To the lovers of fine arts on DL - what are your favourite painters, books, periods, photographers? Where should an art virgin with scant access to galleries or museums of any times start?
Art History 101
by Anonymous | reply 246 | January 25, 2021 11:32 PM |
Neoclassicism with Jacques-Louis David! So many dramas!
by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 17, 2016 8:22 PM |
After failing five times to win the French Academy's Prix de Rome (protesting his 1772 loss with a hunger strike lasting a two-and-a-half days), Jacques-Louis David finally won it in 1774 and traveled to Rome for a five-year stay beginning in 1775. There, he painted this Study of a Man in 1778 when he was thirty. The painting is also known as Patroclus, who was Achilles' lover......
by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 17, 2016 8:26 PM |
I often find "B-list" artists, so to speak, more interesting than the super famous ones. That being said, here are my favourite "A-listers", in roughly chronological order:
Jan van Eyck
Hieronymus Bosch
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Caravaggio
Jan Vermeer Van Delft
Canaletto
Jacques-Louis David
Caspar David Friedrich
Claude Monet
Edgar Degas
Henri Rousseau
Georges Seurat
Vincent Van Gogh
Henri Matisse
Giorgio De Chirico
Rene Magritte
Max Ernst
Edward Hopper
I love Academic art, and find it very underrated (because it used to be the conservative status quo opposing/opposed by the avantgarde) - it's due for a reappraisal imo.
I haven't read it myself yet, but E.H. Gombrich's "The Story of Art" is generally considered [italic] the[/italic] classic general art history.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 17, 2016 8:33 PM |
Thank you all! Honestly, I binged watched the first two seasons of Portrait Artist Of The Year and am fascinated by the process. In each 4-hour heat the artists painted (usually painted - a couple drew and one guy did lino cuts) a celebrity. They didn't know during the first episode that they would be painting celebrities so it was kind of adorable to see their shock at seeing Robert Lindsay and Juliet Stevenson and Alison Steadman turn up to model. The winners prizes received commissions to paint Hilary Mantel and Alan Cumming for major institutions, and both models were thrilled with their likenesses.
As a young teen I was obsessed with the movie ARTEMISIA. Something about scantily clad Italians with fabulous dark hair.
How the fuck does J-L David get that sort of anatomically correct muscle definition? Or, rather, paint it?
The B-Listers I am certainly interested in.
As a tourist in Houston visiting the Rothko chapel, I happened upon a nearby exhibition of ... I can't recall his name, but the guy with the hat and the apple. What "school" is he a part of?
by Anonymous | reply 7 | May 17, 2016 8:46 PM |
Margritte -- the Belgian surrealist did the apple/hat guy.
More --
by Anonymous | reply 8 | May 17, 2016 8:49 PM |
Thanks for the Masters of Photography link. I recall studying Lange at school.
Funnily enough, when I was in uni was trying to look grown up for my parents' impending visit and grabbed a coffee table book from the stack of art books my local bookstore had on sale I ended up grabbing one with a nicely lit black and white nude. It turned out to be a David Hamilton who just that weekend was brought up as a similarly bad influence when Sally Mann got bad press for her photographs of her kids! Not the greatest timing!
by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 17, 2016 8:54 PM |
Thanks for that r8!
by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 17, 2016 8:54 PM |
Caspar David Friedrich fan here too, R6. His moody, contemplative, German landscapes appealed to me as a sullen teen, and still do to this day. They make me feel so alone but uplifted at once. This is definitely his most popular work.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | May 17, 2016 9:08 PM |
Margritte invented Cousin It ten years before The Addams Family debuted on TV.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 17, 2016 10:13 PM |
Sadly, many Friedrichs were destroyed in Allied bombings during ww2
by Anonymous | reply 13 | May 17, 2016 10:14 PM |
Is WAYS OF SEEING worth a read? It was referenced multiple times in college and now I have no access to an academic library, I would have to purchase either the book or the TV show.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 18, 2016 11:16 PM |
Stuckists AN ANTIDOTE TO THE GHASTLY TURNER PRIZE (2008)
by Anonymous | reply 17 | May 20, 2016 10:35 PM |
John Singer Sargent
by Anonymous | reply 19 | May 20, 2016 11:12 PM |
Rubens - Maria Serra Pallavicino
Rubens was impressed by the lifestyle of the wealthy, aristocratic families of Genoa. For some reason, he painted the parrot in a strange way, like a caricature.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | May 29, 2016 11:49 PM |
Ed Ruscha - Lisp
Gimmicks, like writing with water, impress me.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | May 29, 2016 11:52 PM |
Master of Calamarca - Angel Letiel Dei
This is how gay men would dress if they didn't have to fit in to straight society.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | May 30, 2016 1:48 AM |
Excellent video, R25.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | May 30, 2016 2:17 AM |
Try:
Camille Paglia’s “Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art From Egypt to ‘Star Wars,’ ”
by Anonymous | reply 27 | May 30, 2016 2:17 AM |
R19, I'm also a fan of John Singer Sargent's 'elongated' style of Edwardian portraiture. Likewise, I've always admired Howard Chandler Christy's evocations of Gatsby-esque era luxury. Here's his portrait of first lady Grace Coolidge.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | May 30, 2016 2:25 AM |
nothing news
by Anonymous | reply 29 | May 30, 2016 2:50 AM |
Renaissance:
I think the Venetian Renaissance was somewhat upstaged by the goings on in Florence and Rome. Giorgione and Bellini are both wonderful examples of the Venetian aesthetic. Especially "The Tempest".
