire for some 1300 years, far outlasting its great rivals, Greece and Rome. From 643-650 the Persian Empire under the Sasanian rulers suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Byzantine Empire which so weakened them as to result in their subsequent subjugation by the small and numerically inferior Islamic Arab forces, and later by invading Mongols. It isn't until the 11th century and the rise of the great classical Persian poets, especially Abolqasem Ferdowsi, whose _Shahnameh_ is the epic poem of Persia/Iran, that Persian culture once again began to assert itself. Persia had accepted the Arab religion of Islam, but contrary to Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari's iconoclastic strictures as put forth in his "Life of the Prophet", the _al-Jaami al-Sahih_, and the influence of the rise of iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire beginning in the 8th century under the emperor, Leo II, the tradition of imagery and visual narrative was deeply ingrained in Persian culture.

With the rise to power of the Safavid rulers in 1501, and a growing awareness of their own Persian history and culture, Persian poetry and art entered a "golden age". Manuscript illumination became thought of as the highest form of art, combining calligraphy:



... magnificent endsheets:



... marvelous landscapes:



... ornate interwoven abstractions:



... even collage! :Eek:  as in this page in which each shape in the design and the very lettering itself is produced from cut paper!

 

Three great schools of painting and book production arose in the cities of Shiraz, Herat, and Tabriz. The school of Shiraz was especially known for a more symmetrical/geometric approach to painting and page layout, and a frieze-like approach... even early on, as can be seen in the Demotte Shanameh.



The Shiraz school would reach its artistic peak with the production of an illuminated copy of Nezamis _Kahmseh_, produced in 1491.



The details, clarity, and confidence of this work surpass anything before seen in Persian miniatures. Painting of Shiraz would have a major influence throughout Persia.

The school of Tabriz under the Turkoman workshops was especially known for expressionistic or even Dionysian paintings in which figures are staged in the most sensuous, and florid landscapes. Faces and creatures (grotesques) are often found hidden in the rocks and vegetation. The luxuriant and lush foliage and rolling clouds were clearly influenced by Chinese art. To this the Turkoman artists at Tabriz added the most brilliant coloring.





continued...

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## stlukesguild

One of the most spectacular manuscripts to have been produced at Tabriz was an unfinished _Shanameh_ (1515-1522) of which only a single image remains: _Rustam Sleeping while Rakhsh Fights the Lion_,attributed to the painter Sultan Muhammad:



The scale and quality of this painting,, are enough to substantiate its claim to having been one of the greatest masterworks of Turkoman style at Tabriz. Sultan Muhammad, the leading painter of the Turkoman style, is credited with several other exceptional works, perhaps most brilliant being the luminous image of the _Miraj or the heavenly ascension of the prophet Muhammad_, painted for an illuminated text of Nezami’s _Khamseh_ (c. 1540):



The painting school of Herat was established in the early 15th century drawing upon many of the best artists from Shiraz and Tabriz. The artists of Herat were especially accomplished at painting people staged within complex settings beautifully composed. The greatest of the artists at Herat was Kamal ud-Din Behzad Herawi or Bihzad (c. 1460–1535), generally acknowledged as the greatest of all Persian painters. Bihzad had a special talent for not only portraying people but also in conveying a clarity of action or narrative, and staging this within a sophisticated space that drew great attention to the surroundings of everyday urban life. In this scene of a beheading (below) Bihzad's use of color and positioning of the figures leads the eye to the central drama... and then around the picture where we find a great variety of personalities and their differing... even conflicting responses to the event unfolding before us:



In this scene Bihzad explores the everyday actions of urban life in a major Persian metropolis:



The eye is led around through scenes of beggars, barbers, bathers, and carpet sellers. Bihzad adds the sophisticated element of the architectural detailing breaking out of the rectangular picture plane.

One of the best examples of Bihzad’s work from Herat is to be found in his painting of _Joseph and Zulaykha_ (the Hebrew Joseph and Potipher’s wife):



In this painting the virtuous Joseph flees the amorous advances of Zulaykha running through a labyrinthine space in which the viewer is given a simultaneous interior and exterior view. Bricks, patterned tiles, Persian rugs, and steep stairwells are at once dazzling and disorienting… perhaps conveying Joseph’s own feelings as he seeks to escape from Zulaykha. The artist allows towers and balconies to again break out of the rectangular space while also weaving the text throughout the image in the most sophisticated manner.

Under the Safavid rulers, and the examples of Sultan Muhammad and Bihzad, there is a brilliant synthesis of the various Persian miniature styles that would result in what is arguably THE masterwork of Persian painting, the so-called _Shahnameh of Tabriz_ (or the _"Houghton Shahnameh"_). Entire workshops of calligraphers, painters, gilders, leather workers, book binders, etc... were employed under the oversight of masters, including Sultan Muhammad and Bihzad. The format for each individual illustration was conceived of independently and involved the input of many different hands… some with quite dissimilar methods of working, and so for a book to maintain any sense of continuity and coherence demanded clear thinking, planning, and foresight on the part of the masters. This must have been especially challenging considering the fact the text and paintings could not always be completed in sequence. In order to maintain a degree of continuity of style, the artists in the workshops employed scrapbook collections or anthologies of calligraphy styles...



...painting styles for rendering various flora, fauna, or figures...



...as models in creating a work as complex as an illuminated manuscript. Something similar to these examples of calligraphy and imagery collaged into compositions may have even served as a mock-up or proto-codex in preparation for the final book. The stringent demands placed upon the workshop artists for major illuminated manuscripts can be clearly witnessed by the quality of the works rejected, as in this unfinished folio page:

 

The _Shahnameh_ of Tabriz is the most brilliant realization of the Persian book arts. No other book comes near to its level of polish, refinement and decorativeness. The work is the most stunning merger of painting, design, and calligraphy in the service of the singular masterwork of Persian poetry. Any number of the individual folio miniatures certainly rank among the finest examples of Persian painting… of painting in general. Among the most splendid miniatures one might wish to look particularly to _The Court of Gayumars_:



This painting is the culmination of the Turkoman style, and echoes many of the most striking elements of _Rustam Sleeping while Rakhsh Fights the Lion_. Both works show the influence, if not the hand of the painter, Sultan Muhhamad. _The Court of Gayumars_ is considered by many to be the greatest of Persian manuscript paintings. The painting represents Gayumars, the first king of Persia, who ruled from the mountaintops and in whose presence the wild beasts became meek as lambs. Gayumars is seen sitting atop his mountain before a backdrop of flowering trees silhouetted against a gilded sky. He looks down mournfully at his son, Siyamak, who will be killed in battle with the Black Div. Beneath him his courtiers stand organized in a circular manner around a center of leafy, luxuriant vegetation. The court is bracketed by further exuberant flora and vividly colored rocks which burst forth from the limits of the rectangular frame.

continued...

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## stlukesguild

The contributions to the _Shahnameh_ of the painter, Sultan Muhammad are further seen in several other equally magnificent paintings beyond the possible attribution of the aforementioned tour de force (_The Court of Gayumars_). Among these is the splendid painting of _Hushang Discovering Fire_:



Like The Court of Gayumars this painting is unmatched in its vigorous portrayal of sensuous flora and fauna. The work also exploits a similar circular/organic organization of the figures beneath the central figure of Hushang. An equally marvelous painting (also possibly by Sultan Muhammad) that repeats the sumptuous and organic Turkoman style is the painting _Rustam, aided by his Horse, Rakhsh, Slays a Dragon_:



Here we find a Chinese-inspired dragon writhes in a serpentine knot as he wrestles with Rustams trusty steed, while the great warrior strikes the death blow with his sword. This arabesque of action takes place in a brilliantly colored and opulent landscape where the very fauna and the swirling clouds repeat the twisting and snaking motion of the central drama. The color alone would certainly inspire jealousy in an artist such as Matisse, Bonnard, or Gauguin.

In contrast to these, paintings such as _The Nightmare of Zahhak_...



...clearly reverberate with the influence of Bihzad and the painting school of Herat. The viewer is presented with a geometrically constructed depiction of Zahhaks palace that is at once an interior and exterior view. There is the most exquisite attention given to details of the setting and the decorative architectural patterns. The most refined element, however, is the artists mastery with the human figure. The scene illustrated in the narrative is of that moment at which Zahhak, the evil snake king awakes screaming from a dream in which he envisions his own death at the hands of a great hero wielding an ox-headed mace. Rather than focus upon Zahhak, the artist (quite possibly Bihzad himself) gives all his attention to the reaction of Zahhaks court. Courtiers in the magnificent royal palace look up in surprise; Guardsmen in the towers glance over the balconies in an effort to discern just what the commotion is all about, while the women of the harem hold their fingers to their lips in a gesture of surprise or whisper to each other as they pass on the stairwells:



Many of the finest paintings of the _Shahnameh_ and later Persian manuscripts of the "classical" period combine elements of both the lush Turkoman manner of Tabriz and the more cultured and urbane style of Bihzadian Herat. The dynamic, fervid, and Dionysian approach of Sultan Muhammad, the leading painter of the Turkoman school, was influenced by the balanced, harmonious, and humane school of Herat under the elder Bihzad. In the painting of _Zahhak Receiving the Daughters of Jamshid whose Throne he has Usurped_, (attributed to Sultan Muhammad):



... there is a marvelous merger of the two modes of working. Zahhak, the snake king is seen enthroned in the most ornate and luxurious of palaces and surrounded by courtiers and servants. The almost gothic/baroque sensory overload or _horror vacuii_ of the fabulous patterned architectural setting continues into the surrounding landscape where twisting trees bloom and clouds spiral and dance against a gilded sky. The gold itself carries over back into the architecture so that the sophisticated, urbane setting and organic natural surrounding almost become one.

