# We're evacuating the planet. What 100 paintings do you insist we bring with us? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976 "2011-09-02T17:09:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/41 "2011-09-02T21:27:12Z")
Also save _Whistler’s Mother_. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/42 "2011-09-02T21:29:11Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > Also save _Whistler’s Mother_. :: recoils :: I’m not sure I’m even saving you at this point. 😉 > [@mhendo](#): > > _Guernica_ by Picasso. > > Shouldn’t even be a question about it. Which part of “Picasso was a vile hack who in a just world would have spent his entire career cleaning bathrooms” was not clear to you? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/43 "2011-09-02T21:29:24Z")
_Guernica_ by Picasso. Shouldn’t even be a question about it. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/44 "2011-09-02T21:34:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Definitely a Pollock (I’d take [Blue Poles](http://nga.gov.au/international/catalogue/Detail.cfm?IRN=36334&ViewID=2&GalID=1&MnuID=2)), as well as a pre-Bauhaus Kandinsky, probably [Composiion IV](http://languages.siuc.edu/German/ArtImages/WK-comp-4.jpg). A Rothko also must be saved. > > Why? Because I like looking at them. Yours is the first post mentioning Pollock so I will tag onto it. As I understand the scenario we’re going to be whisked (or is it quisked?) away to some other planet that most likely won’t resemble this one. Therefore any reminders of this place will probably be painful or sad. The good thing about Pollocks is that they shouldn’t remind you of _anything_. So if you insist on hauling some art along it might as well avoid the heavy emotions. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/45 "2011-09-02T21:39:27Z")
Munch’s The Scream. It screams out at you more when you’re standing in front of it. > [@carlotta](#): > > [Girl With A Pearl Earring](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Johannes_Vermeer_(1632-1675)_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_(1665).jpg/300px-Johannes_Vermeer_(1632-1675)_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_(1665).jpg) This. I know it’s a cliched painting to love, but I loved it before I ever realised it was a cliche. I also really like ‘Stop all the clocks’ in poetry, even before Four Weddings, and Barber’s Adagio for Strings (played on a piano, oddly). Those are SO commonplace but I liked them when I was still a kid brought up on pop and TV, found those and loved them. Anyway, other Vermeers are also great, but with 100 paintings only, it would be fair to restrict it to one per artist. Dali has some paintings that really benefit from perspective. Narcissus, for example, looks different if you walk up to it from the left or right or looking up and down. There’s a beautiful painting that hangs at the top of the stairs in an English stately home. It looks weird from straight-on, so it doesn’t work well in digital format, because it was designed to be seen as you walk up the stairs. My brain has done one of those things where I thought of this painting but didn’t mention it straight away, so the grumpy file clerk in my brain has put it to the back of the line, and I can’t now recall what it is. (This is what is happening when something is on the tip of your tongue.) Anyone know the one I mean? Anyway, that’d be a good one. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/46 "2011-09-02T21:42:33Z")
Damn, I was going to suggest _Sunday Afternoon_. I will nominate [Impression, Sunrise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet,_Impression,_soleil_levant,_1872.jpg) by Monet. I would be tempted to nominate [Jardin à Sainte-Adresse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet_-_Jardin_%C3%A0_Sainte-Adresse.jpg), also by Monet, but then I would be 3/3 on paintings of boats and that seems a bit unfair. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/47 "2011-09-02T21:48:48Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Yours is the first post mentioning Pollock so I will tag onto it. As I understand the scenario we’re going to be whisked (or is it quisked?) away to some other planet that most likely won’t resemble this one. Therefore any reminders of this place will probably be painful or sad. The good thing about Pollocks is that they shouldn’t remind you of _anything_. So if you insist on hauling some art along it might as well avoid the heavy emotions. Nah, it’s an Earthlike planet, down to the obliterated native cultures exterminated by a superior, ruthless, and cowardly opponent. Think America. > [@SciFiSam](#): > > I also really like ‘Stop all the clocks’ in poetry, even before Four Weddings, and Barber’s Adagio for Strings (played on a piano, oddly). Those are SO commonplace but I liked them when I was still a kid brought up on pop and TV, found those and loved them. The reason the thread is about paintings rather than literature is that great instances of