Dutch Golden Age:
Check out Jacob Van Ruisdael. Breathtaking stuff. The Impressionists owe him a huge debt. When I have a billion dollars I'll have one of his dreamy paintings hanging on my wall. Uncle Saloman was great too.
Other good great landscape guys to check out: Whistler's Nocturnes (but his portraits were kind of crappy) and Turner.
Moody Realists:
This grouping isn't by period but by theme. It's kind of all over the place but the stylistic through line is there:
Durer DaVinci Zurbaran (stunning still lifes) De La Tour (nobody does candlelight better) Andrew Wyeth Thomas Eakins
Enjoy!
by Anonymous | reply 33 | May 30, 2016 3:50 AM |
Lincoln and T.R. were included with Nixon and Dubya, and the others. Oh the horror!
by Anonymous | reply 35 | May 30, 2016 7:35 PM |
A Princess of the House of Naples - Francesco Laurana
by Anonymous | reply 36 | June 2, 2016 1:44 AM |
Another vote for Kandinsky
by Anonymous | reply 37 | June 2, 2016 1:48 AM |
Art began in 1872 when Monet painted "Impression, Sunrise" and ended in 1956 when Pollock drove into a tree.
The entire estate was sold to the rich by Warhol. Art is now bought and sold like pork bellies.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | June 2, 2016 1:58 AM |
I was at the National Gallery of Art recently.
God, that place is beyond beautiful. I can spend hours there (and have).
Renoir is my guy.
They have many of the ones R5 listed there. I took pictures of them, too. 😛
by Anonymous | reply 39 | June 2, 2016 2:57 AM |
Following up on R8, another amazing Belgian surrealist, Paul Paul Delvaux Too bad The Art Institute of Chicago keeps his Masterpiece "In The Village of The Mermaids" in its archives. It used to be in the main surrealism gallery, but not for years, especially now that it is cafes and shops and less art.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | June 2, 2016 3:00 AM |
Remember the days when they prohibited photos in museums? Why is it that this is allowed today? Was it always a retarded rule? Or was there a valid reason for it?
by Anonymous | reply 42 | June 2, 2016 3:04 AM |
I was also at the Church of the Immaculate Conception and there is a display of chairs where the last few popes have sat. We could take pictures but without flash photography.
I guess they figure the bright lights will degrade the material? Maybe they figure only easily-impressed tourists (like me 🤓) will take pictures?
Regardless, the docent was so happy that I was enjoying the pictures so much. He said a lot of people go and walk around but don't appreciate or even understand what they are looking at.
I saw some idiot walk by and glance at Renoir's A Girl With A Watering Can as if he was walking past a movie poster or something equally unremarkable. I could look at that painting forever.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | June 2, 2016 3:28 AM |
Joan Crawford, photographed by Ruth Harriet Louise
by Anonymous | reply 44 | June 15, 2016 10:15 PM |
My favorite class in college.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | June 15, 2016 10:48 PM |
OP you are sort of a lost cause if you don't know how to learn about a major topic in world civilisation. Nor how vast it is. Just go your local library and get a book on art history. A general college textbook would do. Or a splashy big book with beautiful reproductions and a good easy ons some period. Then, IF you develop an interest, you can easily read and look further. You do realise ALL the major world museums have very helpful websites and high-definition reproductions of their masterpieces, with little essays on many of them. You have PLENTY of access to museums, virtually, and for free.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | June 15, 2016 10:57 PM |
Also, any decent sized American city will have a museum with a good collection as will many colleges and universities. You cant be all that far from one.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | June 15, 2016 10:58 PM |
The BBC series Simon Schama's Power of Art is excellent for your purposes, OP. It can often be found on YouTube.
A Little History of Art, mentioned up thread, would be a nice and broad compliment to the BBC episodes.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | June 15, 2016 11:06 PM |
I love the energy of Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | June 15, 2016 11:41 PM |
R50, R51, R53, R54 and R55, those paintings were posted on previous art threads. Please DO make an effort, sweetie.
Why don't you post something really impressive like a Tom of Finland drawing or a joky Donald Trump like you did on this thread?
by Anonymous | reply 57 | June 17, 2016 2:03 AM |
Travelling on my holiday! I have narrowed down my museums visits to ones I have never seen before.
What are your top 5 essential works at...
The Prado in Madrid - www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam - www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en
The Victoria and Albert in London - www.vam.ac.uk/collections
And, if I have time...
The Tate Britain in London - www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain
The National Gallery in London - www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/explore-the-paintings/30-highlight-paintings
by Anonymous | reply 59 | June 17, 2016 11:56 PM |
Our top five won't be your top five.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | June 18, 2016 12:02 AM |
Another lazy thread about the fine arts on DL. It's so bloody irritating. Can't anyone start a thread where people discuss the topic seriously and go beyond the usual canon name dropping and the modernist -isms? Why not talk about the auction houses? Traditional ones like Sotheby's and Christie's and the online versions such as Paddle 8 or the global art market network with its biennials, fairs and specialist publications. Strangely enough, many museum directors and curators are gay but they never get talked about on DL. It's such a wasted opportunity as I'm sure someone could spill on people like him:
by Anonymous | reply 61 | June 18, 2016 12:19 AM |
OP, this story is an important primer on the nature of contemporary art, i.e. hucksterism.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | June 18, 2016 12:19 AM |
R61 again. Another suggestion could be to discuss people like Anthony Blunt one of the most memorable directors at the Courtauld Institute in London; at some point Surveyor of the King's/Queen's pictures? Also double agent spying for the Russians and nearly tried for treason under Thatcher's government. World expert on Poussin and super gay to boot?
