osso i love the steaming streets one.
Osso, When I was a child, that Ucello was my favorite painting for YEARS. Haven't thought about it in a while. The colors. Incredibly satisfactory.
art
Vivien and C.I., I would not worry too much about Renoir's character when evaluating his art. At least in principle, the two may be kept apart. The poetic aspect, i.e., the feelings he expresses about women, IS spoiled by knowledge of his sexist attitudes (assuming they fall beyond the range of normality for his time), but the aesthetics of his work may remain inviolate in this regard. I have never been particularly impressed by Renoir. Some of his compositions I like but generally the work gives me a sugar fit. We once discussed somewhere else the connection between Wagner's anti-semitism (the man was a pig) and his music (which is clearly devine). I remember arguing that if we condemn his music because of his worldview, we must accept the argument that, if a bad man cannot create good art, then a good man cannot create bad art. I rest my case.
art
I read comments about Gauguin and Caravagio after my post about Wagner, but I see we are in general agreement.
Farmerman. Yes Church's Niagara is clearly a MASTERPIECE1
JLN, Thanks for you considered opinion. It makes a lot of sense. c.i.
Vivian -- I would rather think of it as "from Titian to Jasper Johns" (as I consider Jasper Johns still the more pioneering of the post Abstract Expressionist.)
However, any pantheon of the greatest art would, of necessity, have to contain a work of light streaming through the woodland . A work by Thomas Kinkaid.
good point!
but i was thinking (and not explaining!) about the contrast from a Titian with all the folds in the lush silk and velvet and then de Koonings mutilation of women!!!!
HEEEY, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BARF EMOTICON?
To clarify my choices:
1. A Willem DeKooning, for his mastery of the large gestural brush stroke, his color balance and depth of composition.
2. A Franz Kline, of course for his courage in producing blank-and-white (although nuances of black, of course) images of great power and tension.
3. A Vasarely, for his utilitzation of scientific structures of color, producing images of sublime geometric impact.
4. A Caneletto, as I melt in front of any of his canvases at his rich, warm chroma and uncanny semblance of depth. Not even Paris has ever been painted with such loving care.
5. An Ensor, for the impact of the imagery -- savage and yet subtly provocative --always leaves me wondering just what was in his mind!
6. A Renoir, for the incredible range of juxtaposed colors that invigorate the soul.
7. A Monet, for his textural surfaces that shimmer and glow with an inner light.
8. A Titian portrait, for opening a door into each of his subject's psyche -- I can't look at one in person without looking into the eyes of the subject and seemingly being reading their minds.
9. A Jasper Johns, for opening up a world of art being found anywhere, in anything but without the intellectual trickery of Duchamp. His handling of color is profound -- always evoking a mood that is in character with the image.
10. A Rauschenburg, for his astute sensibilities on what the eye sees and how it is processed. Does a goat, for instance, just exist or is it a being in harmony with the universe?
art
Vivien, I like the theory (which lets Sickert off the hook) that Jack the Ripper was a back-alley abortionist who mutiliated his failures to cover up the fact that they died in dirty abortion attempts (this supports the argument of NARAL), if it's true.
Lucien Freud is a masterful drawer, but I do not enjoy a close up look at real people's dermatological problems--unless, of course, I'm previously aroused. The problem with Sigmond Freud is that he was a (well documented) gross plagerist, never havng given due (nay ANY) credit to Nietzsche whose seminal mind conjured the most basic ideas upon which Siggy built his system. Neitzsche, in turn, got some of his insights from Dostoyevski and never failed to give him credit for them.
Anything by Ivan Albright -- with "That which I should have done I did not do" right at the top of the list, with "The Farmer's Kitchen" running a close second on my favorites list. "Into the world there came a soul called Ida" and "God created man in his own image" are not jokes. I see them as sensitive and honest images most of us, including me, would see reflected in our mirrors on our honest days. I never go to Chicago without visiting them at the Art Institute.
There are five paintings by Jan Miense Molenaer at the Mauritshuis in The Hague grouped together as "The Five Senses". Pure joy!
That's nine. And I will now break the rules and include a statue. It is Donatello's "Maddalena" in the Firenze Museo Dell'Opera del Duomo. If it is ever missing my place would be a good bet to start looking for it.
I like Freud. Not lecherous, kind of anti-lecherous. All the imperfections made plain.
art
Farmerman, I'm glad we don't have a barf emoticon, I wanted to keep my barf episode--caused by your Kincaid comment--out of sight. I don't know why I'm confessing it now. Life is complex.
there is a wonderful Titian, i think in the Courtauld Institute in London, LW that really catches what you say about Titian.
It is a young man with his elbow coming out the picture at you in a quilted silk sleeve - it is incredibly relaxed and 3 dimensional and the man has so much personality. I just tried to find it on their site but couldn't.
Yes, farmerman couldn't have missed my pact not to mention that name again (I've violated it once already) -- and life is complex when you're not having fun.
what did farmer want to barf at anyway????
art
I am having such a problem choosing my ten, as if I were being tested. But I'll manage with time. LW, when I read your list I misread "Titian portrait" for "Tibetan portrait". I wondered, in my delusional state, if the subject of the portrait would be disappointed that in your attempts to read his mind you did not draw a blank.
that is just the way Renoir affects me - i know they are good but so sweet.