Careful...the title does not say "The fine art of sore nipples", because though I feel I am an expert on the topic, I would hardly say I have elevated it to an art form. I know I'm being annoyingly pessimistic when I attribute things like sore nipples and exhaustion to the onset of my period, but I have no faith. Why do pre-period symptoms have to be so damn similar to pre-pregnancy symptoms? You'd think that because they are virtually opposite that they wouldn't have so much common ground.
The real focus of this post is meant to give me the warm fuzzies and remind me why I have subjected myself to doing a master's degree. I am so sick of reading about art that I need to rediscover why I love it in the first place through the eyes of others. So, my challenge to you is - what work(s) of art or artists are your favourite, and why? I understand that many people have no interest in art whatsoever, but I think most would be able to come up with something/someone that has moved, inspired and/or intrigued them.
I find it extremely difficult to narrow this field down, but the first painting that comes to mind is Millais' Ophelia. A former professor berated me for daring to like the work of a group as "twee" as the Pre-Raphaelites, but hey...we like what we like. It was a major pilgrimage for me to see this painting 7 years ago on a trip to Tate Britain, and of course the bastard painting was in an exhibit in NYC at the time. You know, the NYC that was about 3 hours' drive from my house, rather than London, 4000 miles away from where I lived. Rest assured, I finally got to see it in person a few years ago and it's just as I hoped it would be.
I am endlessly intrigued by the work of Lucien Levy-Dhurmer. Particularly his haunting portrait of the Belgian Romantic poet Georges Rodenbach. I love the Symbolists.
Frida Kahlo. Always, and forever. Don't worry, I'm not a Kahloist. Crazy fuckers.
Now it's your turn. Answer me people, or else I shall quit my degree and blame you lot.
4 comments:
Music is my favorite form of art. One quote from a song that is about that very thing that always gives me chills says "his songs were more than music, they were pictures from his soul." That really captures why music (and all other art) is so important to me. Love what you do! It's so worth it.
Love art. LOVE ART.
I am actually a big fan of ancient art - Greek amphoras and kylixes, old busts and bowls, and the type of things they dug up at Sutton Hoo.
Other works that I particularly love include -
-The Carpet Merchant, in the Minneapolis Institute of Art (shout out to my hometown team).
-Bernini's The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa-Alphonse Mucha, whom I fell in love with while in Prague - and pretty much Art Nouveau in general
-and anything Gustav KlimtBut I love just about anything, actually. Art museums are some of my favorite places to be.
I too am a big fan of the Pre-Raphaelites--my first visit to the Tate was overwhelming! I really like the Levy-Dhurmer paintings you posted, though I don't think I'd heard of him before.
Other favorites: Italian Renaissance--Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, Boticelli, and of course, Raphael--the colors are incredible, luminescent. I also really like late 18th c/early 19th c. French painters, like David and Ingres--again for the colors and realism; and I have a special fondness for the Spanish painters Murillo and Zurbaran (especially his whites; they leap from the canvas!). I tend to not like much "modern" art, though I find myself intrigued by depression-era works (including the Mexican muralists), and I adore Art Nouveau.
I should totally quit my job and go back to school & study art history. V. jealous!
Heh, I found it. Since you mentioned that you are an aspiring art historian, I've been dying to find out what you're up to. I'm a former high school art teacher who really misses discussions about art. Very much looking forward to future exchanges w/you.
Oh BTW, do you know about this?
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