This could well be my favorite painting of all time: Pablo Picasso - Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) MoMA Welcome to modern art!
The "Black Paintings" are unique in the sense that Goya painted these on the walls of his house where he led the life of a recluse towards the end of his life. They were never meant to be seen by the wider public. He laid bare the darkest corners of his soul and painted it on the walls. Just imagine. My favorite from the lot is the one below. It's hard to say what I find so moving in this painting. The dog seems obviously in distress. Is it drowning? Somehow trying to hold on but losing its grip? It is an immensely sad painting and it moves me again while I'm posting it here.
It’s extraordinary to think that in the 1870s the Impressionists were being slaughtered by critics for their loose brushwork and ‘unfinished’ paintings and then 30 years later there was this.
The definition of art (except for the classical definition) & of good art depends on the individual. Some people's idea of art is other people's idea of a mess.
Gosh . I’ve never seen this before. I found a very good piece on it by Tom Lubbock: Goya, Francisco de: The Dog (c1820) Lubbock was an art critic who died of a brain tumour and wrote a short book about how it felt to be slowly dying: 'Until Further Notice, I'm Alive' He said of the painting, “Either way, it is a picture about bare survival in the face of hopeless doom. Whether the danger comes from below or from above, the picture tells us there is no escape.” I can’t believe he wouldn’t have thought even more profoundly about this work after his diagnosis and facing up to his imminent death - it’s all so sad beyond words
My guess is that Picasso stirred up an equal amount of controversy with his works when he started out. It was of course only later that this particular painting was recognized as an undisputed masterpiece and one that was pivotal in opening the gates of what we now call "modern art". The uniqueness of Picasso is that he was still alive and working when he was being recognized as one of the most important artists of the 20th century.
Thanks for sharing the excellent article and the details about Mr. Lubbock's own "hopeless doom". Very sad indeed.
That's one of the more intense pictures by Kandinsky as he is generally much more playful in his imagery whether abstract or representational. It is very similar to a series of drawings he did on Last Judgment themes but those had some slight representational aspects absent in VII.
Surface abstraction, but a deeper look reveals recurring themes within his work, but not such that I can pin any definitive meaning to. It's got everything. Sex, death, rock 'n'roll. I love it.
At least one of my favorites. Don't get too close to the sun. But then again, maybe no one will notice.
Not entirely sure why it is a favorite, but I always made of point of seeing it when I went to the Whitney. Despite the subject matter, it sort of became an old friend (like the Native American in the boat at the Museum of Natural History for Holden Caufield, if I'm remembering correctly).
Here is another one of Goya's "Black Paintings", called "Saturn Devouring His Sun". Incredibly gruesome. The madness of Saturn is shocking. Just compare with how Rubens treated the same subject:
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder Oil on canvas. 73.5 by 112 centimetres. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts — Belgium in Brussels. [Long thought to be by the leading painter of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting]
The inspiration for "The Pale Man" in del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (beginning at about 3:25, though the entire clip is worth watching).
This is my favorite painting at one time. These days I am interested in American painters including Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. I try to emulate the atmosphere with my photography.
Balthus was great with atmosphere, it's almost joyfully nightmare like. Hopper is quite similar - serene nightmares. How do you try and replicate this with a camera?
I like Balthus' work, but there was a darker side to it as well as exemplified by "Girl with Cat" from 1937. I think it's a masterpiece, but I can understand that people find it morally objectionable to paint a girl becoming conscious of her sexuality:
The photo looks like an elaborate form of street photography. There are some talented documentary photographers like Alex Webb who can capture so many elements in a shot (found not staged). Wyeth scenes make great landscape photography and I also try to capture the solitude of Hopper. I have about 500 photos scanned from 20 years of work. (I am just an amateur) and will upload and organize on Flickr.
"provocative" i guess. He was obsessed with cats and legs belonging to girls. Beautiful art though, just extremely morally slanted.
it's like Rockwell is winking at us with the guy in the lower right...like he knows it is all a veneer.