by Anonymous | reply 63 | June 18, 2016 12:28 AM |
Btw R61 is DR NICHOLAS CULLINAN director of the National Portrait Gallery in London
by Anonymous | reply 64 | June 18, 2016 12:31 AM |
But I want it all splained to me. I have no aesthetic intelligence whatsoever. I want to see the "top five" then head over to a GOURMET restaurant. I heard they eat snails in Paris. It disgusts me but I just might try one. I am gonna get one of those french breads, too.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | June 18, 2016 12:33 AM |
R64 But he's a ginger and maybe uncut. That disgusts me too, like snails. Do all those nudie statues have uncut dicks? If so, I don't know if I will like them, or see their beauty with disgusting dicks on them.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | June 18, 2016 12:36 AM |
Babe, they are nudes not naked bodies. Nudes are a pictorial genre like portraiture or still lives or landscapes; they are not supposed to be sexually arousing.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | June 18, 2016 12:41 AM |
Fuck off r65
by Anonymous | reply 68 | June 18, 2016 3:19 AM |
I went to the Kimball Museum in Fort Worth, specifically because it had been featured by Sister Wendy.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | June 18, 2016 4:11 AM |
Can someone recommend some good introductory art history books?
by Anonymous | reply 70 | December 17, 2019 8:20 AM |
VanGogh, Aubrey Beardsley, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustav Klimt. In general, the artists of the Symbolist movement, an example of which appears below: Death and the Grave Digger by Carlos Schwabe..
by Anonymous | reply 71 | December 17, 2019 8:53 AM |
Modigliani. His style is not able to be classified - Cubism with a bit of Dada and Neoclassicism.
I just like the long necks and the pupil-less eyes.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | December 17, 2019 10:07 AM |
Porcelain seated bodhisattva, late 13th–early 14th century, China - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | September 14, 2020 5:34 AM |
Fairy and immortal boy, 19th century, China - made of coral. The Met
by Anonymous | reply 75 | September 14, 2020 5:40 AM |
Listening to the Waves by Sakiyama Takayuki, 2004
by Anonymous | reply 76 | September 14, 2020 5:44 AM |
[quote]Can someone recommend some good introductory art history books?
This looks good: The Visual Arts: A History by Hugh Honour and John Fleming
by Anonymous | reply 77 | September 14, 2020 5:51 AM |
martin kemp on u tube, is great bout art, he is a da vinci scholar....
by Anonymous | reply 78 | September 14, 2020 5:55 AM |
Who’s the guy that paints with his dick??
by Anonymous | reply 79 | September 14, 2020 5:55 AM |
^^^ So many guys.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | September 14, 2020 5:56 AM |
[quote]Who’s the guy that paints with his dick??
I just googled it - Pricasso. Hilarious name.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | September 14, 2020 6:04 AM |
The heavyweights I tend be drawn to are Chagall, Botera, and Van Gogh.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | September 14, 2020 7:50 AM |
Botero? Heavyweight?
by Anonymous | reply 85 | September 14, 2020 7:57 AM |
OP - first get a history of art book such that you understand the evolution and different periods and can recognize works by the great masters. It has to have illustrations, though I suspect online there are possibilities too but make sure it is a chronological read. From Antiquity until the present day. It is fun and so worth it.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | September 14, 2020 9:06 AM |
This is an old thread, R86. Everyone before R70 has died of covid by now.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | September 14, 2020 6:54 PM |
The artist for our times, the late great Zdzislaw Beksinski
by Anonymous | reply 89 | September 14, 2020 9:38 PM |
Nah, I don't think things are that grim. Maybe in Europe during World War II.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | September 14, 2020 9:40 PM |
All art museums are online and you can virtually visit them for free. Also, there are plenty of art documentaries on the various streaming services. Find an artist that speaks to you and go from there.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | September 14, 2020 10:02 PM |
I'm not denying that wild fires are getting worse with climate change, R92, but brush fires happen every year on the West Coast and though they cause a lot of damage to nature and property, there isn't a huge loss of life. I would think more people die each year in the U.S. from tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.
Even in the worst case scenario, I doubt coronavirus deaths will be as bad as the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 and definitely not as bad as the bubonic plague epidemics of the Middle Ages.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | September 14, 2020 10:26 PM |
Oh my. How grim.
"Purgatory" from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
by Anonymous | reply 95 | September 15, 2020 2:40 AM |
For Abstract Expressionism, you can’t really beat Franz Kline. I’ve seen two gallery shows by him and you really start to understand his language. Could have been the weed or a true aesthetic experience. I’m going with the latter. I really love his work.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | September 15, 2020 3:01 AM |
Henry Scott Tuke - gay and with an eye for the twinks
by Anonymous | reply 103 | September 22, 2020 2:09 AM |
Thank you, r48 and r49!
Just how helpless ARE you, OP?!
by Anonymous | reply 104 | September 22, 2020 2:19 AM |
Sascha Schneider, gay himself, created some of my favorite paintings.
by Anonymous | reply 105 | September 22, 2020 2:19 AM |
[quote]Also, any decent sized American city will have a museum with a good collection as will many colleges and universities. You cant be all that far from one.
What if OP lives in a remote part of Alaska?
by Anonymous | reply 106 | September 22, 2020 2:25 AM |
John Singer Sargent did some hot paintings of naked guys
by Anonymous | reply 107 | September 22, 2020 3:27 AM |
What about decorative arts?