the latter can be easily digitized reducing the quality of the experience, while the former cannot. Likewise there’d be no need to haul physical film reels about, but mere photos of great sculpture are only slightly better than nothing. > [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > Damn, I was going to suggest _Sunday Afternoon_. > > I will nominate [Impression, Sunrise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet,_Impression,_soleil_levant,_1872.jpg) by Monet. I would be tempted to nominate [Jardin à Sainte-Adresse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet_-_Jardin_%C3%A0_Sainte-Adresse.jpg), also by Monet, but then I would be 3/3 on paintings of boats and that seems a bit unfair. You seem to be under the misapprehension that it’s possible to be fair here. It’s not. It’s not possible to even adequately represent _European_ art history with just 100 paintings. Best to abandon fantasies of justice and just bring along works of profound beauty. Have I spit on Pollock yet in this thread? Oh hell, I don’t care. I’m going to do it again anyway. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/48 "2011-09-02T21:55:57Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > The reason the thread is about paintings rather than literature is that great instances of the latter can be easily digitized reducing the quality of the experience, while the former cannot. Likewise there’d be no need to haul physical film reels about, but mere photos of great sculpture are only slightly better than nothing. Oh no, I get that. I was just rambling about my embarrassing preference for works which I later discovered were cliched works to like. ---
**Author:** ![WILDJC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cdc98d/32.png) [@WILDJC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILDJC)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/49 "2011-09-02T21:56:52Z")
“What Me Worry”? The entire collection of MAD magazines. Great illustrations. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/50 "2011-09-02T21:57:44Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Oh no, I get that. I was just rambling about my embarrassing preference for works which I later discovered were cliched works to like. Don’t be embarrassed. If you are not moved by Auden’s “Stop All the Clocks” (which I gather you were introduced to by “Four Weddings & a Funeral,” yes?) there is something wrong with you and you should see a doctor. Or get a soul implanted. Possibly both. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/51 "2011-09-02T22:10:28Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Don’t be embarrassed. If you are not moved by Auden’s “Stop All the Clocks” (which I gather you were introduced to by “Four Weddings & a Funeral,” yes?) there is something wrong with you and you should see a doctor. Or get a soul implanted. Possibly both. No, I’d read it before Four Weddings, but after Four Weddings everyone else loved it too. Which was great in a way, but it meant I could never introduce them to this amazing simple but effective poem and awe them by knowing about poetry despite being a teenage Essex chav. It just seemed like I’d watched Four Weddings and thought ‘huh, that’s poetry, innit?’. The Stop All the Clocks scene in that film was filmed in my hometown, approx. 3 minutes walk from where I lived, and one of my friends was an extra on scene long enough that I had to hold back from pointing her out in the cinema. This did not make up for my knowledge suddenly being commonplace. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/52 "2011-09-02T22:24:11Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Which part of “Picasso was a vile hack who in a just world would have spent his entire career cleaning bathrooms” was not clear to you? If you don’t think _Guernica_ is worthy then I seriously doubt you would pass your own drug test. ---
**Author:** ![QuanSu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c37758/32.png) [@QuanSu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuanSu)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/53 "2011-09-02T22:28:26Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > You do know that Bougereau was considered tacky even in his own time, right? No, I did not know that; I know that some did not like his style and his opposition to the Impressionists. But still, to me, those two paintings are just too beautiful to be left behind (especially the expression on the face of the girl in “Broken Pitcher”.) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/54 "2011-09-02T22:35:55Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > If you don’t think _Guernica_ is worthy then I seriously doubt you would pass your own drug test. Commie. 