Art

[wishfulthinking]

Does anyone have a favourite piece of art? Be it painting, peom, building, poster, photo, drawing...

Mine is The Kiss by Rodin. The reason I love it is because from each angle the sculpture changes form. From one vantage point it appears chaste, then from another intensely passionate. Almost as though you watch the kiss deepen and the couple's embrace tighten as you slowly circle it.

And when I put it like that, it seems strangely voyeristic!

Anyone else care to share?

 

[impressive]

The lyrics to "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera just blow me away.

Use substitute "sex" for "music" and it's the most seductive song EVER:

Night time sharpens
Heightens each sensation
Darkness wakes
And stirs imagination
Silently the senses
Abandon their defenses
Helpless to resist the notes I write
For I compose the music of the night

Slowly, gently
Night unfurls its splendor
Grasp it, sense it
Tremulous and tender
Hearing is believing
Music is deceiving
Hard as lightning, soft as candlelight
Dare you trust the music of the night

Close your eyes for your eyes will only tell the truth
And the truth isn't what you want to see
In the dark it is easy to pretend
That the truth is what it ought to be

Softly, deftly
Music shall caress you
Hear it, feel it
Secretly possess you
Open up your mind
Let your fantasies unwind
In this darkness which you know you cannot fight
The darkness of the music of the night

Close your eyes, start a journey to a strange new world
Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before
Close your eyes and let music set you free
Only then can you belong to me

Floating, falling
Sweet intoxication
Touch me, trust me
Savor each sensation
Let the dream begin
Let your darker side give in
To the power of the music that I write
The power of the music of the night

You alone can make my song take flight
Help me make the music of the night

Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: Charles Hart
Additional Lyrics: Richard Stillgoe
Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Church on the Water, in Hokkaido, Japan, designed by Tadao Ando in 1981.

I could write a book on why, but I'll just post a few photos instead.

http://cat2.mit.edu/arc/gallery/4203_final/gal_altsai/gifs/analytique.gif

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/ando/Ando_Exhibition/Photo-1.jpg   http://www.clarkart.edu/ewebeditpro/web_images/ando_slide_06_large.jpg

http://www.clarkart.edu/ewebeditpro/web_images/ando_slide_05_large.jpg   http://www.fashionfinds.com/july/images/crystal_siemens/cs21.jpg

And my favourite view:

http://www.arcspace.com/news/books/ando_works/photo-3.jpg

"Covered in snow from December to April, the area becomes a beautiful white expanse of land. Water has been diverted from a nearby river, and a man-mane pond 90x45 meters has been created. The depth of the pond was carefully set so that the surface of the water would be subtlu affected by the wind, and even a slight breeze would cause ripples." -- Tadao Ando

 

[minsue]

Too many to choose from. There's a bronze by Degas of a woman in a bathtub that I fell in love with a few months ago. So far, I'm not finding any pics of it, though.

 

[minsue]

I did find this one. I never cared for it in the photos I had seen and I always wondered what the big deal was. Once it was before me, I was entranced. I still can't express what the big deal is, but I circled this over and over slowly until other guests of the museum started to look at my like I was odd.

Edited to add: OK, that pic didn't save right at all. Here's a link to a different one...http://www.d-art.de/eng/images/pic_ballerina_seite.jpg

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don’t have any “favorites”, meaning things I like better than everything else, but there’s a lot of stuff I like a lot. JMW Turner’s watercolors amaze me, (http://www.j-m-w-turner.co.uk/) and Albert Pinkham Ryder, a self-taught American artist (check out “The Race Track: Death on a Pale Horse”: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/ftptoc/ryder_ext.html ). Ryder was pretty much insane, and used to work on paintings for years if not decades and never finish them. He slapped the paint on so thick that now all his paintings are cracking and deteriorating. He was even known to come to the house of someone who’d bought one of his works and touch it up where it hung on the wall.

There’s another relatively unknown American artist by the name of Charles Burchfield who painted landscapes and homey rural scenes just dripping with mystical energy and force. He was a friend of Edward Hopper’s, but whereas Hopper’s paintings were elegies to alienation, Burchfield’s pictures are filled with this kind of spooky spiritual energy. I can’t find a link to his best stuff, but here’s a taste: http://www.artnet.com/artist/659970/Charles_Ephraim_Burchfield.html
Burchfield worked hard trying to capture the sounds of nature in his paintings. In his summer paintings you can see the sounds of crickets and cicadas as a kind of spiky cloud coming from the woods. It works for me.

In poetry, I’m very partial to Coleridge, as is obvious, and I still think that Kublai Khan has some of the nicest mouth-feel you’ll ever find in a poem, especially the opening stanza.

---dr.M.