Sardonyx cup or bowl with dragon handle by Pierre Delabarre. Louvre
by Anonymous | reply 108 | September 22, 2020 5:46 AM |
Commode by André Charles Boulle. The Met.
by Anonymous | reply 109 | September 22, 2020 4:58 PM |
The Harvesters - Pieter Bruegel the Elder
by Anonymous | reply 110 | September 23, 2020 5:24 AM |
Wisconsin Landscape by John Steuart Curry
by Anonymous | reply 111 | September 23, 2020 7:06 PM |
Relief plaque with ram's head, 400–30 BC, Late Period–Ptolemaic Period
by Anonymous | reply 112 | September 23, 2020 7:12 PM |
Maxfield Parrish - what a dreamy name for a dreamy artist. King Cole Bar - St. Regis NYC
by Anonymous | reply 113 | September 24, 2020 2:29 AM |
Winterhalter did lovely portraits. Here's one of DL fave Empress Sissi!
by Anonymous | reply 114 | September 24, 2020 2:34 AM |
Love your choices, R113 and R114. Thanks. Please post some more.
by Anonymous | reply 115 | September 24, 2020 2:46 AM |
Portrait of a Man by Johannes Verspronck, 1645
by Anonymous | reply 117 | September 24, 2020 5:41 PM |
Porcelain vase with cover from Saint-Cloud factory, ca. 1695–1710. The Met
by Anonymous | reply 118 | September 24, 2020 5:44 PM |
Goddess of Victory, 408 BC, Acropolis Museum, Athens
by Anonymous | reply 119 | September 24, 2020 7:59 PM |
Eugène Atget - photograph of copies of the Dying Gaul and Apollo Belvedere in the gardens of Versailles
by Anonymous | reply 122 | September 24, 2020 11:00 PM |
Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway by J.M.W. Turner
by Anonymous | reply 123 | September 25, 2020 4:18 PM |
Alberto Giacometti's "L'homme au doigt" (1947) sold for $141.3 million on May 11th, 2015. Don't get it.
by Anonymous | reply 125 | September 26, 2020 12:47 AM |
There's some good advice on this thread. I guess it's too late for OP but here's my two cents on the topic. Yes, spend $6.67 on amazon for Ways of Seeing. I also like the Robert Hughes' Shock of the New and Beaumont Newhall's History of Photography. Maybe get a used copy of Gardner's Art Through the Ages? It is so Art History 101.
by Anonymous | reply 126 | September 26, 2020 5:15 AM |
Here's what I found on the google machine, OP.
I do like Phaidon's "Art Book".
by Anonymous | reply 127 | September 26, 2020 8:22 AM |
“Where should an art virgin with scant access to galleries or museums of any times start?”
OP, I would suggest that if you want to appreciate art across various eras and movements, it’s most useful to understand its evolution. Here’s a reductive overview that is not comprehensive but may be a useful general guideline. I offer this mainly because when I was young, I thought that a “good artist” was able to photorealistically capture reality in whatever medium they used, and I was the type to look at most abstract art and think any child could create it. It took me many years to gain a greater understanding of and appreciation for modern art, and now I find it much more interesting than classical art. A day at the Louvre looking at variations of the same types of ornate allegorical paintings can be exhausting, while a day at a modern art gallery can be confounding and thrilling with endless surprises—but for me to understand and appreciate non-representational art, I had to understand the evolution of modern western art.
Ancient prehistoric art such as cave art typically records local wildlife and sometimes hunting (so, a record of day to day life) as well as often including celestial information (stars, constellations) and sometimes but not always symbols thought to have spiritual significance.
Classical ancient Western art most often is religious allegory, depicting pre-Judeo-Christian pantheon and supernatural beings (furies, faeries, monsters, etc.) and, later, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist et al. deities and concepts. The earliest of these on record are Sumerian and Egyptian. Islamic art does not depict human form and that is the reason for patterned mosaic tiles, windows, rugs, et al., which represent sacred geometry. When the Christian churches controlled Europe, most art was commissioned by Christian patrons or royalty, and that upheld this religious-allegory tradition.
Eventually, Western artists became bold enough to depict day-to-day life stripped of religious allegory—so, for example, a woman lying on a sofa who was depicted to be appreciated for her beauty rather than to represent religious themes. These depictions typically followed classical aesthetics but were still upsetting to traditionalists.
After this, artists began to rapidly evolve depictions from classical colors and compositions to more photo-realistic depictions and then less photo-realistic depictions. So portraitists such as Vermeer gave way to Impressionists, who today look to us like they were painting for grandmothers because of soft pastel palettes, but in their day, these people were radical and disruptive. Depicting anything in an unrealistic style offended traditionalists terribly. So when you look at Cézanne and Monet, realize they were radical artists.
by Anonymous | reply 128 | September 26, 2020 9:32 AM |
Impressionism opened the door for expressionism—bold, loud colors and intentionally upsetting images created to elicit visceral emotion. But in between was a period called post-impressionism during which Van Gogh, for example, pushed impressionism beyond its soft template. Other bold post-impressionist styles included fauvism, pointillism and cubism. My personal favorite artist, Marc Chagall, dabbled in all these styles but never adhered to any specific one, plus religious allegory using his own personally encoded symbolism. Dada was another evolution, political in nature and developed in response to the Nazis’ attempt to seek out and destroy all non-classical art, which they determined to be corruptive and degenerative to society and the human mind. Every style that developed following impressionism and up until the 1960s or so is considered broadly Modernist.