In the Folio representing _The Murder of King Mirdas_: 



...one may discover another marvelous example of the merger of styles. The painting presents the brutal patricide of Mirdas which occurs in a lush garden orchard. Mirdas lies with his back broken in a pit dug by his son, Zahhak while unseen observers peer out from doors and balconies of the palace, suggesting the evil deed did not go unnoticed. Spectators, often women, concealed behind doors and balconies, or peering from behind veils and curtains are suggestive of a sophisticated view of the intrigues of the court and were quite expressive of the influence of Bihzad and the urbane style of Herat. A similar balance of the organic and the geometric the landscape wilderness and the sophistication of civilization can be found in the painting of _Sam and Zal are Welcomed into Kabul, Where the Latter is to be Betrothed to Rudabe, a Decendant of Zahhak_.(Now there's a title!):



In this painting the mounted warriors under Sam and Zal move diagonally across the desert landscape. This diagonal is picked up and reiterated by the rigidly ordered line of figures welcoming them into the city. This rigidity itself restates the strict geometry of the fortified architectural setting. Perhaps the most remarkable detail is to be found in the balcony which juts out from the severe structure of the architecture in profile against the most gestural and organic element of the entire painting, the twisting tree silhouetted against the gilded sky which swirls in an arabesque that immediately draws ones eye to the very place where Zals wife-to-be observes the heros entrance unnoticed.

The _Shahnameh of Tabriz_ remained intact and in near-perfect condition well into the 20th century. The calligraphy remained crisp, the paper flawless and the brilliant colors remained virtually unchanged, due in part, no doubt, to the fact that the book had seldom been opened for reading thanks to a lack of understanding of the Persian language (Farsi) and only upon rare occasions for the display of the paintings to honored visitors. In 1959 the Baron Edmond de Rothschild, sold the intact book to the American collector, Arthur Houghton. Rothschild, who had taken special care to ensure that the miniatures were always well-protected had initially turned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the belief that a work of such importance deserved to be housed in an appropriate institution. The Met, however, on the recommendation of the board of trustees (headed by Houghton!) passed on the prospect, at which time Houghton snatched it up it for himself.

Initially Houghton placed the book at Harvard with the understanding that an elegant and scholarly facsimile would be published by the universitys academic press. It was thought that Houghton might eventually donate the work to his alma mater. Harvards Fogg Museum contained a renowned collection of Islamic art, an ideal setting for the work. In 1972, however, Houghton became piqued with the universitys delay in the production of the book and he pulled the _Shahnameh_ and brought it to New York. At that time, after remaining intact for over 400 years, Houghton inexplicably tore 78 of the finest paintings from the book and presented them as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Thomas Hoving, then director of the Met states, I was flatly opposed to the breaking up of the book in any fashion. I confronted Arthur physically, personally on the matter, but he was determined to do this, and he was the chairman of our board of trustees, after all. On the other hand, Hoving also admitted that Houghtons gift was like getting a whole bunch of Michelangelo paintings from out of the blue.

As the museum held non-profit status Houghton sought to claim a sizeable tax reduction. Unfortunately the bequest came at a point at which the government was becoming increasingly suspicious of deductions claimed for the donation of art. A gift this size was enough to trigger an audit by the IRS, who disallowed Houghtons claim. Houghton became terrified that the government would eventually begin to investigate all of his business dealings especially his various charitable foundations which had acted as fronts for the CIA during the Cold War. 

Houghtons fears (unbelievably paranoid according to Hoving) led him to the irrational decision to dispose of the remains of the _Shahnameh_. He initially offered it to the Shah of Iran, but the $20 million asking price was rejected. At this point he began to consign a few pieces at a time (prudently to avoid flooding the market and hurting his price) to Christies of London for public auction. The £785,000 realized by the sale of thefirst seven folio pages should certainly have proved to the IRS that Houghtons claim as to the monetary value of his donation to the Met was in no way inflated. Over the next decade or so Houghton continued to remove further folios from the _Shahnameh_ and consign them to the auction block. This wholesale pillage of one of the greatest masterpieces of world art only came to a halt when Houghton died in 1990. By that time only 120 of the plates remained. All that exists today to suggest the coherent magnificence of the book as it originally existed is the scholarly limited edition facsimile eventually published by Harvard.

In spite of the irreparable vandalism that the _Shahnameh_ had suffered, the Iranians were still more than eager to get what remained of their cultural patrimony. The estimated $20-million price tag, however, was impossible to justify for a mere work of art, especially following the prolonged and devastating war with Iraq. Eventually an ingenious barter was worked out between Houghtons estate and the Iranian government. The Iranians had been attempting to get rid of certain decadent paintings that were unsuitable for public exhibition under the Islamic rule. Among these was the painting, Woman III, by the Abstract Expressionist, Willem de Kooning, to which a like value of $20 million had been arbitrarily assigned. The trade took place under clandestine conditions upon the neutral turf of the Vienna airport. The remains of the _Shahnameh_ were returned to in Iran in triumph and proudly put upon public display in Tehran, in the Museum of Contemporary Art which had sacrificed the de Kooning. The de Kooning, on the other hand, was privately sold for an undisclosed sum to the media executive, David Geffen, and immediately disappeared from public view. The great British art critic, David Sylvester, a champion of Modernism, was quoted as saying that the _Shahnameh_ was worth at least 20 paintings by de Kooning, and that the Houghton Foundation had been the loser in exchanging the work for one painting by de Kooning, and that the Iranian government had actually recovered the _Shahnameh_ gratis. One cannot easily question Sylvesters claim, considering the fact that in 2006 just a single folio painting of the _Shahnameh_ was auctioned off for $1.7 million, making it the 7th most-expensive book or part of a book sold that year in spite of it being but a single page.

The parts of the _Shahnameh_ can be found in collections around the world, including not only the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but also The State Hermitage Museum in Russia and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran. The book was a entire art gallery between two covers and almost every individual painting is worthy of careful examination. It was one of the most magical works of art ever created; a virtual visual fairy-tale. Looking at the paintings one can easily see why artists as diverse as Ingres, Delacroix, Gauguin, Matisse, Klee, Beckmann, Kandinsky, etc were greatly impressed with and inspired by Persian painting. At the same time one would hope that the tragic events surrounding the _Shahnameh_ rooted in greed and a disregard for the cultural achievements outside ones own culture would have taught us a lesson not soon forgotten. Unfortunately the looting of the Baghdad Museum following the invasion of Iraq suggests that we may still have far to go.

Bibliographic sources:

Basbanes, Nicholas A., A Splendor of Letters; The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World, HarperCollins Publishers, NY 2003, ISBN:0-06-008287-9

Blair, Sheila S. and Bloom, Jonathan M., The Art and Architecture of Islam, 1250-1800,
Yale University Press, NY 1994, ISBN: 0-300-05888-8

Danby, Miles, Moorish Style, Phaidon Press, London 1995, ISBN: 0-7148-3861-6

Davis, Dick (translation and Introduction) Abolqasem Ferdowsis Shahnameh, The Persian Book of Kings, Penguin Books, NY 2006, ISBN: 978-0-14-310493-3

Ferrier, R.W. ed., The Arts of Persia, Yale University Press, NY 1989, ISBN-10: 0300039875

Piortrovski, M.B. and Rogers, J.M. editors, Heaven on Earth: Art from Islamic Lands, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin, London, NY 2004, ISBN:3-7913-3055-1

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## Kafka's Crow

That's what I was expecting Stlukesguild, bravo! Excellent post. Very, very enlightening. I have been indirectly and discreetly egging you on to write something like this because I knew since the day one that you had it all inside your head. Excellent, _chapeau bas!_ The last lines are very, very touching. Some day we will discuss another similar topic very close to my heart: Moors in Spain. That was another great chapter in the history of human artistic achievement. All the propaganda around us tells that we are out to civilize the world whereas the truth lies in the fact that we can still learn a thing or two from those 'stone-age fanatics'. Yet another interesting thing: art saves the truth. Whatever we are led to believe is negated in the above paintings. Beauty is truth, indeed, and truth beauty. Beauty saves!

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## stlukesguild

Kafka... Thanks. Of course I had the advantage of being able to use a somewhat edited version of the essay I had written for a class on Non-Western Art I took this Spring as part of the requirements for renewing my teaching license. The art of Arab-Andalusia or Moorish Spain, you say? Truly a fascinating period. I'm actually reading a good amount of poetry from that time, and I do very much admire the architecture and the Romanesque book illuminations. Perhaps not so far down the road.

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## Guinivere

My favourite artist would be Caspar David Friedrich.

http://www.onlinekunst.de/wetter/sch..._Friedrich.jpg
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2001/spirit/large/02.jpg
http://www.kunstkopie.de/kunst/caspa..._meer_2584.jpg

These are three of his pictures. I like _the monk by the sea_ best. That's the third one.

