Who Are Your Favorite Visual Artists?
I was recently asked by a friend who my favorite artist was. This question comes up all the time, though in the art world it is most often asked in the much more pretentious tone of, "So who do you like?" or "Who interests you?" This question is also somewhere between the two extremes of obvious and inexplicable. Similar to "what is your favorite color?" one knows exactly who the artists are that really speak to you but it is rarely just one and many usually speak just as strongly to you but maybe in different languages. Also, it is inexplicable because, inevitably, the next question is "why that artist?" Instead of a long drawn out debate/argument/discussion, I have decided to simply give you a list, in the order which I would spend the most time and effort to see these artists' work in person at this particular moment. This means that though I dearly love these artists at this precise moment, it is likely to change in the next days or weeks. I already feel myself leaning towards more contemporary artists and so, undoubtably, artists like Bosch or van der Weyden will change positions with artists like Jasper Johns, Robert Rauchenberg, or Magdalena Abakanowicz in the near future Those are my qualifying terms. HOWEVER, this post demands interaction. If I am exposing my heart to the world, I want to know who are the artists, or works of art, that make your heard pound and your eyes tear. I already know some of them, from comments and emails I have received, but I would love to know more about my readers. So please, for me, tell me your art secrets :)
1. Egon Schiele (the image at the top of the post is a collage made by another blogger of numerous different works by Schiele)
2. Mark Rothko
3. The Italian Mannerists: Rosso Fiorentino / Jacopo Pontormo / Agnolo Bronzino
4. Pablo Picasso
5. Francis Bacon
6. Caravaggio
7. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
8. Rogier van der Weyden
9. Henri Toulouse-Latrec
10. Hieronymus Bosch
Honorable Mentions:
Jasper Johns
Robert Rauchenberg
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Auguste Rodin
I hope you will take my pleas seriously and let me know who you love and who you would go to the ends of the Earth just to see a work by.
Best,
Lydia
Visual artists, eh? So any artist who worked or is working in a visual medium is up for consideration? Fine, I'll restrict my not-exactly-controversial list to five painters--though I'd really like to include filmmakers and photographers as well--whose work I've been lucky enough to see in person at least once:
ReplyDelete1. Willem de Kooning
2. Robert Rauschenberg
3. Vincent van Gogh
4. Andy Warhol (seriously)
5. Jean-Michel Basquiat
At first I thought this might be an impossible task. Similar to when asked what are my favorite movies or songs are, I immediately have to ask my inquisitor for further specifics such as genre or decade. So, according to the rules and regulations as defined by Lydia’s post, this list is, for better or worse, my selections at this time and place in my life.
ReplyDelete1. Edouard Manet
2. Fra Angelico
3. Gustave Caillebotte
4. Anselm Kiefer
5. Pollaiuolo Brothers
6. Petrus Christus
7. Giovanni Bellini
8. Emile Nolde
9. Mies van der Rohe
10. Anish Kipoor