Mid-Century Modern Art (versus Modernist) specifically refers, however, to art made in the 1950s-60s, which includes Art Deco, Art Nuevo and Pop Art. It’s typically very graphic with strong lines and bold colors, and you are probably familiar with each genre—the styles are different, but all of them sort of have an innate commercial appeal and use.
Abstract art is a very broad category that refers to anything that is not representational or photorealistic, but many people think of abstract art specifically to mean abstract expressionism. This is a popular form of contemporary art. “Contemporary art” typically is an umbrella term for any post-Modern-era art but the term also loosely defines a genre of usually abstract or semi-abstract artwork with distinctive uses of line and color.
by Anonymous | reply 129 | September 26, 2020 9:32 AM |
Adams Memorial, Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington DC by Augustus Saint-Gaudens
by Anonymous | reply 130 | September 26, 2020 4:43 PM |
Very good summary, R128 and R129, but wasn't Art Deco over in the 1950s-1960s? Wasn't it more a popular style of the 1920s and 1930s?
by Anonymous | reply 131 | September 26, 2020 4:50 PM |
R131 Sorry if I made it sound like all that was chronological. I sort of grouped together various movements within the modernist era as they came to mind. They’re not necessarily mentioned in order, but in the greater context I mainly wanted to communicate the evolution of how “legitimate” art was regarded over time, from representational allegory to non-allegorical realism to a gradual evolution of non-realistic representational art, commercial graphic art and ultimately fully nonrepresentational abstract art.
That’s an important point to me because when I was young and interested in art, I did like some non-realistic art for reasons I could not really grasp, but I nevertheless always thought that the closer to photorealism a work of art was, the “better” the artist was. It took a long time of processing a lot of art and painting and drawing on my own to appreciate art that people often dismiss because they say “a kid could do that.” I think a lot of people view a lot of art this way and so I just wanted to lend some context for modern and contemporary art and how some people can appreciate even very simple-appearing visual works as brilliant when they may look at a glance like something anyone could do. Also, it really, really changed how I look at impressionist works after I learned that impressionism was a radical, rebellious cultural movement.
One more tip that I learned in grad school for creative writing: Picasso and Brach, jazz musicians and William Faulkner were in conversation with one another culturally, and Picasso’s cubism, improvisational jazz and much of Faulkner’s writing experiment with the same formal philosophies in different media. So if you don’t get or like Picasso’s cubist period, read Faulkner stories or a novel like The Sound and the Fury and relate it to cubism. You’ll appreciate both more. And consider how cubist paintings “look like jazz” without sound, and how Faulkner’s fiction reads like jazz without sound. This is a way that I began to appreciate the genius in these types of discordant and sometimes ugly work.
by Anonymous | reply 132 | September 26, 2020 5:04 PM |
Rolling eyes.
Favorites?
Giotto.
Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian. for color and mystery.
Bronzino for his gay content with those uncomfortable looking "proteges" of the Vatican cliques. Mannerism makes me queasy (Tintoretto, usually, for example)
Hals (!), Vermeer, Rembrandt.
Velázquez for his balance of deference to the court and human honesty.
Ingres for his line and his last push of neoclassicism. Delacroix for leaning to the future, when he wasn't just overblown. "Duke of Morny's Apartment" shouted at Gauguin and Matisse from the 1830s.
Courbet for courage.
Toulouse-Latrec.
The 19th c. Russian pleine air painters: Levitan, Bogdanov-Belsky, Arkhipov, Shishkin - so many. Amazing realism, cultural celebration, color.
Matisse.
Throw in a few Bottlicellis, Michelangelo's sculpture, La Gioconda, El Greco's "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" and some portraits, the output of Picasso.
Works of the 20th & 21st c. have been rather editorial, style-assertive over content, naive or propagandistic for me. I look at most of it as ornamental, rather than serious art.
by Anonymous | reply 133 | September 26, 2020 5:24 PM |
Some really nice posts here lately, well done guys.
by Anonymous | reply 134 | September 26, 2020 5:32 PM |
Nothing disturbs the flow of a thread like a gold star dropped from the imagined heavens.
by Anonymous | reply 135 | September 26, 2020 5:43 PM |
Huh. Levitan. Never heard of him. I guess it just shows the Western European bias of many art history books.
Spring, High Water
by Anonymous | reply 136 | September 26, 2020 5:56 PM |
[quote]A day at the Louvre looking at variations of the same types of ornate allegorical paintings can be exhausting....
True. Tons of paintings on the same Christian themes - Madonna and child, Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, etc.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | September 27, 2020 12:55 AM |
R137 But lots of wonderfully ugly Renaissance babies, too!
by Anonymous | reply 138 | September 27, 2020 12:58 AM |
Haha. Never seen that one.
by Anonymous | reply 139 | September 27, 2020 1:18 AM |
R139 Ugly Renaissance Babies is a whole subgenre!
by Anonymous | reply 140 | September 27, 2020 1:21 AM |
Very entertaining link, R140. I've never seen this awesome painting.
by Anonymous | reply 141 | September 27, 2020 1:25 AM |
R136, you're a philistine and a cunt.
You blame Western European bias for your own insolent, smug ignorance.
And, for the record, cunt, Levitan and his fellow Russian artists saw themselves as representatives of Western European artistic principles extending its range all the way to Vladivostok.
Reflexive personal bias is worse than cultural bias when it is mere propaganda.
by Anonymous | reply 143 | September 27, 2020 1:45 PM |
R128 (the high school art surveyor) and R137 are the kinds of "art viewers" who think art is about subject rather than technique and theme.