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## stlukesguild

Caspar David Friederich. Yes! The great German Romantic landscape painter. Personally, I prefer Turner... but Friederich is certainly no slouch. If anything he is underrated... largely because most of his paintings are still in Germany limiting their exposure to French, Spanish, British, American (etc...) artists. Both he and Turner capture that Romantic feeling of the "sublime" in nature. Turner more often achieves this with the turbulent even violent: storms, avalanches, fires, the churning sea, the blinding light of the sun... although there are a good many examples where he unveils the sublime in the more subdued... "elegiac" side of nature. Friederich's work is continually elegiac: the light of day or the moon seems to be just rising... or more often waning. His light bathes everything in a feeling of melancholy... which is further heightened quite often by his choice of imagery: lone figures standing before the vast expanse of the sea... before the void?.. ruins of Gothic cathedrals or Greek Temples, etc...

















_Monk before the Sea_ may just be my favorite as well. It his paintings one can surely see links with a painter such as Mark Rothko.

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## Kafka's Crow

I remember carrying a print of _The Wanderer above a Sea of Clouds_ in my college folder as a spotty 16 year old teenager (back in 1985). This was my favorite painting then. Later on I fell in love with *Ginevra Benci* and that love is still going on after 14 years of obsession with one painting:

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## stlukesguild

That is an exquisite painting. The only Leonardo painting in the entire Western Hemisphere. I certainly make a point of seeing it on every visit to the National Gallery in Washington. I don't think its much bigger than the reproduction you've posted. Leonardo certainly does capture a sphinx-like unearthliness in this and a few other paintings... an element that Rossetti was able to put so well into words when responding to Leonardo's equally mysterious Virgin of the Rocks:



For Our Lady of the Rocks by Leonardo Da Vinci
by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Mother, is this the darkness of the end,
The Shadow of Death? and is that outer sea
Infinite imminent Eternity?
And does the death-pang by man's seed sustained
In Time's each instant cause thy face to bend
Its silent prayer upon the Son, while He
Blesses the dead with His hand silently
To His long day which hours no more offend?

Mother of grace, the pass is difficult,
Keen are these rocks, and the bewildered souls
Throng it like echoes, blindly shuddering through.
Thy name, O Lord, each spirit's voice extols,
Whose peace abides in the dark avenue
Amid the bitterness of things occult.

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## Quark

> _Monk before the Sea_ may just be my favorite as well. It his paintings one can surely see links with a painter such as Mark Rothko.


I used this painting a while back in the Chekhov discussion. About two weeks into a conversation on a short story called "The Black Monk" I remembered that a German had painted a masterpiece that would go perfectly with the story. I'll have to dig up what I wrote about it. Wait, here it is:




> In my pursuit of Russian art for the story introductions, I must have overlooked this painting because it was German. It works well with this story, though, and I probably should have used it earlier. It portrays three elements of Kovrin's Black Monk in beautiful color. The foreground with monk shows the barren isolation of the monk and corresponds to Kovrin's own condition toward the end--after he's alienated everyone. The horizon of the painting is all turmoil. The sea and sky dissolve into each other in this mess of blue, like Kovrin's confused, ambiguous state. The sky is peaceful, though. Kovrin has hope for a celestial peace in the Black Monk, too. The painting lumps these three moods of the story together, so I thought I should bring it up.


and Janine added:




> I love the painting, Quark! Thanks so much for finding it and posting it. You know how I like having illustrations within the text - it livens things up. That painting is very moody and imparts the feelings in this story of his final isolation with the Black Monk.


It's an excellent painting. Thanks for bringing these up. I'll try to come up with an image myself to add to the conversation.

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## Agatha

I like very much impressionists like Auguste Renoir,Claude Monet,Edgar Degas. 

My favourite Renoir's painting:

http://www.poster.net/renoir-auguste...rs-9701659.jpg

Some works of Monet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Claude_Monet_040.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:C...ing_Willow.JPG

And Degas' painting:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Degas_009.jpg


And one of my favourite artists is also Vermeer:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ing_(1665).jpg

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## applepie

My favorite art actually isn't paintings. I much prefer black and white photography. My current favorite paintings are those of Christian Riese Lassen. You can find some of his work here. Sorry everything is under copywrite, so you will have to follow the link http://www.lassenart.com/flash.html

My favorite is called Amber Dawn, and I would love to own it. I doubt I would have much luck talking my husband into spending the money :FRlol:  Oh well, one can wish.

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## johann cruyff

I don't know if he's already been mentioned (sorry,didn't exactly read/see the entire thread),but I always thought the paintings of *Nikolai Ge* were interesting. I'm by no means an expert,and I'm usually not a big fan of religious motifs,but his style always struck me as interesting.

Also,*Luis Egidio Meléndez*! Again,I'm not an expert,but his paintings are the best still-life paintings I've ever seen.

But,you know,this really isn't a fair question,about my favourite artist and painting... Because,now when I start thinking about it,there are at least 50 names that spring to mind. So,instead of picking one,here are a few of my favourites: Dante Gabriel Rossetti,Delacroix,Caspar David Friedrich,Renoir,Manet,Van Gogh,Cezanne,de Chirico,Ernst,maybe even Kandinsky...Magritte,Eugeniusz Zak,Chagall...Definitely *Louis le Brocquy!*

And,I have to mention *Mersad Berber*,perhaps the greatest Bosnian painter of all time. You may not have heard about him,which is a shame,but perfectly understandable - however,he truly is a great artist. Here are a few of his paintings(I've had the pleasure of seeing some of these in person):

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## stlukesguild

Actually, I am familiar with Mersad Berber. I have mixed feelings about his work. In many ways he strikes me as a hopeless anachronism... his work is clearly derivative... too much so at times... of 19th century academic tradition... I especially see echoes of Klimt... and he rarely breaks away from the same 'classical" themes and motifs (all so painfully beautiful) of the era. His paint handling... his pseudo-weathered and beaten surfaces and his "Neo-Classicism" recall ancient Egytian encaustic tomb paintings... and abstraction. But then again I quite like some of his paintings:

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## johann cruyff

> Actually, I am familiar with Mersad Berber. I have mixed feelings about his work. In many ways he strikes me as a hopeless anachronism... his work is clearly derivative... too much so at times... of 19th century academic tradition... I especially see echoes of Klimt... and he rarely breaks away from the same 'classical" themes and motifs (all so painfully beautiful) of the era. His paint handling... his pseudo-weathered and beaten surfaces and his "Neo-Classicism" recall ancient Egytian encaustic tomb paintings... and abstraction. But then again I quite like some of his paintings:


I agree,it does sometimes seem that he was just...born at the wrong time. Also,his two main motifs,the horse's head and the face of a girl(woman) are recognizable in pretty much all of his paintings,yes,but I think that is a bigger pro than con(after all,Picasso was quite fond of recurring motifs as well),at least you instantly know whose painting it is when you see it  :Smile:

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## stlukesguild

Outsider Art- Part 1

Outsider art is one of the most fascinating fields in the whole of art production... and in a way it is seemingly unique to the visual arts... or rather I should say its appreciation... perhaps due to the quality of the work... seems to be unique (although one might note Nerval and John Clare). By "outsider art" I am referring to that art which was produced outside of the context of any larger culture and their artistic traditions. By this definition the art of the Amish or the Shakers may have been created outside of the tradition of the dominant American culture and it's artistic traditions... but it was most certainly not outside of the Amish or Shaker traditions in which it was developed. Rather, when speaking of an "outsider artist" I am speaking of that lone individual... often having little or no formal artistic training... who has created a body of work of unique vision... having little or no connection with the culture(s) in which they live... often having little concern for displaying this work to the larger society... and almost certainly not in any professional context. The unique vision of this art has led to it's being also defined as "visionary art", and the "visionaries" of which I speak are more likely than not isolated individuals... eccentrics... and even the mentally disturbed.

In some ways, *William Blake* falls into this category. If it were not for his traditional training in the field of print-making, as well as his central stature as both poet and visual artist, he would almost certainly qualify as an "outsider artist". Eccentric? Unquestionably. Unique vision? Certainly his efforts as a poet and an artist fall outside even the most daring innovations of European Romanticism. One also must look at the manner in which the artist/poet continues to turn out a voluminous body of art and writings... in spite of having virtually no audience within the larger culture of the time. Perhaps most intriguing, in Blake's case, is the fact that his visual art most definitely exhibits several characteristics that are quite common of "outsider art" (and in spite of their not being part of any formal "group" there are surprisingly certain common elements in the art of many "outsider artist"... perhaps not unlike the common elements found in the art of children). The most obvious of these elements is the obsessiveness... a horror vacui:


-Last Judgment


-Last Judgment


... in which every single little area of the painting surface must be filled with detail... and the entire whole swirls and writhes in visionary ecstasy. 