😉 Okay, bring it. But I’m not going to look at it and will still spit at the mention of Pablo Picasso. That’s the kind of small-minded, traditionalist jerk I am. ---
**Author:** ![QuanSu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c37758/32.png) [@QuanSu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuanSu)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/55 "2011-09-02T22:38:16Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Why, in the name of Athena and her seven victims, wouldn’t the depiction of Bathsheba below be your first choice? > > [Not safe for work if you work for prudes.](http://public-domain-photos.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Jean-Leon-Gerome-Bathsheba-1889.jpg) I am fascinated by the blue color of the wall (and the variation and details) that he used to paint the wall in that painting, and not much of the models. If you visit SF, swing by and see it at Legion of Honor Museum and you’ll understand. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/56 "2011-09-02T22:42:26Z")
> [@QuanSu](#): > > I am fascinated by the blue color of the wall (and the variation and details) that he used to paint the wall in that painting, and not much of the models. If you visit SF, swing by and see it at Legion of Honor Museum and you’ll understand. I’ve seen it. And I’m not putting down _The Bath_. It’s Gerome, after all. I just like _Bathsheba_ better. In the most literal sense I should like the slave auctions paintings best of all, but the subject matter makes me a little ambivalent. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/57 "2011-09-02T22:46:07Z")
[“The Gross Clinic,”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EakinsTheGrossClinic.jpg) by Thomas Eakins [“Still life with apples,”](http://cache2.artprintimages.com/p/LRG/21/2131/PULED00Z/art-print/paul-c%C3%A9zanne-still-life-with-apples-1893-94.jpg) by Cezanne. [“The Artist and His Mother,”](http://whitney.org/Collection/ArshileGorky/5017) by Arshile Gorky ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/58 "2011-09-02T22:56:35Z")
[Treachery of Images](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/MagrittePipe.jpg) by Rene Magritte [Drowning Girl](http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/453/w500h420/CRI_151453.jpg) by Roy Lichtenstein ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/59 "2011-09-02T23:16:09Z")
Simon Schama created a documentary called “[The Power of Art](http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/powerofart/)” which was subtitled “8 pieces of Art that changed the world.” It includes powerful arguments as to why the following should be included: (Some have already been mentioned.) They were: Caravaggio – [David with the Head of Goliath](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_-_David_con_la_testa_di_Golia.jpg) Rembrandt – [The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bataafseeed.jpg) David – [The Death of Marat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Death_of_Marat_by_David.jpg) Turner – [The Slave Ship](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Slave-ship.jpg) Van Gogh – [Wheatfield with Crows](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Vincent_Van_Gogh.jpg) Picasso – [Guernica](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PicassoGuernica.jpg) Rothko – [Black on Maroon](http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=12965&tabview=image) (I know, that’s only 7, the 8th was Bernini’s [Ecstasy of Saint Theresa](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Estasi_di_Santa_Teresa.jpg) which is a sculpture, not a painting.) ---
**Author:** ![Biffer\_Spice\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@Biffer\_Spice\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffer_Spice_1)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976/60 "2011-09-02T23:21:05Z")
while nobody here will take it seriously, i include fabian perez, as my favourite artist 🙂 [http://www.arthouse-gallery.co.uk/WebRoot/BT3/Shops/BT2657/49E5/B5DB/AB51/489E/9242/0A0A/33D4/6522/man\_lighting\_a\_cigarette\_ll\_20x16\_750.jpg](http://www.arthouse-gallery.co.uk/WebRoot/BT3/Shops/BT2657/49E5/B5DB/AB51/489E/9242/0A0A/33D4/6522/man_lighting_a_cigarette_ll_20x16_750.jpg) [http://www.demontfortfineart.co.uk/images/products/whitewall/product7773\_main.jpg](http://www.demontfortfineart.co.uk/images/products/whitewall/product7773_main.jpg) [http://www.paintinghere.com/UploadPic/Fabian%20Perez/big/Tango%20in%20Paris.jpg](http://www.paintinghere.com/UploadPic/Fabian%20Perez/big/Tango%20in%20Paris.jpg) [http://files.myopera.com/dashafide/albums/7141372/fabian-perez-04.jpg](http://files.myopera.com/dashafide/albums/7141372/fabian-perez-04.jpg) [![](http://www.bohemia-galleries.com/Art/Fabian%20Perez/New08/product7346_main.jpg) ](http://www.bohemia-galleries.com/Art/Fabian%20Perez/New08/product7346_main.jpg) [http://www.ppgallery.com/templates/images/works/2811.jpg](http://www.ppgallery.com/templates/images/works/2811.jpg) [![](http://www.art.net.au/imagesart/ManinBalckSuitIII.jpg) ](http://www.art.net.au/imagesart/ManinBalckSuitIII.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-evacuating-the-planet-what-100-paintings-do-you-insist-we-bring-with-us/594976.md?page=4)