Big Abstract Expressionist exhibition on in London: FRIDAY NIGHT BOYS: Abstract Expressionism at The Royal Academy, London 2016 » Mark Rothko,No. 4 (Yellow, Black, Orange on Yellow/ Untitled), 1953
Interesting to me, when I first saw No. 4 (Yellow, Black, Orange on Yellow/ Untitled), it reminded me of a roll of 35mm film, and some of the abstract unintended results found there after processing.
Picasso - Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1910) Along with many others, this portrait is at the excellent Picasso Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London: FRIDAY NIGHT BOYS: Picasso Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, London - review » Another: Humorous Composition: Jaume Sabartés and Esther Williams
Karl Otto Götz - Krakmo (1958), 175 x 145 cm, mixed media, Museum Wiesbaden K.O. Götz was the professor of Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke in the early 60s and also the professor of my professor. He does his paintings within minutes (even seconds) with giant squeegees on a totally smooth surface (his canvases are primed with wallpaper paste). One of the leading figures of the "Informel" here in Europe (similar movement to the abstract expressionism on the other side of the pond) K.O. Götz - Homepage des Malers, Dichters und Wissenschaftlers Karl Otto Götz » Not my favourite painting of all time, but a very good one from ONE of my favourite artists (and there are quite a few)
People don't talk about Monet as a painter of people, but some of his stuff with people is exquisite. That sky is wonderful, so classically impressionistic.
Probably something by Kandinsky. I was fortunate to see an exhibit comprising a representative array of his work a few years ago. Seeing his work in person - many are either quite large or surprisingly small - conveys some remarkable nuances and graduations in how he used color. It's like watching jazz music 20-30 years before the birth of the cool: Wassily Kandinsky - "Composition VIII", 1923 »
You passed the test...just checking to see how knowledgable you all are. Seriously I had my doubts, but I pulled it from a search of Goya's macabre works. Not sure why it was there.
Not surprisingly, music-related. Thomas Hart Benton's "Sun Treader" 1934 Portrait of Carl Ruggles (who was a compatriot of Charles Ives, and composed music that was sort of a hybrid of Ives, and Arnold Schoenberg -- but which sounded more like Ives). The piano, by the way, is a tiny 4-foot (or even maybe 3-foot?) baby-baby grand piano, which still resides in Benton's home in Kansas City. With Benton's classic 'fish-eye lens' treatment of most of his subjects, the geometry of the piano is even further confused (visually), and it only really ever made sense to me once I saw the actual piano in person. I used to live about a mile from Benton's home and studio when I was in Kansas City in the 90's and 00's (for about 18 years). Fell in love with the painting on my very first visit to the Nelson, but only later discovered who was in the picture (Carl Ruggles) -- whose music I had independently come to love quite deeply (without having had any idea he was the one in the portrait). The title of the painting is "The Sun Treader", but I never took notice of the fine print that identified who the subject was. One of Ruggles' most important orchestral pieces is also called "The Sun Treader" -- but by the time I heard it, I'd forgotten the exact title of the painting. When I put 2 + 2 together a couple years later, it was a huge eye-opener, to put it mildly. Mini 5-minute documentary on the painting, by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (where the painting resides, and is nearly always on display)...
Yep, wow, I saw the thread title and thought about Salvador Dali and when I opened the thread... here it is. Love it! What an imagination.
The Fair Spinner. I don't know anything about it or the artist. I just came across this one day whilst searching for something else and I caught my eye. And it stayed with me.
Can't really go wrong with Gerhard Richter. To pick one from his massive body of photo-realistic works seems just impossible, let alone his abstracts. I picked two realistic paintings, that popped into my mind. First is "Chinon". Saw it in Metz, France in the Centre Pompidou (a branch of the Centre Pompidou in Paris). It's just huge and impressive. It just seems to be a another romantic landscape of Richter, but in the very far distance of the foggy horizon there's a hint or indication of the nuclear reactor in Chinon, France. Gerhard Richter - Chinon (1987), oil on canvas, 200 x 320 cm (79 x 126 in) and this one is so close to be an abstract painting, even though it's a photo-realistic one (like many of his seascapes as well)... great stuff! Small Staircase at the Seaside (1969), oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm (ca. 31½ x 39½ in)