One of the earliest of the outsider artists was the sculptor, *Franz Xavier Messerschmidt* (1736-1783). Messerschmidt had been trained as a sculptor by his uncles and attained the position of assistant professor of sculpture at the Imperial Academy of Vienna with the understanding that he would be promoted to the position of the chair or sculpture upon the vacancy of that position. When the incumbent chairman died, however, he was passed over... due to a "confusion of the head". Messerschmidt abandoned his post and began wandering throughout Germany, eventually settling in Pressburg. He continued to take on commissions... which he would never undertake to do. However, he had not abandoned his art altogether. Rather, Messerschmidt spent his time working on a large body of very strange self-portraits. Although, as he stated, he lived chastely, he was continually visited by ghosts who caused him pains in his legs and abdomen. Through his study of the Egyptian, Hermes Trismegistos, he developed a bizarre theory of the relationship between the parts of the body and facial proportions. By striking bizarre facial attitudes: grimaces, scowls, grins, etc... he thought to confront and counteract his bodily pains. In spite of the "eccentricity" of his theories, the resulting works are among the most fascinating sculptural works of the era.

[IMG]http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k255/Stlukesguild/MESSERSCHMIDT_Franz_Xaver_Character.jpg[/IMG
-Hanged


-Beaked


-Beaked (side view)


-Lecher

In another vein altogether, we find the outsider work of the painter *Edward Hicks* (1780-1849). At the age of thirteen he apprenticed as a coach-maker where he was to remain employed for 7 years. His living situation inspired him to desire a much better way of life. He wanted a simple, well respected life employed in such as way as to earn his own keep (something akin to Thoreau?) He spent three years contemplating what his life should mean and developed a deep and abiding passion for art and religion. Hick took on the role of a minister within the Quaker church, and he was a fervent preacher. His wages in this role, however, were strained as his family began to grow following his marriage to Sarah Worstall. He decided to take on a secondary profession, as it were, painting household objects, tavern signs, etc... He was actually quite successful in his role as a painter, but this began to conflict with the some of his congregation's beliefs as to the proper "simple life" without adornments. Hicks abandoned painting and the ministry and took up farming... at which he was a complete failure. He was eventually persuaded to return to painting... without the added role of minister. His paintings essentially became a visual means of sharing his spiritual beliefs. Hicks was completely self-taught as a painter. His paintings have a magical child-like/fantasy quality to them. Hicks was known for paintings illustrating historical narratives of the period as well as Biblical narratives. Perhaps the most successful of the latter was his painting of _Noah's Ark_. Hie most famous... and popular painting... an image he would paint again and again... was the _Peaceable Kingdom_. In Hicks' _Peaceable Kingdom_... not only would the lion lay down with the lamb... but also the cheetah, jaguar, bald eagle, the cow, the bear, the goat, the child, the wolf... the native American Indians and the colonists... all would live together in peace and harmony in this new America.


-Noah's Ark


-Peaceable Kingdom


-Peaceable Kingdom

continued...

----------


## quasimodo1

To stlukesguild: It takes a person a while to come up to speed on this thread.

----------


## stlukesguild

Outsider Art Part 1 (continued...)

*Richard Dadd* (1817-1886) was another intriguing early "outsider". Dadd exhibitted a talent for art quite early on, and was fully supported in his artistic efforts by his father. He was educated at the Royal Academy and was generally seen as a leading talent among the up-and-coming artists. In July 1842, Sir Thomas Phillips, selected Dadd to accompany him as his draftsman on an expedition through Europe to Greece, Turkey, Palestine and finally Egypt. In November of that year they spent a grueling two weeks in Palestine, passing from Jerusalem to Jordan and returning across the Engaddi wilderness. Toward the end of December, while traveling up the Nile by boat, Dadd underwent a dramatic personality change, becoming delusional and increasingly violent, and believing himself to be under the influence of the Egyptian god Osiris. His condition was initially thought to be sunstroke. On his return in the spring of 1843, he was diagnosed to be of unsound mind and was taken by his family to recuperate in the countryside. He soon became convinced that his father was the Devil in disguise, and Dadd murdered him with a knife and fled for France. En route to Paris Dadd attempted to murder a tourist with a razor, but was overpowered and was arrested by the police. Dadd confessed to the murder of his father and was returned to England, where he was committed to the criminal department of Bethlem psychiatric hospital (also known as Bedlam). It is unclear as to what exactly was the medical condition he suffered from , but it is usually thought to have been a form of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Genetics may have played a role as two of his siblings were equally affected. Dadd was housed at Bedlam until 1864 when he was moved to another asylum at Broadmoor, outside of London. His reputation as an artist is almost entirely indebted to the work he did while institutionalized. Dadd's most important work, _The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke_, is an obsessively detailed painting upon which Dadd worked from 1855-1864. This painting, like others by Dadd, echo the obsessive setail and fantastic imagery of an artist like Hieronymus Bosch. Not only is the painting obsessively detailed in its representation of the imaginary fairy world, but it is thickly encrusted with paint... almost bejeweled. 


-The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke


-Bacchanalian Scene

One of the most absolutely astounding achievements of outsider art must surely be that of *Ferdinand Cheval* (1836-1924). Cheval was a French postman who spent 33 years collecting stones on his postal route and using them nightly to construct his _Palais Ideal_. Cheval claimed that he tripped on a stone and was inspired by its shape to begin his amazing project. Combining stones with lime, mortar, and concrete, Cheval constructed a virtual fantasy palace building upon Biblical and Hindu sources. When Cheval discovered that the French government would not allow him to be buried in his creation, he spent another 8 years constructing a mausoleum for that purpose. Cheval's masterpiece was acclaimed as a masterpiece of Surrealism by Anfre Breton. Pablo Picasso was also an ardent admirer... as was the writer/critic Andre Malraux, who saw to it that the work was proclaimed an officially protected cultural landmark during his reign as Minister of Culture.














All images of Ceval's _Palais Ideal_... excepting the final of his Mausoleum

continued...

----------


## stlukesguild

Outsider Art Part 1 (continued...)

A near contemporary of Cheval, *Henri Rousseau*(1844-1910) must certainly be the most famous and perhaps the most influential "outsider artist" after William Blake. Rousseau spent most of his life working in various petty bureaucratic positions. He began painting seriously in his mid-40s and retired from his full-time job at 49, when he doubled his artistic efforts. Rousseau was a true naive... having little or no training in painting, he aspired to be a great academic artist, and was largely unaware that others saw him as untutored and his paintings as "child-like". It must be admitted that his paintings attained a level of polish and finish not unlike that of the academic painters... and yet his drawing was certainly unschooled (not to say crude) and his subject matter fantastic. Rousseau actually exhibited in the first Fauves' exhibition with Henri Matisse, and was commissioned by the artist, Robert Delaunay's mother to paint what is surely one of his masterpieces, the Snake Charmer. When Pablo Picasso happened upon a painting by Rousseau being sold on the street as a canvas to be painted over, the younger artist instantly recognized Rousseau's genius and went to meet him. In 1908 Picasso held a half serious, half burlesque banquet in his studio in Le Bateau-Lavoir in Rousseau's honor. Rousseau was become a major source of inspiration for the Surrealists, Picasso, Max Ernst, Max Beckmann, David Bates, and endless other artists.


-Sleeping Gypsy


-Jungle Scene with Monkeys


-Portrait of a Woman


-Snake Charmer

*Adolf Wölfli* (1864-1930) has become one of the most sought after of the outsider artists. Wölfli was abused both physically and sexually as a child, and was orphaned at the age of 10; He thereafter grew up in a series of state-run foster homes, after which time he was virtually sold into slavery in the position of an indentured farm laborer. He reputedly fell in love with a farmer's daughter, but his advances were rebuked, shortly after which he was convicted of attempted child molestation, for which he served prison time. Shortly.after being freed, he was arrested for a similar offense and was admitted in 1895 to the Waldau Clinic in Berne, Switzerland, a psychiatric hospital where he spent the rest of his adult life. He was very disturbed and sometimes violent on admission, leading to him being kept in isolation for his early time at hospital. He suffered from psychosis, which led to intense hallucinations. During his institutionalization, Wolfli began to draw. At some point after his admission Wölfli began to draw. Walter Morgenthaler, a doctor at the Waldau Clinic, took a particular interest in Wölfli's art and his condition, later publishing _Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler_ (A Psychiatric Patient as Artist) in 1921 which first brought Wölfli to the attention of the art world. Wolfli's work would become instrumental in the eventual acceptance of "outsider art", or "*art brut*" as titled by its champion, the artist Jean Dubuffet.

Wolfli produced an immense body or work... often in the form of bound books... almost a form of illuminated manuscripts. The largest of these "books" was a semi-autobiographical epic that stretched some 45 volumes:



...and 25,000 pages, including some 1,600 full page illuminations. The images Wölfli produced were complex, intricate and intense. They worked to the very edges of the page with detailed borders... a true example of horror vacui. The images often combined elements of collage, text, and even musical scores (for which Wolfli had invented his own method of musical notation):

http://www.adolfwoelfli.ch/content/u...ranscribed.mp3

http://www.adolfwoelfli.ch/content/u...ranscribed.mp3

http://www.adolfwoelfli.ch/content/u...ranscribed.mp3

When Wolfli died in 1930, the Adolf Wölfli Foundation was formed to preserve his art for future generations, today its collection is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Berne. Wolfli's vast output has only begun to be be properly documented, and this has been made all the more difficult due to the demand for his work by collectors which has led to many works being broken up and sold as individual images. There are those who believe it to be quite likely that once Wolfli's achievement has been properly judged, he will be recognized as one of the greatest artist of the 20th century... a sort of Modernist William Blake. From what I have seen of Wolfli's work, I would not question this assessment:











Wolfli images continued...