No one who loves art is "exhausted" by a trip to the Louvre because of Christian art. Apparently such "viewers" are unaware that in a museum one actually may pick what galleries and art one enjoys.
Every art thread on the DL shows the proud and shallow misinterpretation of the aesthetic experience and its possibilities for personal transformation. Bean counters and bigots.
by Anonymous | reply 144 | September 27, 2020 1:52 PM |
Cunt? Philistine? You must be trolling, R143. I was showing my appreciation that you mentioned artists I hadn't heard of. I've looked through many art history books in my day and I don't remember any paintings by Levitan. Russian artists may have been influenced by art trends in Western Europe but that still doesn't mean that art history books aren't biased in favor of Western Europe. Thank you for bringing those Russian artists to my attention, rude person.
by Anonymous | reply 145 | September 27, 2020 4:58 PM |
Again, you must be trolling, R144. Of course, certain Madonnas and child, Crucifixions, Nativities can be truly great. That doesn't mean your eyes aren't going to glaze over when you've seen the fiftieth Madonna and child painting in the same museum on the same day. I assume they were meant for an individual church, or a nobleman's or wealthy merchant's house. They weren't meant to be seen altogether in one building.
by Anonymous | reply 146 | September 27, 2020 5:06 PM |
[quote]R136, you're a philistine and a cunt.
You should write your own art history book so your genius can be universally recognised.
by Anonymous | reply 147 | September 27, 2020 10:08 PM |
[quote]R136, you're a philistine and a cunt.
[quote]You blame Western European bias for your own insolent, smug ignorance.
[quote]And, for the record, cunt, Levitan and his fellow Russian artists saw themselves as representatives of Western European artistic principles extending its range all the way to Vladivostok.
[quote]Reflexive personal bias is worse than cultural bias when it is mere propaganda.
[quote]—R133
Hi Sanjay.
by Anonymous | reply 148 | September 28, 2020 2:33 AM |
Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Company - Charles Sheeler, 1927
by Anonymous | reply 149 | September 28, 2020 5:23 AM |
Robert Hughes was a writer and art critic who was one of the most eloquent and erudite supporters of Modern and Contemporary Art and who wrote a book and did a BBC documentary series about it called The Shock of the New in the 1980s. I hadn’t realized in 2004, nearly 25 years later, he went back and did a final chapter summing up the 20th Century called the New Shock of the New.
Here is that chapter and the channel has the other 8 part series he originally did. He was very interested in everyday people understanding and enjoying this Art and is very accessible and not patronizing. A fine place to start if the art of these periods hold interest or one is grasping to understand it.
by Anonymous | reply 150 | September 28, 2020 7:17 AM |
Albert Barnes amassed one of the single greatest personal collections of Impressionist, Post Impressionist and Early Modernist Art in his home outside of Philadelphia. His collection contains more Cezanne paintings then the entire city of Paris and over 300 Renoirs for example. He had his own unique ideas about art and art education and the importance of bringing it to people at all levels of society, especially the “working class.”
His collection has since been installed in Philadelphia completely replicating how it hung in his house to express his philosophy and visual understanding of the beauty of art. During the quarantine they have been producing almost daily short videos introducing individual works of art fulling exploring both Barnes’ take on it as well as traditional Art History’s understanding of the works. Here’s one to start, but each is its own mini course on the work and its artist by a variety of individuals involved in the institution.
by Anonymous | reply 151 | September 28, 2020 7:33 AM |
These.
My major was Electrical Engineering, but I took art history as an undergraduate elective and loved it!
by Anonymous | reply 152 | September 28, 2020 7:40 AM |
probably Round Closed Vessel by Kitamura Junko, 1998
by Anonymous | reply 153 | September 28, 2020 8:41 AM |
This art history collection needs the gay flair of Rococco. I present the. Quintessential Rococco paint “The Swing” by Fraggonard. It’s tres very fab, no? Who hasn’t felt like this woman?
by Anonymous | reply 155 | September 29, 2020 3:13 AM |
Who’s up for some Flemish Baroque? You know that big drama queen Rubens, right? She’s addicted to the drama.
by Anonymous | reply 157 | September 29, 2020 11:57 PM |
Yikes. I guess people in Rubens time were more used to seeing horrible things first hand, eg. going through wars. I wonder if they were still beheading criminals and putting their heads on pikes.
by Anonymous | reply 158 | September 30, 2020 12:38 AM |
Francis Bacon -Figure With Meat. 1964 Expressionism. Inspired by Rembrandt and Diego Velasquez with a direct line to Jack Nicholson’s version of The Joker from the The 1989 Batman movie.
by Anonymous | reply 159 | September 30, 2020 1:38 AM |
Is this thread about art history or just a place to post images people like?
by Anonymous | reply 161 | September 30, 2020 4:17 PM |
The latter, R161.
by Anonymous | reply 162 | September 30, 2020 5:20 PM |
Well there’s always the short lived Post-Impressionism. VanGogh Portrait of Dr. Gachet,” 1890. This little number sold in 1990 for a cool 82 million. You know this crazy bitch cut off her left ear, right?
by Anonymous | reply 163 | October 1, 2020 1:19 AM |
Parade helmet by Filippo Negroli, 1543
It's in an art museum and it's centuries old. Therefore, it's part of art history.
by Anonymous | reply 164 | October 1, 2020 6:01 AM |
r16 Z-library is your friend.
by Anonymous | reply 166 | October 1, 2020 6:27 AM |
Ivory plaque with dragon and birds amidst bamboo and plum blossom, China late 19th century
by Anonymous | reply 167 | October 1, 2020 3:45 PM |
R164 - wow that helmet is incredible.
