Who: Terry Pond
What:Belly up to the Wiener Bar
When: ?
Where: ?
Why: I’m a wiener dog nut. I’m particularly smitten with the sunbathing wiener dog girl painting in the background.
Not to mention the fact it puts Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary to shame.
Who: Hokusai
What: The Great Wave at Kanagawa
When: 1830-32
Where: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY
Why:I felt that a non-Western artist ought to be represented here, and who better than Hokusai, whose Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji is generally acknowledged as the masterwork of ukiyo-e (lit. “floating world,” scenes of daily llife) prints.
WHO Edouard Manet
WHAT A Bar at the Folles-Bergere
WHERE Sommerset House, The Strand, London
WHY When I was stressed out as a student at King’s College London, I would take time out to spend a few minutes with this young lady who’s eyes could calm the troubles of the world.
Who: Vincent van Gogh
What: Wheat Field with Crows
When: July 1890
Where: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Why:This painting is an incredible Impressionist masterpiece best viewed in person. The brushstrokes are genius, with a lot of emotion evident in the strokes. Plus it’s a bit controversial as some say it was Van Gogh’s image of suicide (although it’s not his last work).
As a second, any oil painting which survives from Da Vinci. Especially when compared to other artists of his time, his skill is amazing.
Who: Greek sculptor, 100 years BC
What: the eight feet tall Winged Victory of Samothrace. She once overlooked a Greek harbour, then spent two millenia on the seafloor and was put together fom 100 pieces of marble by a French archeolgist in 1863.
When: 100 years BC
Where: The Louvre, Paris, where she has an entire staircase to herself.
Why: I was prepared to yawn at the statue in inverted snobbery, because it is so world-famous. I couldn’t. I could only look at her, for half an hour, just feeling elated at the grace, the majesty. I felt like I could fly.
Who: Georges Seurat
What: Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte
When: 1880ish
Where: The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL USA.
Why: The look on the face of the little girl in the middle of the painting. It’s haunting. The painting is also an emotional touchstone in one of my favorite movies: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Cool topic. Like an art history tour.
Who: Dante Gabriel Rosseti
What: Proserpine http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rossetti/prosperine.jpg
When: 1874
Where: Tate Gallery, London
Why: I’m a nut for Post-Raphelite art to begin with as well as classical myth. There’s something about her eyes in this . . . sorrow and loss and self-blame. She knows she’s trapped in the Underworld and it’s her own fault for eating the pomegrante (in her hand). I have a small copy that hangs in my room and one day I want to by a good sized print as well.
Who: Hans-Werner Sahm
What: Waterfall
Why: I like all of Sahm’s stuff, but this is currently my favorite. His works take me away to fantasy worlds where light is nearly palpable and things are never quite what they seem.
So, did he eat them???
Who: Franz Xaver Winterhalter
What: Portrait of Leonilla, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn
When: 1843
Where: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Why: Every time I’ve been to the Getty, I simply can’t leave the room this painting is hanging in. I have to stop and just stare at her. Part of it is sheer technical excellence. The play of light and shadows in the folds of her dress are amazing. You half expect that you could feel the texture of the silk if you touched the painting. But mostly, it’s her face. Her expression looks half-bored, like she’s an educted, witty woman who’s slightly put-out with having to have her portrait painted. And, goddamn, if she isn’t the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Her freakin’ eyebrows are sexy.
Who: Van Eyck
What: The Betrothal of the Arnolfini
When: 1434
Where: National Gallery, London
Why: I love the lighting, the detail, the people … it makes me feel as if I really once was there (perhaps in another life?)
P.S. gum: I love Hopper and “Gas” in particular.
At the risk of starting a precedent that everyone so far has resisted, I feel compelled to submit my “other favourite”.
Who: Dali
What: Metamorphosis of Narcissus
When: 1937
Why: In addition to loving its usual Dali dream-like quality, and its stereotyped but pleasing visual double entendre, I am enthralled by this image on a much deeper level. Whenever I see it, I am simultaneously repelled and intrigued by what I will call its “visceral sexuality”. Dali seems to understand, at some fundamental and visual level, the centre of a man’s sexual being.
Who: Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904)
What: Roses and Larkspur Although this is not the same painting I saw it’s very close.
I first heard of Fantin-Latour while attending a traveling exhibit at the Speed Museum in Louisville. It was of Impressionists and I was more than bit overwhelmed at being surrounded by works of Millet, Matisse, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cassat, etc. At the back of the exhibit I stopped dead in my tracks in front of this marvelous work of flowers. It looked so simple yet so rich and vibrant. All I could do was look at it and murmur “wow” to myself. As I stood there a woman walked by, stopped suddenly, and exclaimed “Wow!” I almost laughed out loud with delight that someone else saw what I did.
The El Greco painting “Portrait of a Cardinal” is one of my favorites. When I saw it I was a teenager and I remember a placard saying that the cardinal had been an inquisitor. If that was the case, you only have to take one look at his facial expression to know why it was not a good thing to get into trouble with the Inquisition.
What a cool thread!
I don’t have a contribution yet, but if I may be allowed a brief hijack, for those viewing this under Mac OSX–hey, it could happen!–there is an underadvertised feature which can make viewing the images cooler.
Go to System Preferences->Universal Access->Seeing and Turn On Zoom.
Now you can zoom in on the images with option-command+ and zoom out with option-command- (that’s a minus on the end there).
Sorry for the hijack, but I use this all the time and it has come in especially handy with this thread.
And now, back to the art!
What: ‘Unconscious Rivals’
When: 1893
Where: Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
Why: The richness of the colors, the detail and the implicit question and backstory lurking within the image.
Even though I’m one of those “I don’t know art, but I know what I like” types:
Who: Dali
What: Persistence of memory
When: 1931
Why: Tough to say.
Who: Pierre Auguste Cot
What: Le Printemps
When: 1873
Why: I just like the expression on the girl’s face.
Andrea del Sarto, Protrait of a Young Man
In the National Gallery, London.
I first saw this painting in an art history class where the classroom was kitted out with huge rear-projection slide screens – up until that point, it had all been landscapes and Renaissance renderings of churches and Madonnas – I was absolutely riveted by this young man, because he looks a heck of a lot like my beloved oldest brother – especially the ‘What?!’ look on his face, as if his wee sister was bugging him again.
The lecturer was only flipping through a few of these paintings quickly, so I never caught the painter’s name – so I was a tiny bit surprised to be in the National Gallery 15 years later to come face to face with this painting – I had been searching for it for years any time I came across an art book.
Now every time I am at home and wish to be comforted or just feel a bit lonely, I trot down to the Gallery and have a bit of a sit with him. Sometimes I feel he knows exactly what I’m thinking. But the first time I go into the Sainsbury Wing and clap eyes on him after a long abscence, it really is like suddenly seeing an old friend again. Silly, I suppose!