----------


## stlukesguild

continued... (later today :Wink: )

----------


## stlukesguild

Morris Hirshfield (1872-1949) was to become of perhaps the first widely recognized outsider artist in the US. Born in Poland, Hirshfield eventually opened a successful slipper manufacturing business with his brother in New York. For health reasons, he retired from the business in 1935 and turned to art. He was greatly disappointed with his efforts, declaring to the art dealer, Sidney Janis, It seems that my mind knew well what I wanted to portray, but my hands were unable to produce what my mind demanded. Nevertheless, in 1939 two of Hirshfields paintings were selected to be included in a private exhibition of Unknowns at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1943 he was given a one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art that caused a great deal of controversy. The Art Digest sardonically dubbed Hirshfield, The Master of the Two Left Feet. Yet Hirshfield weathered the storm of controversy and emerged as one of the most prominent folk artists of the century.


-Cows


-Tiger


-Girl in Mirror

The US was to foster its own variant on the _Palais Ideal_ thanks to the efforts of Simon (Sam) Rodia (1875-1965). Rodia emigrated from Italy to the US at age 15 with a brother. He lived in Pennsylvania until his brother was killed in a mining accident, at which point he moved to the west coast. He first lived in Seattle, then Oakland, and then Long Beach before settling in Watts in the early 1920s. While living in Seattle, he married and had three children with his wife. While living in Watts he began the construction of the Watts Towers or Nuestro Pueblo ("Our Town"). The sculptures' armatures are constructed from steel pipes and rods, wrapped with wire mesh, coated with mortar. The main supports are embedded with pieces of porcelain, tile, and glass (Green glass includes recognizable soft drink bottles, some still bearing the logos of 7 Up, Squirt, Bubble Up, and Canada Dry; blue glass appears to be from milk of magnesia bottles). They are decorated with found objects: bed frames, bottles, ceramic tiles, scrap metal and sea shells. Neighborhood children brought pieces of broken glass and pottery to Rodia in hopes they would be added to the project, however the majority of the material consisted of damaged pieces from the Malibu Pottery, where he worked for many years. Rodia reportedly did not get along with his neighbors, some of whom allowed their children to vandalize his work. Rumors that the towers were antennae for communicating with enemy Japanese forces, or contained buried treasure, caused suspicion and further vandalism. 

In 1955, Rodia gave the property away and left, reportedly tired of the abuse he had received. He retired to Martinez, California, and never returned. The city of Los Angeles condemned the structure and ordered it razed, however an actor, Nicholas King, and a film editor, William Cartwright, visited the site in 1959, saw the neglect, and decided to buy the property for $3,000 in order to preserve it. When the city found out about the transfer, it decided to perform the demolition before the transfer went through. The towers had already become famous and there was great opposition to the dim witted efforts of city bureaucrats from around the world. King, Cartwright, and a curator of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, along with area architects, artists, and community activists formed the Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts. The Committee negotiated with the city to allow for an engineering test to establish the safety of the structures. For the test, steel cable was attached to each tower and a crane was used to exert lateral force. The crane was unable to topple or even shift the towers, and the test was concluded when the crane experienced mechanical failure. The committee preserved the towers independently until 1975, when it deeded the site to the City of Los Angeles, which in turn gave ownership to the State of California. It is now designated the Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park.











End of Part One

----------


## johann cruyff

I stumbled upon this painting just yesterday,have to confess it's the first time I saw it:



There's something captivating about this woman... By the way,the author is John Singer Sargent.

----------


## stlukesguild

There's something captivating about this woman... 

Of course there is. The painting is the notorious _Madame X_. The sitter is actually Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, wife of Pierre Gautreau, a French banker. Ms. Gautreau was an American of Creole descent born in New Orleans. She moved with her mother to Paris following the death of her father in the Civil War, and both quickly established themselves in the highest echelons of French society. Gautreau inspired a great deal of gossip and resentment as the nouveau riche American flaunting her wealth and her looks. She was known for her use of the latest cosmetics and for wearing the most daring fashions... as well as for her numerous infidelities. Sargent's portrait of Ms. Gautreau scandalized many with the overly forward and confident manner presented by the sitter as well as the obvious sensuality of the pose and the dress. The black dress contrasted dramatically with Gautreau's pale white powdered flesh... and this was even further heightened in the original version of the painting in which Sargent had presented one of her straps as having fallen down. "One more struggle", wrote a critic in _Le Figaro_, "and the lady will be free". The scandal of madame X was further heightened when it was presented in tandem with the portrait of Dr. Samuel Jean de Pozzi:



Pozzi was a suave and handsome doctor specializing in gynecological and abdominal surgery. Although he was married, he was known for his numerous romances... including that with the the widow of Georges Bizet, and the rumored affair with Mme. Gautreau. Pozzi was portrayed by Sargent as the flamboyant playboy... dressed in a sensuous, flaming red velvet dressing gown... in an almost mocking parody of the numerous Renaissance and Baroque portraits of Catholic Cardinals... as well as the Devil himself. Pozzi was the perfect contrast... or the perfect partner to Madame X. Unfortunately, Sargent paid too much attention to the negative press. His works in Paris and Italy were undoubtedly his most audacious and daring... painted with a bravura brushwork worthy of Van Dyck or even Rubens. Sargent later settled into the position of society painter in England and America... where the flamboyance of his greatest works was out of the question.

----------


## armenian

the more i think about it, the more i like "The Scream"

i always thought this painting by maryilyn manson was always cool



'When I Get Old", it was painted with absithe

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## Dark Muse

Here are my two all time favorite paintings 


Birth of the Venus
Sandro Botticelli


Starry Night
Vincint Van Gogh

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## johnjsr

The Kiss (original Der Kuss) was painted by Gustav Klimt reproductions during his golden period, and is probably his most famous work.
It depicts a couple, bound up in various shades of gold and symbols, sharing a kiss against a bronze background.The dusky
featured man dominates the woman, holding her face to bestow the kiss. This is one of the famous klimt reproductions The woman with a lighter complexion kneels
beneath the man, resignedly clutching his neck and hand.

The lovers are situated at the edge of a flowered escarpment. The man is wearing neutral coloured rectangles and a crown
of vines; the woman wears brightly coloured tangent circles and flowers in her hair. The twains embrace is enveloped by
triangular vining and a veil of concentric circles.Similarly juxtaposed couples appear in both Klimts Beethoven Frieze
and Stoclet Frieze.

----------


## stlukesguild

I must finish the posting (part 2) on the "Outsider Artists"... however, I lack the free time just now. Nevertheless, I thought I'd post a little on some of the art I have been looking at. Since the standardization of letter forms under Charlemagne (who couldn't read) and the introduction of the movable type printing press by Gutenberg, calligraphy has lost its place as one of the central art-forms. Certainly there have been book artists for whom the layout and the look of letters on the page has been imminently important; I think especially of designers such as Aldus Manutius, founder of the Aldine Press, and William Morris, especially famed for the Kelmscott Chaucer. But none of these equal the expressive quality of the written word... of calligraphy... as a visual for of communication as one might regularly find in Islamic...





or in Asian...





or even in earlier European books:



Perhaps the only major artist/author to come close to such a merger of the written word as both a visual and literary art was William Blake:



It probably shouldn't be so surprising that Blake is such a central figure to me.

Exploring Asian art and literature recently... and especially that of Japan... I have been greatly enamored of what must surely be one of the greatest creative partnerships in the history of art. The artists of whom I am speaking are the Japanese masters, Hon'ami Kōetsu (本阿弥光悦)-1558-1637 and Tawaraya Sōtatsu (俵屋宗達)-early 1600s. Kōetsu was born into a family of swordsmiths and mastered the craft himself. Like many aristocratic Japanese artists of the era (and not unlike the Renaissance artists) he was accomplished in a broad array of artistic forms, including ceramics, enamels, lacquer, and calligraphy. As a calligrapher, he was deeply inspired by the great poets of the Heian period (794 to 1185)... the so-called "classical era" or "golden age". Sōtatsu was primarily a painter and creator of beautiful papers for use in calligraphy. He is credited with having developed a "wet into wet" style of painting in which one color is dropped into another still wet color so that the two "bleed" together forming a marvelous atmospheric effect that is difficult to control and deeply admired by the Japanese, who had a great respect for the spontaneous in art. Kōetsu and Sōtatsu worked together for some 15 years producing marvelous works of art in which the text, calligraphy, paper, and painting all merged to create a marvelous visual and literary work of art. There are suggestions that the close relationship of the two artists may have been long-lasting due to their being related by marriage. 

Kōetsu and Sōtatsu developed a form of visual art in which calligraphy was equal to painting... a concept not uncommon in Japanese, Chinese, and Islamic cultures. Both painting and the calligraphic forms served to illuminate the classical Heian poems. In this work...



... the artists illustrate a poem describing thunder in the pines. Bolder calligraphic characters... closer to Chinese in manner... suggest the explosion of sound that thunder makes, while other... more elegant and more characteristically Japanese-style symbols suggest the rain falling onto the pines below.

continued...

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## stlukesguild

In other examples the calligraphy and painting merge into one. Of course the artists had the advantage of building upon a poetic tradition that was very image-based. Most of the classical Japanese poetry is very short and simply paints an exquisite and intensely imagined visual image:

In a gust of wind the white dew
On the autumn grass
Scatters like a broken necklace

-Bunya No Asayasu

In the spring garden
Where the peach blossoms
Light the path beneath, 
A girl is walking.

