What is your favourite piece of Art ??

Rather than a favourite, although if pushed I love the painting of geese in the Victoria Gallery at Bath (and can I find the details...), I appreciate many things that are creative. Apart from music and photography, I indulge myself working with wood, I admire, aspire to making carvings in the netsuke style and I turn. When asked about what makes turning good usually refer to the work of Bert Marsh, Richard Raffan and Don White. Bert in particular wrote about the domes of Brighton Pavilion as inspiration for shapes. I turn to museums and oriental glass and pottery. Looking at work that is hundreds of years old, I wonder, have we really progressed?

The late Rembrandt self portraits are my favourite pieces of art, the ones I know best are in the National Gallery (above) and in Kenwood House, but I do love the others as well. For me they are a complete insight into the painter's soul, he looks out from the canvas and somehow the whole of his life is there on his face.

Visual art is not something that has ever turned me on, quite the opposite of music. Whilst I can appreciate some paintings for being excellent portraits, or moody subjects, or stunning landscapes, I'm really likening to a photograph and generally would rather have a good photo of the subject than a painting. Of course paintings have a real place recording images from before photography, while paintings whose imagery depicts more than just capturing a scene can be much more engrossing. As for a modern art, just as with modern orchestral music, to me a lot of it tends to come across just as noise.

That said, from time to time individual paintings have had a certain je ne sais quoi that has in some way captivated me, and maybe, just maybe I could look at them for hours.  Contrast that with music, where there are a lot of albums I could repeat over and over again without getting bored, and repeat again the next day. 

But just what paintings have had that effect currently elude my memory - I'll come back and post if I recall any.

Never thought of it. But really, how can it not be "Boy With Apple"?

Edward Hopper: New York - New Haven and Hartfort

Sadly this was not among the ones featured in the Hopper exhibition I attended a few years ago. Many of his paintings strike something inside of me, which keeps resonating. I can feel the light on the grass beneath, imagine the thoughts of the people in the trains that have passed by and much more, even by looking at this low res picture.

Impossible to describe the visual impact  of Pollock's work until you actually see his paintings in person. They are huge and you can almost feel every stroke of the brush hitting the canvas. 

Tate London Sometime in the late 90's. 

notnaim man posted:

Rather than a favourite, although if pushed I love the painting of geese in the Victoria Gallery at Bath (and can I find the details...), I appreciate many things that are creative. Apart from music and photography, I indulge myself working with wood, I admire, aspire to making carvings in the netsuke style and I turn. When asked about what makes turning good usually refer to the work of Bert Marsh, Richard Raffan and Don White. Bert in particular wrote about the domes of Brighton Pavilion as inspiration for shapes. I turn to museums and oriental glass and pottery. Looking at work that is hundreds of years old, I wonder, have we really progressed?

Found it!

Watersplash by Henry Herbert la Thangue. Over many years,  many paintings and photography has taught me that so many things are transient as the light changes,  so capturing a gaggle of geese all moving, to me is so much more difficult than a posed portrait or a landscape. That is not to diminish the work of any artist, in any media, because they are so much more talented and skilful than I am.

Love this work, sub titled "why can't I stop upgrading"A modern art installation at same Dutch gallery. I thought of the Naim cable dressing when I viewed this.

I have always liked this Manet piece:

"A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" - Edouard Manet, 1882.

A canvas print of this hangs in my master bedroom.

Tony2011 posted:

Impossible to describe the visual impact  of Pollock's work until you actually see his paintings in person. They are huge and you can almost feel every stroke of the brush hitting the canvas. 

Tate London Sometime in the late 90's. 

Yep. One of my favourites is The Australian National Gallery's 1952 Pollock, "Blue Poles" (#11). Purchased for the then-outrageous sum of $1.3M AUD in the early 70s. The image here doesn't do it justice. It's about 5m x 2m.

Another favourite is Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase".

There are many, many things that an image does not do justice to. Seeing a Yves Klein in the flesh is a real treat for the eyes.

Caravaggio is one of my favourite

My wife and I have hugely enjoyed seeing and occasionally buying art as we have got older, and in particular developed a taste for quite abstract and minimalist works. We do have some classical tastes too; I have a weak spot for a bit of Flemish Realism for example.

So many I could have chosen but I can have two maybe (and they both look so much finer in real life)

Constantin Brancusi, 'Prometheus'. Although I could have chosen many things by him this is beautifully subtle. There are several versions in stone and also polished brass. Anyone else see his exhibition at Tate Modern about a decade ago? Stunning.

Saw this on a school trip in 1964 or 65 and it's stayed with me ever since:

Jacob Epstein - Rock Drill (No one said art has to be painting )

If does have to be painting, then I'm a sucker for the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Rossetti's Redheads...

steve

Paper Plane posted:

 

If does have to be painting, then I'm a sucker for the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Rossetti's Redheads...

steve

Oh my ! Am I with you, Steve !!!

Don't tell the wife about my passion......................................... 

G

I have always loved this piece.

Nighthawks

Painter: Edward Hopper

Year: 1942

Strangely enough, for a painting dripping with feelings of loneliness and estrangement it keeps pretty good company. Blade Runner's look was inspired by it. Wim Wenders famously recreated this scene for a film within a film in the History of Violence. The Simpsons featured it prominently in an episode. Tom Waits wrote an album of songs inspired by it. Gottfried Helnwein replaced the sitters with Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean and Elvis in Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Joyce Carol Oates penned a novel giving an interior life to the pictured characters.

Michael Andrews painting A Shadow from his Lights series.  Sadly overlooked British artist.  Sadder still I cannot paste a copy of the painting to show you.

Goya's Maja Desnuda 

Good thread this one:

Something by Carravagio. So many amazing pieces but maybe one of his that captures an historical and dramatic moment such as the Beheading of Hoffness or the one with St. Jerome transcribing the Bible.

I've always loved the night sky , luckily I grew up with a great view of it . Vincent sums it up for me .

Thanks for all your replies. Of course it doesn't have to be a painting.

Another that was great to see in Kunsthalle Zu Kiel was Gerhard Richter's Betty.

Does computer generated art count.

(scroll up and down, the flowers should glow)

Indeed, I rather like the work of Saul Leiter.. he went through a phase of obvisvated colour  images through rainy/foggy windows in New York and I love this one.