by Anonymous | reply 168 | October 1, 2020 5:28 PM |
It is impressive, R168. Straight boys like their half-naked women (mermaids?).
by Anonymous | reply 169 | October 1, 2020 7:39 PM |
Joey/r165, meet Blue Boy’s girlfriend Pinkie.
by Anonymous | reply 170 | October 1, 2020 8:59 PM |
Marcel Duchamp - Nude Descending Staircase #2, 1912 - Behold the Cubo-Futurist formal structures, mixed with proto-Dada humor! This painting challenged both European and American artists in ways they had never experienced before. Theodore Roosevelt compared it to the pattern on his bathroom mat. How’s that for some Art History?
by Anonymous | reply 171 | October 1, 2020 11:29 PM |
R170 and R165 Blueboy and Pinkie were basically my introduction to fine art. My grandmother had a pretty nicely done framed chromolithographed print In her living room, plus a not so nice homemade 1960s ceramic couple on a stand of them. They were mythic and I identified them with sophistication and believed them to be this real couple. When in my twenties I finally got go to California, the The Huntington Library was high on the list of a pilgrimage to see them like some storied ancestors. I had studied Art History, so my knowledge and understanding of them was much more complex, they were lovely, but also in competition with other great works in the collection.
by Anonymous | reply 172 | October 1, 2020 11:34 PM |
Haven't read the whole thread so excuse me if already covered. I like many periods and styles but in particular the abstract art - for example, expressionist and surrealist - of the early to mid twentieth century, a time when revolution in painting was matched by revolution in all the arts and a collapse in the established social and political order too. Here art abandons the figurative and becomes about the relations within the picture between the different colours, shapes, depths etc within the painting, but without overloading the canvas like the abstract expressionists did. Some examples below....
by Anonymous | reply 173 | October 1, 2020 11:34 PM |
r172, my grandmother also had Blue Boy and Pinkie lithos. I used to stare at them and admire their pure ELEGANZA.
by Anonymous | reply 178 | October 2, 2020 12:47 AM |
Some kind of carved stone thingy at the Met.
by Anonymous | reply 179 | October 2, 2020 12:47 AM |
I loved Frank Stella living as a grad student in the late 80s. My artist friend painted a copy of this in my “hip” student apartment. I thought I was so God damn cool. It looked great opposite my white futon (with the red bong on the coffee table). Firuzabad, 1970 Minimalism.
by Anonymous | reply 180 | October 2, 2020 2:47 AM |
Alexander Deineka - Female Textile Workers, 1927
by Anonymous | reply 183 | October 4, 2020 12:10 AM |
The Entry of Charles V into Antwerp - Hans Makart , 1878
by Anonymous | reply 184 | October 4, 2020 12:13 AM |
Tommaso di Folco Portinari and Maria Portinari by Hans Memling, ca. 1470
by Anonymous | reply 186 | October 4, 2020 12:20 AM |
Not labelled but looks like silver Hannukah lamp from Lviv, Poland, 1866-72, on loan to the Met from the Moldovan Family Collection.
by Anonymous | reply 187 | October 4, 2020 3:29 AM |
R186 Even better is the altarpiece the family paid for by Memling for one of the churches in Florence. It’s probably the most exquisite non Italian piece in the Uffizi and of massive scale. The details are stunning such as the apothecary jar with the lilies in it. It had a profound effect on Florentine painting, perhaps more so than any other artwork from outside Italy.
by Anonymous | reply 189 | October 4, 2020 5:37 AM |
Thanks, R189. The altar is beautiful. I didn't realise Memling had so much influence on Italian painters. You're so lucky to have a chance to visit the Uffizi.
by Anonymous | reply 190 | October 4, 2020 5:22 PM |
Artemis and the Stag - Roman Imperial or Hellenistic bronze sculpture. Sold at auction in June 2007 by Albright-Knox Gallery of Buffalo for $28.6 million, the highest sale price of any sculpture at the time.
by Anonymous | reply 191 | October 4, 2020 5:26 PM |
Looks like a Tsimshian mask, from the Nisga'a territory, at the mouth of the Nass River. Wood, British Columbia (Canada), 19th century.
by Anonymous | reply 192 | October 4, 2020 6:07 PM |
I guess it's time to block a certain person.
by Anonymous | reply 196 | October 5, 2020 4:57 PM |
[quote]My grandparents ate a big biscuit of shredded wheat for breakfast every morning along with a glass of Metamucil, a shot of buttermilk and a cup of Maxwell House coffee (black).
Your grandparents sound so elegant, R195. I can tell you're every bit as elegant as they are.
by Anonymous | reply 197 | October 5, 2020 5:34 PM |
by Anonymous | reply 199 | October 5, 2020 7:55 PM |
Altar tusks - Edo peoples, Court of Benin, Nigeria, late 19th century.
by Anonymous | reply 200 | October 6, 2020 12:52 AM |
I also like Janson's art history books.