-Yakamochi
(both tr. Kenneth Rexroth)

Kōetsu and Sōtatsu often created works in which the calligraphic form is almost an inseparable part of the visual image. Here, for example, illuminating a poem upon willow trees, the characters are lost within the foliage of the tree:



In another example, the calligraphy illustrates the water and water-lilies as much as the painted image:



The same can be said of this illumination of a poem upon bamboo:



Or that portraying a beach with pines and billowing clouds:



One of the most marvelous creations of the partnership of Kōetsu and Sōtatsu must be the so-called "Deer Scroll" in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum:







The Deer Scroll illuminates 28 poems of autumn from the _Shin Kokin Wakashū_ (新古今和歌集) or _New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems_, an anthology compiled beginning in 905 and concluding c. 1439.
The Seattle Art Museum owns but half of the entire scroll, or about 30 feet. The scroll was divided by a Japanese collector in the 1930s and the remaining portions of the work are owned by 5 Japanese museums and several private collectors. There are also a few missing pieces. The interactive Deer Scroll website at SAM...

http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhi...roll/enter.asp

...offers a pdf. file going into greater detail exploring the scroll and the artists involved. More importantly, it offers an interactive view of the entire scroll as it originally existed... using computer enhancements of black and white photographs of the missing portions. One may scroll through the work and zoom in close upon the imagery... or click upon links to translations of all of the poetry. The site offers a fabulous view of a fabulous work of art. Enjoy! :Banana:

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## skasian

I would love to share with you my favourite artists/painters/illustrators but I am so outside the taste range of all you that I am afraid that I might be better off not uploading pictures/paintings. I see everyone here are into classical, ancient and traditional artists/painters. The problem I have is that I also love contemporary artists that experiments with fantasy, science and human form/anatomy and mind/soul/intellect. I also love contemporary artists that implements variety of media and plays around with extreme creativity. Seeing that no one has uploaded any contemporary works, I assume everyone intends to keep this thread strickly non-contemporary.

Would I be wise to keep contemporary works away? Because I still do have numerous favourable traditional artist models such as Edward Hopper, Rene Magrette and Leonardo da Vinci that I would like to share. :Smile:

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## Niamh

If you look through the thread you will find that many of us have posted contemp art (esp Lily Adams). All art is welcome in this thread. Post anything and everything you like. Its about the art you like, not about what people will think of you for liking it.

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## Caspa

I quite like Magritte. I've got this poster on my wall:

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## Dr. Hill

Mine is Magritte too.

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## imthefoolonthehill

Mine is The Sonnet by William Mulready

You should google image search it. It is pretty much amazing.

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## skasian

Thank you Niamh in this case I would like to post up one of my favourite illustrator, David von Bassewitz. He is a German illustrator that explores to express deep seas on human dreams and deep spaces of human imagination. His works derive from blueprints of submarines and spaceshuttles as they morphed into drawings then illustrations.

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## skasian

I would like to add that I also admire Magritte, esp Time Transfixed. I like his use of juxtaposition of unrelated objects in an eerie, dreamlike atmosphere.

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## Niamh

I like the third of those illustration.  :Nod:

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## Sepulchrave

Samuel Palmer.

He was utterly overshadowed by Turner in terms of fame, but I personally prefer his work. A very intimate and vibrant quality to 'em, especially during the Shoreham years. He was a big fan of Milton, and he absolutely idolised Blake.

Some of his work:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Palmer_002.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Palmer_004.jpg

His self-portrait:

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## Caspa

skasian, that Magritte painting is magnificent!

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## kandaurov

I'm a Magritte man myself! Glad to see so many people on the same wavelenght. He's pretty much the typical painter for literature people, so I guess it's not that surprising  :Smile:

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## skasian

> skasian, that Magritte painting is magnificent!


I am so thankful that you feel the same way about that painting!
I think its one of the best that he ever painted, with such accuracy and realism. That one sure got me sitting down and attempt to unveil the meaning of, and I did a research on him (for school anyways) and there was a quote he said describing his work as mysterious where mystery cannot be solved.

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## skasian

Here another favourate of mine, Edward Hopper, who is a traditional painter who was very orginial to use the effects of cinematic composition, dim lightings and contrasts as well as the feeling of lonliness and solitude. Here are some of his works, I hope you like them as much as I do.





I found a Simpsons version of The Nighthawks and its so cute!

----------


## aBIGsheep



----------


## stlukesguild

skasian... certainly, feel free to post modern and contemporary art to this thread... or perhaps better yet... to the Artist Cafe. I have posted works by a number of contemporary artists there, including Lucian Freud, Anselm Kiefer, and Sean Scully. While my own work is deeply rooted in older traditions, many of my favorite artists are Modernists, and I also freely admit to an admiration for illustrational work by artists such as R. Crumb, Ray Ceasar, Toshio Seiki, Takato Yamamoto, Vania Zouravliov, Aya Kato, etc... You speak of art utilizing a variety of media. I have already posted not merely paintings, but architecture, book arts, calligraphy, etc... I would be interested in some more examples of what you are interested in. Again... think about posting (or cross-posting with a cut and paste copy) to the Artist Cafe.

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## stlukesguild

Mine is The Sonnet by William Mulready

You should google image search it. It is pretty much amazing.



Yes... that painting is marvelous. The gestures of the young couple are so telling. I had seen it before, but did not know who the artist was. Lovely painting.

----------


## Skooter

Some favourites of mine: 


Ophelia by Antione-Auguste-Ernest Hébert.


The Island of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin.


Mother with Child by Gustav Klimt.


Salome by Lucien Levy-Dhurmer. (yes, my icon)


The Wicked Mother by Giovanni Segantini.


Vertigo by Leon Spilliaert.

Sorry for the giant picspam! ^^;

----------


## skasian

> skasian... certainly, feel free to post modern and contemporary art to this thread... or perhaps better yet... to the Artist Cafe. I have posted works by a number of contemporary artists there, including Lucian Freud, Anselm Kiefer, and Sean Scully. While my own work is deeply rooted in older traditions, many of my favorite artists are Modernists, and I also freely admit to an admiration for illustrational work by artists such as R. Crumb, Ray Ceasar, Toshio Seiki, Takato Yamamoto, Vania Zouravliov, Aya Kato, etc... You speak of art utilizing a variety of media. I have already posted not merely paintings, but architecture, book arts, calligraphy, etc... I would be interested in some more examples of what you are interested in. Again... think about posting (or cross-posting with a cut and paste copy) to the Artist Cafe.


Ah, thanks for the information, I will post works in the artist cafe from now on.

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## Annamariah

> Mine is The Sonnet by William Mulready
> 
> You should google image search it. It is pretty much amazing.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes... that painting is marvelous. The gestures of the young couple are so telling. I had seen it before, but did not know who the artist was. Lovely painting.


That reminds me of another paiting with a young couple. The artist is Albert Edelfelt, and the painting is called "Värnamon markkinoilla" or "Suru" (sorrow). After six years of hard work the couple just found out their savings are worthless and they have to wait another six years before they can get married.

----------


## Saladin

*Favourite painters:*
Edvard Munch (expressionist), Odd Nerdrum(kitsch/modernisme), Monet and Salvador Dali
*
Favourite paintings:*

Sick Child by Edvard Munch

----------


## Saladin

Madonna by Edvard Munch:
http://bildr.no/view/320204


The Ultimate Sight by Odd Nerdrum
http://bildr.no/view/320202

----------


## Zee.



----------


## *Classic*Charm*

Because the one in my signature isn't large enough...



Salvador Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissus

----------


## Reccura

My favorite painters are Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Edward Degas. They're all unpredictable, and leaves you craving to know more. 

It's just fantastic how they put the mystery in their paintings, and there's always more to it than looking at a pretty picture.

----------


## kevinthediltz

> 


Lima/anyone, what is this called?
Its amazing.

----------


## Zee.

Les Amants/The Lovers - René François Ghislain Magritte

----------


## Mathor

frank gonzales

----------


## rimbaud

it's not my absolute fav, but this painting makes me feel romantic

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## rimbaud

oh, and The Sonnet by William Mulready, I agree, love it! amazing!

----------


## samercury

This week (bad pic)

Entre Les Trous de la Memoire

by Dominique Appia

----------


## higley

James Jean is my favorite at the moment:



I want to marry his color palettes.

----------


## Lynne50

> This week (bad pic)
> 
> Entre Les Trous de la Memoire
> 
> by Dominique Appia


I love this painting, too. This summer went to poster store and bought this. It reminds me of another Magical Realism painter I like alot too, Rob Gonsalves. Check Gonsalves out when you get a chance. I think you will like him too.

----------


## Zeniyama

One of my favourites by Louis Wain. Not sure of the name of it, though...

----------


## toni

My recent favorite of Rene Magritte. "Return"
This, in my opinion, one of Magritte's best paintings as it captures such strong emotions in comparison to his other works.

----------


## DWolfman

The founder of impressionism 
Claude Monet 
is definitely my favorite painter
and this one of his wife and son 
has to be my favorite painting:

----------


## stlukesguild

Monet is indeed a marvelous painter. He's an artist like Mozart... all light and color and joy dancing on the surface so that someone expecting "depth", tragedy, and profundity from their art may suspect he is but a shallow decorator... but with time I have become more and more impressed with Monet... just as I have with Mozart. Both are quite exquisite masters whose strengths is almost beyond words.

