I'm sure this thread will die soon, but now that I know some of you enjoy art as well I figured i'd post. and I got sort of carried away with myself.

Personally, my favorite artist, the one who will never cease to amaze me, is Robert Rauschenberg. He is an absolutely beautiful man, and I adore his work. His combines (especially Monogram 1955) are incredibly inspiring. Though it doesn't show in my work, he does serve as my main inspiration, mainly for his use of a wide spectrum of colors and combination of various materials to make a cohesive piece. What I truly love about Rauschenberg is that he had the balls to create art to reflect himself. Not art that is visually beautiful, but art that expresses his true emotions. That's the art I love. I cannot appreciate art that is created for somebody else. I can appreciate technique, and I can think it's beautiful, however it doesn't hold my attention or strike me in any fashion.

Also, while some might say Basquiat's art is childish, (I haven't heard this too much but it has been said before) I think it is absolutely beautiful. He boldly represented what African Americans endured throughout their history of racial degradation. Honestly, his pieces don't showcase any artistic talent along the likes of Da Vinci (you can't even begin to compare the two, obviously)or classical rennaissance artists such as he, yet Basquiat still understood how to create an aesthetically pleasing abstraction of images.

Other artists I like are Cy Twombly, Jenny Saville, Chris Ofili (controversial, in the Saatchi Gallery for placing pornographic images and elephant shit on a piece of the African Virgin Mary) Jasper Johns (pretty much because he had a long term relationship with Rauschenberg) Francis Bacon.. etc. Speaking of Bacon, I love his peices of the pope surrounded by slabs of meat, while sitting in an electric chair. They're really disturbing. Oh god, and also Thomas Eakins. I love his piece "Gross Clinic". It's beautifully crafted.


This is the end of my post, I swear.

Actually, speaking of the Saatchi Gallery.. Spencer Tunick had photos featured in this gallery. Did anyone else see "Naked States".. I think that's what it was called, but it was a documentary on HBO about a photographer who created large scale abstractions in his photographs featuring the human form. His photographs are really amazing. God theyre really disturbing. I love it.

Link: http://www.i-20.com/artist.php?artist_id=19&page=images


Monogram 1955 image: http://arthistory.westvalley.edu/images ... NOGRAM.JPG

THIS is the end.

I'm not real frou-frou about art, but Francis Bacon is some damn entertaining shit.

Ralph Steadman always amuses me as well.

yeah Ralph Steadman is wonderful. One of my good friends really enjoys his work. That's how I came to know of his pieces.

He did illustrations for Frank Zappa cover(s) and Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas (the book.. with the illustrations. makes sense). He's quite interesting from what i've seen.

I'll buy about anything with his work on it, including a bottle of wine. And I hate wine.

I got a copy of Rolling Stone from 1974 a couple weeks ago full of his illustrations with HST's cover story on Watergate.

George Rodrigue is cool, too.

Art sucks.

Oh, I just remembered.. Nam Jun Paik is really cool. He does these large installations with televisions.

http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~hash/favorites/ ... npaik.jpeg

also, I saw this guy named Douglas Gordon's exhibition at the Hirshhorn two years ago. Really wonderful. I'm not sure of how his pieces would work individually, but when he had the entire floor dedicated to his work, each individual photograph and film worked as a cohesive piece. It was really moving.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/graphic ... gord22.jpg

how do I post pictures? I need to learn so you all don't have to click links.

Shut up. You have to support what i'm passionate about. If you don't then youre an asshole.

Use the big img button, tard.

And art doesn't suck. But it doesn't interest me.

i'm not a tard, dick.

That's the same guy who for a long time had the flag setup with televisions on the second or third floor of the Hirshorn, up by the bust of Elvis in the admiral get-up, right?

If not, go easy, I haven't been down there in probably 5 years.

i'm 99% positive that was him. I checked for it this past winter when I went back, but it wasn't there. but you're right, i'm pretty sure that was him. That was a really awesome piece.

I like abstract. Rothko's colorfield paintings amaze me, so simple and yet so beautiful. I also see mathematical beauty in Pollack's work. So random and yet there are patterns there. I'm also fascinated with Josef Alber's color work. He may have simply been playing with colors against other colors, but there's an important statement about humanity in work like that.

Sort of off the subject: If anyone's not seen it, Andy Goldsworthy's nature sculptures completely blew my mind when I saw Rivers and Tides. The man has such an amazing sense of calm about him. Watching his stick-web sculpture disintegrate in the wind while he worked on it, I could feel how pissed off I'd be and it wasn't even mine. He just sighed, sat a moment, and went right back to work. That, to me, is what art should be about - not posturing and making statements, but simply doing what you're driven to do. I graduated from an art program and I never felt like I fit in - I don't particularly consider myself an artist, but I'd love to, but I knew I certainly wasn't like most of the art students. When I saw Rivers and Tides, I realized why - art was a pose for most of the people I went to class with. It's people like Goldsworthy who really live art. You just don't see that kind of person very often. I sure wish I could be one of those people.

God I completely agree. Art is not merely a practice or a hobby, to me it is who a person is.. That was a wonderful post. You put everything in perfect perspective. I think art, even if you are making a statement, is still defining who a person is. I don't know how to word that... but, in all actuality art really is made to make a statement.. about your emotions or state of mind or political perspective or anything. While we are doing what we're driven to do, we're naturally making a statement about something if our art is driven from our passion. That's why I hate pretty art, art made for visual pleasure. Theres nothing special about it. Anyways, about Goldsworthy, though I have no idea of what his statement is, he's obviously making one in his own way. Just like every other serious artist.