 

[minsue]

Too many to choose from. There's a bronze by Degas of a woman in a bathtub that I fell in love with a few months ago. So far, I'm not finding any pics of it, though.

Ah, found it

My morning is complete now.

 

[cloudy]

My favorite is one I have hanging in my house. Don't have any pictures of it, sorry, but it was done specifically for me by a friend who is an artist.

here's another of his works:

oops - didn't work.....will try again

edited to add: it won't work

 

[Boota]

If I were to name a favorite piece of art, by the time I hit the 'submit reply' button I would have thought of another one.

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

 

[CharleyH]

I cannot say I have a "favourite" fine art piece. It has always been my view that art is evolutionary, or revolutionary as the case may be.

As revolutionary, my definition being tied to comments about culture, I appreciate 20th century, or slightly pre: Art Nouveau, Expressionism, Dadaism, Pop, Environmental and the Post Modern, across multiple arts (lol), has always been a draw.

As evolutionary what I love today was influenced by someone else, who was influenced by another before and another before that - throughout time, and so influences abound in all art, in which case I consider myself an appreciator of all art from pre-history to the present day.

 

[Guest]

Frankly, I am a work of art myself, to be honest.

 

[impressive]

Frankly, I am a work of art myself, to be honest.

And humble, too.

(I can relate.)

 

[CharleyH]

Frankly, I am a work of art myself, to be honest.

Damn - I should have guessed it. That was you in the caves of Lascaux!

 

[Guest]

 

[CharleyH]

all well and good...
But to ME...fine art has to tell a story...communicate something. If it does not..it fails. To me, the finest Art is Illustration (i speaking of visual..vs..dance, music..etc...)...well crafted illustration. Now there IS artistry and craftmanship in all fields...but i am limiting my commentary here to 2D..drawing, painting, printmaking, CG and the like.

I would call many paintings in galleries or museums "illustration" regardless of wether the have been in print or accompanied a story or article. An art work Can illustrate without words (as well as with). Conversely, many "illustrations" (in print) I would call "Art"...even "Fine Art".

I agree, all art speaks, tells a story of the time and the culture whether by symbol, which is my biggest thing, or by narrative in the scene itself. Semiotics is not limited to being non-narrative and every art piece speaks by the language of its medium: tone, medium, stroke, line etc. the list is long. What kind of story are you talking about? Just interested, since this is an art thread.

I limited myself to fine arts (a MFA in Toronto, limited to painting, sculpture, charcoal etc) I could go into many others. Bob Fosse, for example, my dream of a choreographer, film arts, dramatic arts, literature, photographic, architectural, multi-media, advertising, illustration among these is an art unto itself, which is why I keep it seperate from the limited scope of "fine arts."

 

[Guest]

And humble, too.

(I can relate.)

Would that I could means, most lovely and high-born lady, with which I could repay the singular favour you have done me in displaying your great beauty. But Fortune, which is never weary of persecuting good men, has laid me on this bed, so bruised and battered that even if I wished to satisfy your desires I could not. And besides that impediment there is another and greater, the pledge of faith I have given to the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso, sole mistress of my most secret thoughts. But were I not prevented in this way, I should not be so simple a knight as to let pass the happy chance you have deigned to offer me.

 

[impressive]

Would that I could means, most lovely and high-born lady, with which I could repay the singular favour you have done me in displaying your great beauty. But Fortune, which is never weary of persecuting good men, has laid me on this bed, so bruised and battered that even if I wished to satisfy your desires I could not. And besides that impediment there is another and greater, the pledge of faith I have given to the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso, sole mistress of my most secret thoughts. But were I not prevented in this way, I should not be so simple a knight as to let pass the happy chance you have deigned to offer me.

*sings*
Hear me now, Oh thou bleak and unbearable world. Thou art base and debauched as can be ...

 

[CharleyH]

Would that I could means, most lovely and high-born lady, with which I could repay the singular favour you have done me in displaying your great beauty. But Fortune, which is never weary of persecuting good men, has laid me on this bed, so bruised and battered that even if I wished to satisfy your desires I could not. And besides that impediment there is another and greater, the pledge of faith I have given to the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso, sole mistress of my most secret thoughts. But were I not prevented in this way, I should not be so simple a knight as to let pass the happy chance you have deigned to offer me.

LOL SEE - it speaks, sort of?

 

[Guest]

 

[McKenna]

Does anyone have a favourite piece of art? Be it painting, peom, building, poster, photo, drawing...

Wishful, I don't really have a FAVORITE piece of art; I know what I like when I see it, and that's about the only way I know how to explain it.

I do try to educate myself or at the very least expose myself to different artists working in different mediums. I've had the good fortune of going to some of the world's best museums, including the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and the Picasso museum in Barcelona. I also caught a Dali exhibit this summer here in the States. I suppose my tastes lean more towards traditional art than surreal or modern art.