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## OrphanPip

Road to Chailly by Monet is my desktop image.

It's not my favorite, but I find it very soothing when I fire up my laptop for work.

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## DanielBenoit

Oh I curse myself for not seeing this thread sooner!  :Yikes: 

I don't _have_ to just post one do I?

Starting with Sisley:



Upon first seeing this painting, I stared at it for quite a long time. A flood of memories came over me.

Matisse; perfect collection of paintings called Jazz:



Carrington



A perfect mix of surrealism with Boschian elements.


Uta Makura Hi



Magritte



Magritte again; this is a very personal painting for me



as is this one



I find it utterly terrifying in its nihilism.


The final scene from Othello:



Klimt; who painted some of the greatest depictions of eroticism and romantic love:





I end with a desolate landscape of Casper David Friedrich, a few of his paintings which are, in my opinion, the prime equivalent to existentialism. 



Alright, that's enough for now.

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## Lulim

> (...)
> 
> 
> 
> I find it utterly terrifying in its nihilism.(...)


My impression was one of normal everyday things put into a doll house -- I quite like it

* * *

One of my favourite paintings is Adam Elsheimer, "Flight into Egypt" 1609. Elsheimer was the first painter to show the constellations of the night sky naturally. He died at the rather young age of 32:



It's better to be seen at this link: Elsheimer (I didn't want the page to get "blown up" so much)

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## DanielBenoit

> One of my favourite paintings is Adam Elsheimer, "Flight into Egypt" 1609. Elsheimer was the first painter to show the constellations of the night sky naturally. He died at the rather young age of 32:
> 
> 
> 
> It's better to be seen at this link: Elsheimer (I didn't want the page to get "blown up" so much)


Oh I love the islands of light within the darkness, the moon is quite elegant as well.

My painting for today is one of Motherwall's called Little Spanish Prison.



It is stunning how such emotion can arise out of such simplicity.

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## DanielBenoit

Todays one is from Alphonse Osbert, it's called 'The Muse at Sunset'.

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## DanielBenoit

The Triumph of Death from the great Netherlandish painter Bruegel. Along with the uncompromisingly hellish landscape, whats also unique is that there's hardly any redeeming religious symbolism and death is represented in a rather secular way with skeletons and not demons.



This is truly one of the greats among epic Reinissance painting because it truly depicts the horrifying and merciless nature of war. The painting has also uncannily aged into our time, with the memory the Holocaust and other modern atrocities.

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## qimissung

There is not a painting on this thread that I don't love. I must say, however, that I am awfully fond of Monet. And that one by Sisley is exquisite, Daniel!

Here is my current favorite artist, Marc Chagall:



I love all of his work; they are whimsical and set your imagination reeling.

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## DanielBenoit

Very nice qimi! I love the positions of the two subjects, and how the female's hand goes out in such a manneristic way.

Since I've just finished reading that masterpiece of human experience, King Lear, I've decided to post one of my favorite of paintings based off of the plays:

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## Le_Iris

> My recent favorite of Rene Magritte. "Return"
> This, in my opinion, one of Magritte's best paintings as it captures such strong emotions in comparison to his other works.


Wow, it's really amazing.

One of my favourite artists is Caspar David Friedrich. 
_The Sea of Ice_



_The Stages of Life_


Another is Albrecht Dürer
_Young Hare_


_Praying Hands_

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## ibelieve

Absolutely, hands-down, my favourite piece of art is this one by Tamara de Lempicka



The (green) colour is striking and vibrant and the painting itself depicts so much mystery and adventure.

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## Veho

Does anybody know what the painting is called on this front cover? -

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## Kyriakos

Some Beksinskis with no title (i think none of his paintings have titles) :

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## JuniperWoolf

> 


Cool. Reminds me of the music video for Goodbye Blue Sky.

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## Emil Miller

This painting by Manet is a favourite that is on the wall above my bed.

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## Niamh

I much prefer Manets Olympia.

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## Emil Miller

> I much prefer Manets Olympia.


Well, as this is a picture of my computer, I think Olympia would be a one too many naked females about the place.

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## Olga4real

I think it's going to be my favourite thread. 
I would like to share something I like very much, I was impressed by this painting as a child. 
Hope you like too.

Seated Demon by Vrubel.

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## Emil Miller

You should have posted it on the Name the Painting thread, I would never have got it.

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## Kyriakos

A couple of Kittelsens:

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## Olga4real

> You should have posted it on the Name the Painting thread, I would never have got it.


I think, Brian, it would be unfair to post a picture which is not well-known outside of Russia.

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## stlukesguild

I think Olympia would be a one too many naked females about the place. 

Surely Brian... you can never have too many naked females about the place? :Devil: 

Bonnard's exquisite painting of his wife is still one of my absolute favorite paintings of all time... and actually painted in the 20th century!

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## stlukesguild

You should have posted it on the Name the Painting thread, I would never have got it. 

I would have. :Devil:  But then I used to do something like this for a living. :Sosp:

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## Emil Miller

[QUOTE=stlukesguild;923724 Surely Brian... you can never have too many naked females about the place? :Devil:  [/QUOTE]


Not if you like the quiet life. :Nod:

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## Olga4real

Peredvizhniki are the group of artists I like the most. 

Here is one of the most famous in Russia, the reproduction of this painting can be found almost in every provincial house:

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## stlukesguild

Surely Brian... you can never have too many naked females about the place? :Devil:  

Not if you like the quiet life. :Yesnod: 

A new twist on the old Chinese curse? ("May you live in interesting times.") :Sosp:

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## Gilliatt Gurgle

> A couple of Kittelsens:



Do you think the boys in the boat are aware of the sinister face lurking above? The one boy with arms raised may be and in fact taunting it. 





> Peredvizhniki are the group of artists I like the most. 
> 
> Here is one of the most famous in Russia, the reproduction of this painting can be found almost in every provincial house:


Quite majestic especially the trees. As I scrolled through the image, I noticed the swallows gliding just above the dirt road and what appear to be two threshers. 





> I think Olympia would be a one too many naked females about the place. 
> 
> Surely Brian... you can never have too many naked females about the place?
> 
> Bonnard's exquisite painting of his wife is still one of my absolute favorite paintings of all time... and actually painted in the 20th century!



A favorite that always comes to mind and it too features a girl, although she is not in her birthday suit, is Johannes Vermeers Girl with a Pearl Earring




Here is another I recently discovered and grew fond of while reading The Brothers Karamazov. The novel makes reference to Kramskois Contemplation. As I was researching Contemplation I discovered Portrait of a Woman, which I found to be more appealing:



Gilliatt

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## Olga4real

> Quite majestic especially the trees. As I scrolled through the image, I noticed the swallows gliding just above the dirt road and what appear to be two threshers.


I have never seen the original painting but I can imagine that looking at it you would feel the smell of the dusty road, hear the sound of swifts and feel the heat of this almost cloudless sunny day. 






> Here is another I recently discovered and grew fond of while reading “The Brother’s Karamazov”. The novel makes reference to Kramskoi’s “Contemplation”. As I was researching “Contemplation” I discovered “Portrait of a Woman”, which I found to be more appealing:
> 
> 
> 
> Gilliatt


Here is something you might want to know about this portrait, unless you have already found it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrai..._Unknown_Woman

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## Kyriakos

> Do you think the boys in the boat are aware of the sinister face lurking above? The one boy with arms raised may be and in fact taunting it.


I hadnt noticed the face, but it seems that the boy is not looking at it, but at something considerably to the east of it, at least to me  :Smile: 

Kittelsen has many horror-themed images, and others where on the surface it seems that there only is nature and an observer of it.

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## prendrelemick

Last year I was lucky enough to visit the Kroller Muller at Arnhem. In a room full of Van Goghs this one really lept out at me. Its so excessive. 






The picture on here doesn't do it justice, it is seriously yellow! The sky is fantastic.

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## Emil Miller

> Last year I was lucky enough to visit the Kroller Muller at Arnhem. In a room full of Van Goghs this one really lept out at me. Its so excessive. 
> The picture on here doesn't do it justice, it is seriously yellow! The sky is fantastic.


Yes, van Gogh used a lot of yellow, but a word of caution. For some while I worked as a technician in a large printing ink company. One of the problems that we had was the fact that yellow pigments used in printing ink fade much faster than the other colours used in printing. We used to do light tests to try to find the best pigments to use but yellow always faded regardless.
The reason I mention it is because, like many others, I had bought reproductions of paintings and over a period of time they started to look washed out because the greens, which are a mixture of yellow and blue, lost their yellow. Because the change is gradual, we don't notice it until we see a recently printed copy in a shop or a book and it strikes home. A few years ago, I wanted to buy a copy of a Raoul Dufy painting of a cornfield but I decided against it because, like the van Gogh you have shown, it was virtually entirely in yellow.