The Town Beach, Collioure, Opus 165 by Paul Signac, 1887
by Anonymous | reply 202 | October 8, 2020 5:32 AM |
Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut at the Met.
by Anonymous | reply 203 | October 20, 2020 11:18 PM |
My favorite - "The Brazilian Lumberjack" by Jose Ferraz de Almeida (1875).
by Anonymous | reply 204 | October 21, 2020 1:06 AM |
Sheer genius. The Battle of Anghiari by Rubens, a copy of a lost painting by da Vinci.
by Anonymous | reply 206 | November 1, 2020 8:07 AM |
This is a nicely conceived piece defining Postmodernism and give ten well done concrete examples and why. A perfect mini lesson on the subject.
by Anonymous | reply 207 | November 1, 2020 7:57 PM |
When all this pandemic shit ends, head to Paris for a tour of the galleries there. I was so taken aback at some of the collections that I cried. It was like walking into art books I'd seen and loved my whole life.
by Anonymous | reply 208 | November 1, 2020 8:11 PM |
Alfred Sisley and Gustave Courbet
by Anonymous | reply 209 | November 2, 2020 12:11 AM |
Portrait of the Infanta Maria Theresa by Velázquez
by Anonymous | reply 210 | November 8, 2020 6:47 PM |
This is a nice article highlighting interesting aspects of a few paintings.
by Anonymous | reply 211 | November 12, 2020 8:28 PM |
I'm familiar with Rubens, R20, but haven't seen that one before. It's extraordinary. Especially so, because we often use period paintings as research in the costume design process.
by Anonymous | reply 213 | November 30, 2020 7:24 PM |
Tissot's body of work is a treasure trove of information for costume designers like myself.
by Anonymous | reply 214 | November 30, 2020 7:27 PM |
I also like that painting, R214, and many of Tissot's other works. One of the titles is "A Woman of Ambition". I assumed this means a social climber and the interpretation by the Albright Knox Gallery (if it is correct) seems to be in agreement:
"The visual narrative Tissot unfolds throughout the composition implies that this young woman aims to improve her own position by making herself a stylish and vital guest in the ballrooms and salons frequented by the French upper class."
Definitely a show stopping dress. I'm not sure I understand the other title "A Political Woman".
Love the color of the dress at R20 and the way Rubens has depicted the fabric.
by Anonymous | reply 215 | December 1, 2020 12:36 AM |
Jan Davidsz. de Heem
Grapes, peaches, blackberries, scallops, chestnuts, and façon-de-Venise wine glasses on a partially draped stone ledge with a snail, a butterfly, and a bumblebee
Love the realistic detail.
by Anonymous | reply 216 | December 4, 2020 6:53 AM |
by Anonymous | reply 217 | December 4, 2020 6:54 AM |
by Anonymous | reply 218 | December 4, 2020 6:55 AM |
"Magdalen of night light" (1638),
by George De La Tour (French, 1593-1652),
by Anonymous | reply 219 | December 4, 2020 7:16 AM |
Saint Joseph the carpenter, George De la Tour This french master knew everything about light and dark. A masterpiece to me.
by Anonymous | reply 220 | December 4, 2020 7:20 AM |
"Ball at the moulin de la Galette", Pierre Auguste Renoir,
by Anonymous | reply 222 | December 4, 2020 7:30 AM |
Georges de la Tour and Vermeer are also two of my favorite painters.
Young Woman with a Water Pitcher - Vermeer
by Anonymous | reply 223 | December 4, 2020 7:34 AM |
Oh my. Sensuous Bouguereau.
by Anonymous | reply 225 | December 4, 2020 7:47 AM |
"Dante and Virgil in Hell", William Adolphe Bouguereau
Very erotic and gay
by Anonymous | reply 226 | December 4, 2020 7:48 AM |
"The desperate", Gustave Courbet (French), self portrait
by Anonymous | reply 227 | December 4, 2020 8:05 AM |
"Le fédéraliste se fait défoncer le cul par le libertin"
By Sade
I believe that Meghan McCain did her senior essay on it.
by Anonymous | reply 228 | December 4, 2020 8:07 AM |
"Le sommeil", Gustave Courbet lesbian painting
by Anonymous | reply 229 | December 4, 2020 8:08 AM |
You can never have too much vaj on this thread.
by Anonymous | reply 231 | December 4, 2020 8:16 AM |
"Morning Splendour", by a good British Gay painter
by Anonymous | reply 232 | December 4, 2020 8:29 AM |
^Henry Scott Tuke
by Anonymous | reply 233 | December 4, 2020 8:31 AM |
pedo much?
by Anonymous | reply 237 | December 4, 2020 8:46 AM |
R237 They are young, not pedo, you idiot!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 238 | December 4, 2020 8:48 AM |
R238 Why replying to an ignorant? Ignore this pos. Don't feed the mfers trolls
by Anonymous | reply 239 | December 4, 2020 8:53 AM |
NAMBLA much?
by Anonymous | reply 240 | December 4, 2020 8:56 AM |
Anyone care to spill the tea on hot realist artist, Darren Reid? Is he gay and available?
by Anonymous | reply 241 | December 4, 2020 5:37 PM |
Truman Capote, New York 1948 by Irving Penn
by Anonymous | reply 242 | December 7, 2020 3:10 AM |
Madonna of the Magnificat - Botticelli
Uffizi Gallery
by Anonymous | reply 243 | January 13, 2021 7:00 AM |
by Anonymous | reply 244 | January 13, 2021 7:04 AM |
Speaking of Botticelli, one of his last great publicly held portraits will be auctioned on Thursday Jan. 28 and is expected to go for $80 million. The auctions are live streamed and you can even chat with others watching from around the world. A Rembrandt religious painting and an allegorical by Bernini are also featured in the sale.
by Anonymous | reply 245 | January 24, 2021 7:53 AM |
Here’s a nice overview of Botticelli, although it doesn’t talk about his destruction of mythological paintings under Savonarola.
by Anonymous | reply 246 | January 25, 2021 11:32 PM |