# Must see works of art . . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2001, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045 "2001-09-27T02:28:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/41 "2001-09-28T21:57:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bashere \* > **Oh, does anyone have any architecture to add to the list?** Good point. I nominate Il Duomo, Milan Statue to Victor Emmanuel II, Rome St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright Sydney Opera House Getty Museum, LA Hoover Dam ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/42 "2001-09-28T22:03:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ianzin \* > Statue to Victor Emmanuel II, Rome The Giant Marble Typewriter? I like that, too. Big n’ scary. ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/43 "2001-09-28T22:14:38Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* \*\* > [@](#): > > The Palace of Justice in Brussels. > > [http://perso.wanadoo.fr/bruxelles/anglais/vispj.html](http://perso.wanadoo.fr/bruxelles/anglais/vispj.html) > > Big and scary. I LIKE that in a building.\*\* Oooh–it looks like the sphinx if you squint at it. And I’m cracking up over the accompanying text: “The silhouette of the Justice Palace perceives without difficulty when one is to a big distance of it.” And just what kind of events does Justice throw in a palace? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/44 "2001-09-28T22:48:33Z")
I’ll always be glad I didn’t miss out on this painting, Franz Marc’s “Blue Horses,” at the Walker in Minneapolis. [http://www.seilnacht.tuttlingen.com/Lexikon/BPferd4.JPG](http://www.seilnacht.tuttlingen.com/Lexikon/BPferd4.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![jabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/db5fbb/32.png) [@jabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/45 "2001-09-29T00:11:32Z")
Chas.E: I am sorry I am not as learned or fancy as you. See, something doesn’t have to be made in Japan 4000 years ago for me to enjoy it. I think you might enjoy ‘The Dharma Bums,’ but because it wasn’t on your list, you probably wont. Your loss. peace, JB ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/46 "2001-09-29T01:02:36Z")
quit yer bitchin’ jabe. I enjoy kerouac, I even used to work in an office that was formerly Kerouac’s old apartment in SF. His work is definitely literature, but essential? I doubt it. You present Austin Powers and Dharma Bums as your entire list of essentials? Excuse me if I don’t take your suggestions too seriously. Let’s get back to the OP. Architecture? Some good sites were listed, I’ll add: The Stone Buddhas in Afghanistan (non-extant) Fishdance Restaurant, by Frank Gehry (you ought to see the inside of this building, all I can find is an exterior shot) [http://www.pritzkerprize.com/gehry/gehrypg.htm](http://www.pritzkerprize.com/gehry/gehrypg.htm) The Eiffel Tower Church of St. Ignazio, Rome Horyuji Hey, while poking around the web, I found another cool list of “essentials.” > **[BBC - Programmes categorised as Factual: History](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/genres/factual/history)** > > Find BBC programmes categorised as "Factual: History". And for architecture, I found this: > **[ArchitectureWeek Great Buildings](http://www.greatbuildings.com)** ---
**Author:** ![annalamerino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@annalamerino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annalamerino)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/47 "2001-09-29T01:16:25Z")
Don’t bother with anything of René Magritte. (The floating people in bowler hats guy.) They look so cool as posters, and amateurish 6’ tall and close up. The brush strokes are not even throughout the work, etc. Clearly intended to be seen a prints, not as paintings. The Mona Lisa is small and hard to view. Not worth waiting for a chance to see it up close with dozens of others elbowing you. ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/48 "2001-09-29T01:33:31Z")
I can only take one of each to a desert island: **Book:** Moby Dick Religious Book: King James Bible Non-fiction: Thucydides **Music:** in DVD Audio when available Classical: Beethoven’s 9th symphony Popular: Layla and Assorted Love Songs **Sculpture:** La Pieta (the one at the Vatican, Michaelangelo. I cried. **Drama:** Romeo and Juliet **TV:** Rockford Files **Architecture** Taj Mahal **Painting** Sistine Chapel **Movie on DVD** Casablanca ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/49 "2001-09-29T02:01:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by annalamerino \* > \*\*Don’t bother with anything of René Magritte. (The floating people in bowler hats guy.) They look so cool as posters, and amateurish 6’ tall and close up. The brush strokes are not even throughout the work, etc. Clearly intended to be seen a prints, not as paintings. > > The Mona Lisa is small and hard to view. Not worth waiting for a chance to see it up close with dozens of others elbowing you. \*\* I agree. I was there and grew tired of looking over someone’s shoulder, so I turned around and found my favorite painting: The crowning of Napolean. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/50 "2001-09-29T05:26:18Z")