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## prendrelemick

Thats interesting Brian. If the same applies to yellow oils, the painting must have been even yellower when it was fresh. I imagine very few paintings we see in a gallery or museum are as the artist left them. Time must take its toll

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## Emil Miller

> Thats interesting Brian. If the same applies to yellow oils, the painting must have been even yellower when it was fresh. I imagine very few paintings we see in a gallery or museum are as the artist left them. Time must take its toll


Well we must make a distinction between oil painting and printing. Although modern day printing uses varnish which is similar to the linseed oil used as a medium for dispersing pigment as used by painters, today there is much use of acrylics; which adds another dimension to painting. You are probably right in assuming that many of the paintings we see in galleries are not as they were originally. However, much is known about about the deleterious effects of direct sunlight and different temperatures on pictures, and those that are susceptible to adverse ambient conditions are kept in strictly controlled galleries. It is interesting to note the deterioration in some of Rembrandt's paintings, which are now so dark that they are obviously not as he painted them. They adorn the walls of the National Gallery in London almost like black holes, although, strangely, there are renaissance paintings that are amazingly fresh in comparison.

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## JuniperWoolf

My favourite is _Landscape with the Fall of Icarus_



I love how you can just see his little legs sticking out of the water, and no one seems to notice or care.




> Klimt; who painted some of the greatest depictions of eroticism and romantic love:


It feels more like parental love to me. It looks like she's sitting in a womb.

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## MarkBastable

If I made a list of my favourite twenty paintings, I suspect that Picasso and the preRaphaelites would account for about eighteen of them...

This would undoubtedly make the top five....

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## Olga4real

The following picture IMPRESSED me much when I visited the exhibition in Albertina museum in January. 



Gustave Caillebotte
Laundry Drying on the Bank of the Seine, circa 1892

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## DanielBenoit

Some more recent collections I've gathered:

Cezanne

Immersive and iconic.



That said, it's in his still life's do we find his mastery of total sublimity. There is something very Taoist about his paintings, a 'limitless objectivity' as Rilke would call it.






Illustration from The Divine Comedy



My favorite of Degas's early works:



And then escasy of the human form in his later ones matched only by the gravity-less grace of his ballet paintings:














Some good ole' Hopper:



Truly one of the great illustrators of the life and attitude of America in the 20th century:

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## The Comedian

I know it's total cliche, but I'm a sucker for almost any painting of Niagara Falls

Here's one by Edwin Church that I really like a lot because we mostly see the top of falls, not much of the descent, and the blue-green color of the water is meditative.

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## DanielBenoit

And just as the icing on the cake, if there were any two obvious and undeniable masterpieces of Western art, these two would be it:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Resolution.jpg

http://www.netpagz.com/bryce/sistine...tranceWall.jpg

Knowing as little as I do about Eastern and Mid-Eastern art, what would you say is the Sistine Chapel ceiling of non-Western art? Deer Scrolls? The illustrations inspired by the Shahnameh?

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## prendrelemick

Also at Arnham was this, by Isaac Israels - "Transport to the Colonies."




I couldn't find a decent study of it on Google. It is practically life sized and is full of little dramas going on within it. A hundred stories in one painting.

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## prendrelemick

> Some more recent collections I've gathere
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Some good ole' Hopper:
> ...


He seems to be studying loneliness.

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## Emil Miller

This is probably Gustave Caillebotte's most well-known painting, I was surprised by the difference between it and that posted by Olga4Real's picture of the Laundry by the Seine painting, because the style is so different.

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## Olga4real

> This is probably Gustave Caillebotte's most well-known painting, I was surprised by the difference between it and that posted by Olga4Real's picture of the Laundry by the Seine painting, because the style is so different.


Yes it's pretty different, but if you look at dates you discover that the laundry was created 15 years later. 

Here is another laundry-drying painting created by him:



His style changed a lot as does the stile of the most impressionists during long years just compare the following works:



created in 1875

and 

these two he painted later:




1888,

and 



1894

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## Kyriakos

Great paintings, and so serene  :Smile:

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## Emil Miller

> Yes it's pretty different, but if you look at dates you discover that the laundry was created 15 years later.


Yes, it's this aspect that is causing a lot of trouble on the 'Guess the Painting' thread.

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## Sebas. Melmoth

Find much of Signac's work very restful. For example,
http://www.paul-signac.org/The-Harbo...888-large.html

Ditto many of Hopper's works:
http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=9653
http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=470

On the wall I've a nice framed litho from Nederland of Escher's _Three Worlds_.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Worlds

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## Emil Miller

> Find much of Signac's work very restful. For example,
> http://www.paul-signac.org/The-Harbo...888-large.html
> 
> Ditto many of Hopper's works:
> http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=9653
> http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=470
> 
> On the wall I've a nice framed litho from Nederland of Escher's _Three Worlds_.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Worlds


I don't think Hopper can be overrated. It was said of Monet that he was 'only an eye'. As far as mid-20th century America is concerned, Hopper is his equivalent.

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## DanielBenoit

Kazimir Malevich

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## Emil Miller

This one's called Red Square, guess what your's is called ?

http://www.kazimir-malevich.org/Red-Square.html

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## stlukesguild

I must say Malevich never did anything for me. 

Among my favorites of Modernist painters I would have to count the German, Max Beckmann. One of his best would have to be _Bird's Hell_:



This painting was clearly a comment on the rising violence of the Third Reich. The "Sieg Heil" salutes are unmistakable, and the eagle and fields of red in the background clearly suggest the symbols of the Nazis. The image strikes me as clearly suggestive of medieval art: Images of violence echo the medieval martyrdoms, while the crude, child-like figures crammed in a shallow space recall the _horror vacui_ of medieval sculptural figures jammed in a shallow architectural space on the Gothic and Romanesque churches. The brilliant color offset by heavy bituminous black outlines echoes nothing so much as the medieval stained glass windows with their black lead contours. The contrast of the sheer visual splendor with the horror of the imagery is quite unnerving... especially on the large scale on which this and other such paintings were created.

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## Kyriakos

Very nice painting  :Smile:

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## Emil Miller

> Very nice painting


Yes indeed, just the sort of painting to put in the bedroom of a particularly fractious child.

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## Kyriakos

> Yes indeed, just the sort of painting to put in the bedroom of a particularly fractious child.


 :Cool: 

Children are traumatised, as you meant i gather, from such images, but for me it is nice to see something like that, since i like expressionism, and portrayals of violence done in that style  :Wink: 

The only thing i dont like in this painting are the sieg heil's, it makes it too obvious, which narrows down the scope of the work in my view.

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## DanielBenoit

> I must say Malevich never did anything for me. 
> 
> Among my favorites of Modernist painters I would have to count the German, Max Beckmann. One of his best would have to be _Bird's Hell_:


Yes, Beckmann's definitely my favorite among the Expressionists.

I particularly like Four Men Around a Table which seem to illustrate a vain yet sinister bourgeois.

 

The guy at the bottom left looks like T.S. Eliot to me  :FRlol: 


Also, I've always thought of Beckmann's Bird's Hell alongside Bruegel's masterpiece The Triumph of Death. Both horrifying representations of atrocities occurring during their own times.

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## Emil Miller

This is an especial favourite of mine; Raoul Dufy' s The Orchestra at Arles.

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## seanartfan

Two of my favorites:

Michael Kalish Art

I love the use of old license plates as a medium for creating portraits of American pop icons. 

and

Chuck Close Prints (I love his photorealism)


Amazing how detailed the painting of Brad Pitt looked. I actually thought it was a photograph the first time I saw it on the cover of that magazine.

s

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## stlukesguild

Are you sure the Brad Pitt image is a painting? Chuck Close hasn't painted in such a photo-realist manner since his catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him severely paralyzed. His works since then are far more loose:



However, the artist has made any number of photographs (as he has done for years) of various sitters... many of whom are well known figures or even celebrities... such as Kate Moss:

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## stlukesguild

> Yes, Beckmann's definitely my favorite among the Expressionists.
> 
> I particularly like _Four Men Around a Table_ which seem to illustrate a vain yet sinister bourgeois.
> 
>  
> 
> The guy at the bottom left looks like T.S. Eliot to me


The guy on the bottom right is actually the artist himself. The figures are each clad in warm garb and gathered around the candlelight clutching a fish, a turnip, and other food stuffs. The painting, done during the war, certainly conveys something clandestine as Beckmann and his friends gather in secret and try to keep warm and enjoy each other's company as well as their simply repast at a time in which any such gathering was illegal and dangerous. The painting certainly alludes to the images of Christ at Emmaus ( especially the image of the fish) and the secretive meetings of the early Christians in the Roman Empire.

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## mortalterror

> I must say Malevich never did anything for me. 
> 
> Among my favorites of Modernist painters I would have to count the German, Max Beckmann. One of his best would have to be _Bird's Hell_


Eh, Chagall was better.

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## keilj

Ecce Homo by Ciseri is definitely one of my favorites

eh.JPG

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## faithosaurus

Botticelli is my favorite artist, hands down. I absolutely love:

_Annunciation_



and _Venus and Mars_

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## weltanschauung

the random fav painting of the day

" li ", h.r.giger

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## byquist

Monet, such as the Lilies and Hay Stacks -- once saw about 50 haystacks together in one showing.

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## Return Journey

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Delaroche in the National Gallery in London.
An amazing painting. Beautiful and tragic.

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## weltanschauung

john collier - "lilith" 
<3

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## Corona

If I had to choose just one painter, I would say Rembrandt is the greatest painter of all times and his "Returnal of the Prodigal Son" as his definite masterpiece.

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