Art is in the eye of the beholder, right? It's a mix. Some of those paintings are from the time and in the style of the great Renaissance painters so they surely qualify. Others, far more recent and quite a bit more questionable by most standards. But the painting I alluded to at the Tang was legitimate art, no doubt about it.
It was just a joke, but thanks for the serious answer, which I agree with completely. Anyone see Mary Beard’s Shock of the Nude this evening, on BBC4? It has been on before, but it’s always a pleasure to see Beard’s feminist, balanced, but cheeky take on the world of classical art and beyond.
I’d like to see that piss painting. Shock art has become its own genre remember the photographer Serrano with Piss Christ?
I'd rather we move away from the subject and stick to the thread's title "Favorite Painting Of All Time". For example, is anybody here into the work of Anselm Kiefer? In my view he is perhaps the greatest living artist (painter, sculptor). His work is infused with German's history, in particular the Nazi period. I am particularly fond of his landscapes. These are often works of enormous size in which he uses not just paint, but also straw, earth and other materials. His landscapes are fairly abstract, but still recognizable as landscapes. They're mostly not "nice" landscapes though. They often remind me of warzones and death. You can really get lost in them, contemplating history, war and the horrors of totalitarianism and, ultimately, the holocaust. A few examples:
i went to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam years ago. Wow! Intense experience. After two hours there you will know what the term “boggles the mind” feels like.
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Some pleasant paintings there smilin Ed , reminded me of this vid by a local musician I used to see 20 years ago (not a pleasant video).
Kiefer's work is flat out brilliant, no question. Against all odds (seemingly) our local museum/gallery (Albright Knox) acquired his (then) recent masterwork Der Morgenthau Plan. That title refers to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau who, and which, proposed in 1944 to de-industrialize Germany in the wake of WW2 as a way to "assure" that the country would never again be able to wage war on the continent. (Franklin Roosevelt was not persuaded.) The AK mounted a major Kiefer Exhibition for the coming-out party of DMP. der Morgenthau Plan | Albright-Knox I've gone to observe the painting on several occasions. Endlessly fascinating and profound! There are some notable technical aspects of the piece. In places the paint is 1.5" thick, if not more, and applied in extremely ragged chunks. Additionally, the piece is made up of the three separate panels the separations between which are visible, but remain incredibly intertwined (so to speak). I've spoken with staff who have reported the degree of delicacy and patience required to assemble and disassemble the piece whenever required. Many, many hours of labor by multiples of personnel. The AK also has Die Milchstrasse. Die Milchstrasse (The Milky Way) | Albright-Knox (And yes, Der Morgenthau Plan is one of my favorite works of art. )
People interested in Anselm Kiefer might find the film by Sophie Fiennes "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow" worthwhile. It's a bit slow but manages to capture essences of Kiefer. It follows the artist and his team in a monumental project involving earthmoving and placement of large heavy component parts that is "All Kiefer". Available on DVD.
Wouldn’t you like to walk amongst Monet’s wheatstacks at the various times of day and seasons he captured?
Joint favourites are Boticelli's 'Birth of Venus' and Klimt's 'The Kiss'. Not far behind are illustrations by the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha. Arguably Mucha's greatest works are in the Slav Epic - a series of 20 paintings, with 9 of them almost 20 feet high/tall. All Art Nouveau style.