There’s always something you remember just after you hit ‘submit’… **Hiroshima** by John Hersey **When the Wind Blows** by Raymond Briggs **A Canticle for Liebowitz** by Walter Miller ---
**Author:** ![Wiwaxia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Wiwaxia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wiwaxia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/51 "2001-09-29T05:37:36Z")
Literature & drama: I could go on forever, but this is a selection of my personal choices: _English is not my first language, so some transcription of names, translation of titles and names of works might be erranous. Sorry for that._ **Literature:** Homer: The Illiad & The Odyssey Aeschylus: Agamemnon Sophocles: Oedipus Rex Euripides: Media Virgil: The Aenied Ovid: Metamorphoses Arabian Nights (NOT the European version, find a translation of an Arabic version) Dante: Divina commedia Chaucer: Canterbury tales (try original spelling version) Sidney: The countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia Marlowe: Tamburlaine Will Shakespeare: Richard III, Henry VI, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, The tempest Milton: Paradise lost Goethe: Faust Keats: Ode to a Grecian urn Shelley: Ode to the western wind Bronte: Wuthering heights Wilde: Salome Zola: Nana Dostoyevsky: Notes from the underground Gorky: The trilogy about his life. (The English titles should translate to something like “My childhood”, “My universities” and “Out in the world”) Solochov: Quiet Don Baudelaire: Les fleurs du mal (Should translate to “The evil flowers”) Eliot: The waste land Joyce: Ulysses (If you can’t stand it, try Portrait of the artist as a young man.) Borges: The library of Babel Mishima: The sea of fertility tetralogy (Spring snow, Runaway horses, The temple of dawn, The decay of the angel) Eco: Faucault’s pendulum **Art:** The statues from Parthenon, Acropolis Michelangelo: David Raphael: The school of Athens Rembrandt: The night watch Picasso: The girls of Avignon Marcel Duchamp: The birde stripped bare by her bachelors, etc & Nude figure II Kandinsky, Miro, Kienholtz The great spider in the entrance of Tate modern **Architecture:** The great pyramids & the valley of kings The Chinese wall Parthenon at Acropolis in Athens (most of the statues are at British Museum though, called "the Elgin marbles) Colosseum, St Peter’s cathedral & Sixtine chapel in Rome The temple mosque in Jerusalem The city of Petra in Jordania Th castle/mosque in Alhambra in Spain Taj Mahal The Mediveal castles in Central Europe and UK The Mediveal towns in Morocco and Syria Notre Dame, the Alexander garden & Chatelet les Halles in Paris The Kremlin & Vassilev cathedral in Moscow The Winter palace in St Petersburg La sagra familia in Barcelona The Macintosh house in Scotland The city of Prague, in Czech Republic The city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates Sydney Opera house (and the acoustics are great, too) **Music:** Gregorian church song The Novospassky cloister choir (regarded as best male choir in the world - unfortunately they don’t tour a lot) Bach’s Brandenburg concertos Chopin’s Nocturnes Mussorgsky’s Boris Gudonov Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto Sibelius’ Finnlandia Tchaikowsky’s Manfred symphony & 1st violin concerto Puccini’s La Traviata Shostakovitch’ 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th and 12th symphony Tibetan traditional singing (sounds like contemporary Western classical music - imagine a crossing between Lygety and Schnittke!) **Film:** Eisenstein: Potemkin Kurosawa: Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Throne of blood Kubrik: A clockwork Orange Leone: Once upon a time in Amercia Bergman: The seventh seal ---
**Author:** ![Wiwaxia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Wiwaxia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wiwaxia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045/52 "2001-09-29T09:00:07Z")
The city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan. The city celebrated it’s 2500th anniversary some 30 years ago. Alexander the Great visited the city. It has belonged to both Mongol Gengis Khan and Persian Tamurlane (The guy in Chris Marlowe’s play). It was a major trading point at the Silk route. The city is full of well preserved buildings from the 14th and 15th century. Something for you Americans 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-see-works-of-art/84045.md?page=2)