I also have an interest in architecture. One of the most interesting pieces of architecture I've seen is the Familia Sagrada cathedral in Barcelona, (it's still not complete.) Wow.

Rodin's "The Kiss" is amazing, btw. Nice choice.

http://www.op.net/~jmeltzer/Gaudi/sf/sacfac2.jpg

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Art

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Seek a protector, choose a patron out,
And like the crawling ivy round a tree
That licks the bark to gain the trunk's support,
Climb high by creeping ruse instead of force?
No, grammercy!

What! I, like all the rest
Dedicate verse to bankers?--play buffoon
In cringing hope to see, at last, a smile
Not disapproving, on a patron's lips?
Grammercy, no!

What! learn to swallow toads? --
With frame aweary climbing stairs?--a skin
Grown grimed and horny,--here, about the knees?
And, acrobat-like, teach my back to bend?--
No, grammercy!

Or,--double-faced and sly--
Run with the hare, while hunting with the hounds;
And, oily-tongued, to win the oil of praise,
Flatter the great man to his very nose?
No, grammercy!

Steal soft from lap to lap, --
A little great man in a circle small,
Or navigate, with madrigals for sails,
Blown gently windward by old ladies' sighs?
No, grammercy!

Bribe kindly editors
To spread abroad my verses?
Grammercy!

Or try to be elected as the pope
Of tavern-councils held by imbeciles?
No, grammercy!

Toil to gain reputation
By one small sonnet, 'stead of making many?
No, grammercy!

Or flatter sorry bunglers?
Be terrorized by every prating paper?
Say ceaselessly, 'Oh, had I but the chance
Of a fair notice in the "Mercury"!'
Grammercy, no!

Grow pale, fear, calculate?
Prefer to make a visit to a rhyme?
Seek introductions, draw petitions up?
No, grammercy! and no! and no again!

But--sing?
Dream, laugh, go lightly, solitary, free,
With eyes that look straight forward-- fearless voice!
To cock your beaver just the way you choose,--
For 'yes' or 'no' show fight, or turn a rhyme! --
To work without one thought of gain or fame,
To realize that journey to the moon!

Never to pen a line that has not sprung
Straight from the heart within.
Embracing then Modesty, say to oneself,
'Good my friend,
Be thou content with flowers,--fruit,-- nay, leaves,
But pluck them from no garden but thine own!'

And then, if glory come by chance your way,
To pay no tribute unto Caesar, none,
But keep the merit all your own!

In short,
Disdaining tendrils of the parasite,
To be content, if neither oak nor elm--
Not to mount high, perchance, but mount alone!


Cyrano De Bergerac Edmond Rostand

 

[CharleyH]

yes...to me "illustration" falls into the "fine art" catagory... "Illustration" by it's name HAS to tell a story...and "fine art" often does..and when it is TRULY fine does so well. I agree that SOMETIMEs "the story" told is contextual...meaning in the context of history and culture....an "experiment" where it is the PROCESS which is the story...not as much the result. THIS is less frequent and limited to a FEW. I feel, that too often "atrists" mimic TECHNIQUE..without the substance, without the passion...just REPEAT what has gone before. For example, an "artist" flinging paint á la Jackson Pollock...is wasting his time and ours (except to experience it for himself)...as the context in which Context did it originally is past...it has been done...it does not need to be repeated. So unless the finished work has a story of it's own...there is nothing but pigment.

Look to "great works of Art from history (pre 20th century)....they were in fact almost ALWAYS "illustrations" commisioned works for church, royalty, patrons...Illustrating religious stories, potential brides, patrons as heroes, mythology...etc... RATHER than "self expression" of the artist (which does have a PLACE in history).

Oh, I have nothing wrong with illustration being a fine art, as many other arts - U curiculuum . . . blah. There are many different artists, like writers, who mimic, but it does not mean they lack passion - just as CV has shown us, they aren't great, but as I have talked to some - they have a LOT of passion to tell their story, they lack the skill. Everything is repeated in one form, and we all mimic. Even the cave paintings I mention earlier 'mimic' life. As an illustrator are you not influenced by culture, by other artists no matter what medium? I think you can only be influenced in some way.

What I like about Andy Warhol particularly, was his ability to stick his finger at society - what is art? Here a soup can, its only 100,000 - it was a joke, played out on the masses like most avant-garde: a masturbatory act. It tells a story about society.

Anyhow, advertising - you mentioned earlier, is an art, which tells a story, even at its most minimal. It needs to - it needs to tell the story of what a person will get in buying the product.

I think we need to define "fine" art before we can go further, because illustration - while I understand that it needs to illustrate, is not necessarily fine art.