It’s World Art Day. Henry Faulkner was a Kentucky poet and painter. An eccentric animal lover he was often accompanied about town by his pet goat Alice, a frequent subject of his paintings.
He led an extraordinary life counting among his close friends Bette Davis and Tennesse Williams. The Charles House penned biography The Outrageous Life of Henry Faulkner is an excellent read. Faulkner was also a queer icon and featured in the Jean Donahue film The Last Gospel of the Pagan Babies, not even the trailer is SFW so I didn’t include a link, and the subject of a work in progress Under the Southern Cross.
Tell us about some of your favorite artists, DeadSplinters.
Mom took us to the Barnes Exhibit during its world tour’s Toronto stop at the AGO almost 30 years ago. Dr Barnes (a dentist who helped develop a surgical dye and made a fortune with it) bought up a lot of impressionist paintings and early Picassos when they were about as cheap as Dogs Playing Poker.
Mom was especially happy seeing her favorite era, Impressionist and her favorite artist of all time, Monet.
Like mom, I realize my favorite era is the Impressionist era in general. Not a big fan of Cubism, but….
As for artists… lots of really messed up people, but extremely talented.
Mom later visited Phillie where the collection is permenantly housed and did a tour of its art museums… which for some reason Phillie has a lot of. I jokingly asked her if they did the Rocky pose when they visited the Phillie Museum of Art. She rolled her eyes at me.
I’m not crazy about cubism either. It feels so cold. I do like expressionism, Chagall is another painter I like a lot. I haven’t been to a big museum in a long time. You’re making me want to go. 🙂
I love that header image!
There are some really beautiful coffee paintings out there. Who knew?
The Mark Rothko Color Field Paintings.
Doesn’t apply to TV apparently. Tell theoretical billionaire Jerry Seinfeld that.
I like Rothko very much. And anyone who says their 5 year old could do that hasn’t seen one in person.
100%! He was inspired by Renaissance murals that are meant to be viewed from a bit of distance. Seeing a Rothko from 30-40 feet away is amazing.
Yeah, I’m a Rothko guy too.
I mean, there is really only one answer…
Not more abstract art?
Fusilli Jerry!
😂 That was a great episode!
Sculpture isn’t necessarily my favorite form of art but I love this place: https://stormking.org/
I love going to museums just to see what’s there because there’s always something fascinating or wonderful. (Though Cubism … meh? Not as much for me.)
Mine either but we have a small sculpture park near us that I do like going to. I’d like to visit Stormking.
For self-taught American art, it’s hard to beat this:
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/throne-third-heaven-nations-millennium-general-assembly-9897
Pretty much the only stuff that leaves me cold is the super formal European neoclassical and academic art from the mid 1700s to late 1800s. I think part of it is really like seeing art in person in order to see the brushwork and affect of the light on it, and the hyper-refined surfaces of so much of that period takes away a lot of that.
Wow, I’d never heard of him. These are amazing, thanks. I feel a rabbit hole calling my name.
If you philistines cannot appreciate the warmth and depth and endless cause of contemplation that can come from a Rothko Color Field painting (I have a full-length reproduction of #51 in my bedroom. I’ve never seen it the same way twice, and I’ve had it for over 15 years) I also like the Hockney Pool Paintings.
With Rothko a ton gets lost in reproductions shrunk down to a page or a screen. When you see them in person you want to walk inside them, and that effect can’t happen when something is shrunk down to 5×7.
The reproductions also can’t adequately convey the depth of color either.
Too many favorites – painters, sculptors, writers, musicians – to name.
One piece of art that really blew me away when I saw it at the Louvre was Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. It is huge and just dominates the space you are in.
When I saw it, it was around the corner from the underwhelming — but mobbed — Mona Lisa. And there was no one in front of or around it, despite it kinda being France’s national painting. Akin, perhaps, to the US and the painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware. I sat down on a bench in front of Liberty, and soul left body, as they say.
Some day I will see this masterpiece in person and will cry my eyeballs out.
What a great experience. I have never been to the Louvre but my daughter was also underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa. Guernica is the one cubist painting I would like to see.
I have to put in a plug for the Warhol museum in Pittsburgh. I know it’s cool to hate on Warhol but he was very talented and you can see the evolution of his work there.
ummm….the missus?
she’s pretty good…lol
i like art to look at and be like ooo pretty…or wierd as the case may be
but absolutely zero interest to find out anything more about it or the artist
apparently it just doesnt tap my interest bone…..kinda like math….but pretty
It’s not that you have a live in artist. You don’t have to look elsewhere. 🙂
you know….i never thought of that
maybe thats why lol