Saturday, July 08, 2006

Been a while since...

Hey, isn't, like, "art", in the title of this blog? Haven't written about it in a while, have I?

Well that will change, thanks to Teacher Lady . She got me thinking about my favorite paintings.

I say it in the plural, because really, it's an evil question, like which cat is your favorite, or which appendage. I like all of my appendages for different reasons.

It's even more difficult for me to choose, because there are some works that I like because I'm a painter (not really an artist, not now, since I haven't done anything in a year. but still, BFA and all...) One artist that comes to mind in this realm is John Singer Sargent, whose paintings, oh my god, are so. incredibly. gorgeous. in real life. His fabrics, ahhhhh, so sexy. That's what they are, juicy, sexy, sensual paintings- but ultimately society portraits that I don't know how much more can be read into them. To be honest, I haven't looked too far into it.



There are also works that I like because I have some deeper knowledge of them because I studied them. For instance, Michelangelo's Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel. That painting fascinates me not only because it's amazingly populated and complex, but there is just so much going on. And the time in which it was created was right after the Council of Trent, when the Church up and changed the rules about images, and sweet merciful crap, it's just fricking amazing! Look!





And then, there's Manet. His famous paintings, God are they good. In both senses- I respond to Manet's modernism, his flatness and surface obviousness. But his late still lifes give me an art history boner. I wish I could own these paintings. He made the first, and when the man who bought it paid more than the asking price, Manet sent him this second, with a note that his bunch was short a stalk. How can you not love that?!





Am thinking of adding at least one art image a week. And also instituting Confession Wednesdays, in which I confess to something weird or bad or most often lazy that I've done. Pastly or presently. Oh I am branching out people. Look out blogosphere!

2 comments:

Liberal Banana said...

Beautiful choices! The John Singer Sargent works are just breathtaking...

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah I could never just pick one, that is an immpossibility. I love your choices. I feel the same way about Vemeer as you do about Sargent. I could stare at them forever. I had never seen those Manet still lifes, they are amazing, love the way you can feel the paint.