1767-1848
Swiss; worked in England
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Josef Albers
1888-1976
German; worked in the United States
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Vote for the artist of your choice! Votes go in the comments. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for one month past posting.
20 comments:
Agasse. No contest. Geometric non-representational art, blech.
What Chance said. Plus that's a very nice picture of big cats.
The Albers(es?) would make nice quilts, though.
Agasse
You'd have to do a ton of fancy quilting to make the red Albers interesting.
Agasse. I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said.
Well, I've got to go with Agasse. That giraffe painting is the bees' knees. They didn't teach how to do that at the Bauhaus, I tell you what.
What exactly do you mean by "infinite"? We're not going to live forever, you know.
Fantastic, finally I can just give my opinions without having to actually know anything about art! I'm going Albers. Don't love it by really not that interests in cheetah pictures. Now a black light unicorn poster...
Best New Feature EVER! You will weigh in on these yourself, I hope?
I'm going with Agasse. First, it's hard to vote against a giraffe, of course, but also, it's the other stuff going on.
Lovely reticulation on the giraffe--it looks very lifelike. I know, I know, it sounds very naive of me to like art just because it's realistic, but I'm sticking with it here.
I'm also fond of the way the legs of the guy on the left echo the legs of the giraffe, as the shininess of the legs/hooves/boots emphasizes.
Plus, I see cows in the background. Bonus points!
What's going on with the fence, though? Why do they have upright slats on part and then part without? Does that indicate a kind of a gate?
Agasse.
Wow, I surprised right out of the gate. ~My~ vote goes to Albers without a second thought, but then I'm a modern sort of guy. Facebook voters split one apiece. And polls are still open for weeks to come, if you are like me and run weeks behind in your Reader.
Albers - I am a modern sort of gal.
Uh, whoops! I out-commented the actual blogger by a factor of 10. I know you said commentary welcome, but I may have over-done it....
I guess I have to go with Agasse, too - but it's a really close call - I really like the like red squares. (The other Albers painting doesn't do anything for me, though)
It's cool, Candida. I'm trying to stay in the background.
Agasse. Modern, shmodern. I'd just rather look at the Agasses.
Agasse. The expression on the leopard is pretty intense.
But I wonder if Albers is suffering from a poor digital representation. I didn't 'get' Mark Rothko (uh, colors, ok) until I saw one at SFMOMA - the painting was like pulsing and moving and kind of awesome. I stared at it for a good long time.
@Candida: I really liked your comments, because they made me look more closely at the painting. Now the giraffe looks like it is wearing shiny patent-leather party shoes. I have a theory about the fence: if the slats were filled in it would make a really awkward division right in the middle of the painting where everything is happening. And yet the suggestion of being in an enclosure is important. So I think it's a visual solution to a problem, and likely one worked out in the studio. Guess it works for me, since I'd never noticed it before.
Giraffe first, then red, then cheetahs, and blue last. But on a different day red might win.
@mrs.5000, Aww, thanks! And your suggestion about the fence potentially kind of ruining the composition makes sense. It's not something I ever would've come up with, either--I think I look too much to narrative for explanations to figure out things like composition.
Very intrigued by this new series . . . how the HECK are you finding artists to put up against each other?? Not crazy about either of these - love the giraffe, but not the composition - Albers leaves me a bit cool in reproduction, but there's some interesting things going on there. Think I'm going Albers.
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