Choose just one artwork that you would love to own & live with indefinitely.

Forums: Art, Awesomest Thread Ever, Painting, Artwork, Personal Preferences
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A long time ago (on Tue 14 Sep, 2004 01:00 am, A2K time, precisely! Smile

) I started a thread called Choose one painting for your wall ....

The idea was that you could choose only one painting (an agonizing decision!) that you could could actually have on your wall, one that you could happily live with and experience, indefinitely ... & to explain the reasons for your choice. The "explaining why" was meant to be the interesting part, of course.

Choose one painting for your wall ...:
http://able2know.org/topic/33851-1

That was #2 of the same thread which had had an earlier run on Abuzz. Which of course was, sadly, history by 2004.

OK so here goes #3!
2011.

Question: if you could choose just one art work (be it a painting, sculpture, photograph, whatever...) that you could have in your personal presence indefinitely, what would you choose?

And what reasons would you give for that choice?

Obviously none, or very few of us anyway, are in any position to own the art we most admire, but let's not let reality get in the way here!

The point of this exercise is simply an excuse for us to talk about the art we admire, appreciate, or love. And our reasons for our preferences.

If you like, I'm asking the opposite question to that which the tsar asked, on his thread a while ago:

Art You Hate: Which famous artist DON'T you get? Which artists whose work you utterly hate?:
http://able2know.org/topic/168123-1

Actually, I'm just looking for a good excuse for us to talk about art. Smile

Compare our preferences & have a good discussion about what we value in art.

I hope you'll join in.

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@msolga,

This is what I chose in 2004, when only paintings were an option.

What would I choose in 2011?

To tell the truth, I'm not sure yet.

I have some serious thinking to do! Smile

Quote:

Nymphéas
[Waterlilies] [Water-lilies] c.1914-17
oil on canvas
Wildenstein 1807
181.0 (h) x 201.6 (w) cm
not signed, not dated, estate stamp signature l.l.
Purchased 1979
nga 1979.2858

Why did I choose this Monet? Well, If I only had ONE image to gaze at for years & years this would be a satisfying one. There are number of others I almost chose, but on consideration, they didn't have the same "staying power". It's those beautiful colours, subtly changing in nuance, those beautiful marks on canvas. I could look & look at the surface of any Monet from this period & get lost in those brush marks, those exquisite colours ..
Apart from that, the peacefulness, the calm feeling I get from this painting. The shadows on the water, the reflections, the rippling light, the depths ...
Yep, I could live with this one. I've got just the spot for it!

1 Reply

@msolga,

I tried to tag this thread Awesomest Thread Ever but it didn't pop up in the tag line. So please let me mull this one over. I will have to search my faulty mental brain based hard drive and then cull down the enormous list of loved artworks.

1 Reply

@msolga,

Impossible choice!

There are so many.

And you have made it too hard by adding sculpture.

Ill stick to painting.

A possible one is Botticelli's Birth of Venus

Just because it's so bloody beautiful!

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@msolga,

Looking through that 2004 thread, I see that quite a few of us who are still here stated our preferences then.

I wonder if your preferences in 2011 would be different now?

Maybe any art form (not just paintings) would alter your choice?

I also see that quite a few contributors to that thread (& other art threads) are now gone, "lost & displaced".

A thought: how much I miss Vivien's posts. Sad

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

Quote:

I tried to tag this thread Awesomest Thread Ever but it didn't pop up in the tag line. So please let me mull this one over. I will have to search my faulty mental brain based hard drive and then cull down the enormous list of loved artworks.

Ha, tsar!
You're funny. Smile

You think you're having problems with your "mental brain"?
Join the club!
And I asked the damn question! Wink

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@msolga,

The Japanese Bridge Giverny
Claude Monet
http://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/a/claude-monet/japanese-bridge-giverny.html

there's so much depth, texture...intricacy. Makes my whole being involved with perceiving it.

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@dlowan,

Quote:

Ill stick to painting.

A possible one is Botticelli's Birth of Venus

Just because it's so bloody beautiful!

Please, if you can, try to tell us, Deb, why the Birth of Venus is bloody beautiful to you.

(Yes, she is beautiful, indeed, but possibly possibly I see her beauty in a different way from you. Smile

)

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@dlowan,

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@Eva,

I'll have to wait until I am on puter not iPad

I am too bekittened to type much here and I can't paste the pic

But the colours and the golden light on the flesh and I like that it's more formal and restrained re fleshly opulence and colour than a lot of Renaissance paintings and it's an early appearance by non bloody christian nudes and the ethereality and the beauty of the figures and the lovely flowers and the renaissance was a kind of spring.....and this painting is so much about the coming of freshness and beauty and such

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@Ragman,

Yes, a beautiful paining, Ragman

http://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/kunst/claude_monet/monet_jardin.jpg

But, if it's not too difficult, why is it beautiful to you?

No one here has to indulge in arty-fartsy talk here. Trust me. Smile

I guess I'd just like to hear about how particular artworks appeal to certain people.

I sometimes find it hard to express, myself. As often my response seems purely subjective, or emotive.

But I think, whatever the reason any artwork appeals to us, it's very interesting to hear our attempts to explain the appeal to others.

1 Reply

@Eva,

I'll be very interested in what you have to say (when you're ready), Eva.

Me, I'm not quite ready yet! Wink

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@msolga,

The artwork I would choose would have to be something I personally witnessed with my eyes. It would have to be a totally original work. I wouldn't take a too popular work either as it would irk me that too many people have posters of it on their own wall.

It can't be a seasonal work as I would feel I had to put it away until the appropriate season came around.

Lee Bontecou's work of sculpture:

But I might not be able to place it anywhere in my apartment.

An original Goya print in a nice frame would fit in my apartment:

Too small. Size does matter. Surprised

William Wegman's oversized Polaroids just might fit my very picky qualifications.

Great sense of humor. Has an air of classicism. Beautiful composition and color.

I'm reserving my right to change my choice at a later date.

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@msolga,

That Monet is a storm of color and scents. One can't help but be overwhelmed by the flood of smells coming from this garden. Tres belle!

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@Ragman,

Quote:

there's so much depth, texture...intricacy. Makes my whole being involved with perceiving it.

Ah, I see what you are saying now, Ragman.

Somehow I missed that last line in my reading.

Sorry.

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@tsarstepan,

LOVE that sculpture!

Is that dog a Doge?

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@dlowan,

Oh & I loved the tsar's post!
Very thoughtful.
And willing to change his mind.

Which I guess is the reality, really.
Our tastes & our preferences do change.

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@dlowan,

Lee Bontecou is one of my favorite sculptors. Seen her retrospective twice
MOMA 2010:http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1051
MOMA Queens 2004:
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/121
Her work is so alien and out there.

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I haven't yet figured out your earlier point of view on all this, msolga.

I'm not ready to pick a new piece.
I love one of my own paintings, but, so what?

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I have yet to see a painting that I would enjoy enough to look at more than once. Owning one? ...I will keep looking.

what if I see 'art' in old churches? several hundred year old castles? Any ruins for that matter? would that count Smile

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Choose just one artwork that you would love to own & live with indefinitely.

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