That's how I see it, atleast. Even if you don't intend to make some statement, it's unintentional. It just happens, because whether you see something or not, the viewer always has their own way of perceiving the piece they see.

Also, I love Pollock too. He was brilliant. Most people don't get him.. and it makes me angry. But what can you do?

I like Dave McKean. :bow:

I could spend many days at the Tate Modern. Nice selection of stuff by Rothko, Pollack, Warhol, et al. Another personal favorite of mine is Lichtenstein. Went to a "Manet & the Sea" exhibit with Haq, katie + friend, and my cousin a few Decembers ago. That was pretty neat.

That sounds really awesome. Richmonds museum is okay. They have a disappointing piece by Rauschenberg.. Which is what I was really looking forward to the first time I went. It's not bad though. I would take the National Gallery and the Hirshhorn from DC over the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts any day, though.

The National Gallery has this amazing Rauschenberg piece that I was incredibly enamored by when I visited this past winter. That was one of the best moments i've ever had, when I was looking at that piece.
I guess that sounds pathetic. But I don't think so. It was just an incredible moment, because I felt really close to the artist when I was looking at his piece.

Rothko is an interesting artist, and I really appreciate his concepts, but the art itself is nothing I would be in awe over. He's obviously a brilliant man but for different reasons than most artists. He's like Pollock with his action paintings; to me it's about the process and the product and experimentation with colors/the mathematics of the art rather than expressing any emotion with the piece. While the two of them are complete opposites I hope you understand what I was trying to say.

Another artist I love is Michael Bowen. He was a member of the LA art scene in the early 1950's. He was affiliated with Miles Davis, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alan Watts, Ed Keinholz, Janis Joplin, and Bob Kaufman all at random points in his life. His work is interesting.
Here is a piece of his:

[img][621:504]http://www.beatmuseum.org/Bowen/all%20crossed%20up.jpg[/img]

There's a psychological aspect to Edward Hopper's work that has always drawn me in. And not just "Nighthawks At the Diner", either (although I do love that painting, iconic as it has become).

There is always an element of loneliness, of mystery. Every painting tells a story (don't it?). And I can listen for hours.

I have a copy of "Nighthawks" in my room. I enjoy Hoppers work as well. Beautiful stuff.

Another artist I meant to mention was Cai Guo-Qiang. The media he uses is gun powder on large sheets of paper. He strategically places the powder around the paper and sets it on fire and what is left of the paper becomes his piece. It's really interesting, because he didn't create these large scale randomly burned sheets of paper, he created images where the gunpowder was set. For example, .
Thats a piece representing the eiffel tower. He also did large scale assemblages and sculptures, and used fireworks to portray his ideas. He is a very strange but very innovative man. His gallery at the Hirshhorn was definitely a lot more exciting than Isamu Noguchi's exhibition that took up the entire floor last winter.
Personally, abstracted metal sculptures really don't move me.
They take a talented man to make them but.. it's just not what interests me.

i subscribe to the lowbrow juxtapoz world of art. ai yamaguchi, biskup, english, deth p. sun, etc...

and of course rosenquist:
[img][392:500]http://www.guyhepner.com/rosenquist/f1-111.jpg[/img]

very nice

I'm posting a link for this. It's a Jenny Saville piece, and if anyone else is familiar with her work, she deals with the human form, sort of representing it as a gigantic land mass in some pieces such as this one, http://www.edicioneslitoral.com/234/234 ... aville.JPG . In this piece a woman is featured laying down covering half of her breasts with her arm, and closer to the viewer is her very hairy crotch. Haha, I decided to just post the link because while it is art, I don't know how touchy some people are about the "NSFW" shit.

She's a very wonderful painter, and these paintings are incredibly large.
Example: http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/a ... _photo.jpg

Miro blows me away with how he can be both playfull and serious. his colors are beautiful. I also love that he created a language all his own out of simple lines and shapes.

Kandinsky has an amazing amount of range, and also created a langauge with just lines and shapes, but a very different one from miro.

both of them have an amazing amount of work. every time i look at a book by them i see paintings i've never seen before.

i could have written this myself. rauschenberg is an old time favorite of mine. MassMOCA (mus. of cont. art) in the berkshires has a piece of his that is 1/4 of a mile long. the museum is a series of old converted mills and can accommodate a piece that size. it's pretty wonderful.

jenny saville has been a true inspiration and art hero of mine for several years. most of the large figure paintins were done as her final "thesis" (i don't know what it's called in england) and everything in her show was snapped up by saatchi. they're exquisite. i had the chance to see one in person ay a yba show at yale. i could not take my eyes off of it. i drove to new haven 3 times just to see that painting.

cy twombly and jim dine have been inspirational in terms of their drawing or rather mark making.

modigliani's women are fabulous. i love the colors he uses for their flesh.

a current favorite of mine is yang shoaobin. i'll find a painting to post in a bit.

cai guo-qiang's work is

I'm down with Rauschenberg, cemetarypolka. Art, like photography is something that I have always wanted to know more about, but never really taken the time to study.

My favorite artist is Tim Gassler (not famous yet) hopefully we can get Bloor in here to post some pics of his stuff.

And if you like Steadman/Thompson, do whatever you can to get your hands on The Curse of Lono.