Introducing… "The Infinite Art Tournament!"

In a recent comment, regular IAT(fL&TM5K) reader dhkendell remarked:

I must have missed the post where he [meaning me, Michael5000] said that 1000 artists will be considered. In fact, I think I missed where he explains this whole thing altogether!

Well, truth be told, dhkendell didn’t “miss” it so much as I “didn’t post” it. For if there is one thing I’ve learned after five years of blogging – although only after five years of blogging – is that it’s not good to make a big fuss about a massive, years-long new enterprise until you are quite certain that (1) you yourself are actually interested in it and that (2) at least three or four other people can be persuaded to play along. Those criteria having been met to my satisfaction, I hereby announce that

I’m going to run a big goofy art appreciation exercise in the guise of a tournament! It’s going to be called “The Infinite Art Tournament!” In fact, it has already started!

Here’s how it will work!

1. I have a list of artists deemed by some, or by somebody, to be more or less “great.” I would rather not divulge where I got this list, but I freely admit that it is (a) conservative, (b) subjective (of course), and (c) slightly dated.

2. Every weekend, I post two paintings apiece by two artists off this list, proceeding in dogged alphabetical order.

3. You vote.  Along with your fellow IAT(fL&TM5K) readers, you look at the paintings (and, if it floats your boat, do further research or activate your prior knowledge) and vote on which artist you prefer.

4. Winning artists move on into the second round, etc. In eight or nine years, in theory, those of us still alive will witness the crowning of the greatest artist of all time!

Frequently Asked Questions


Q: Why?
A: Because it amuses me. Because I hope that it might amuse others. Because art, and knowledge and appreciation of art, leads to a modestly enhanced experience of life. Because it’s refreshing to approach Art History, with its reasonable but sometimes tedious preoccupation with schools, regions, and centuries, from the randomizing flight path of alphabetical order.


Q: How do you pick the paintings?
A: Well, there is a system that makes the first image, shall we say, “automatic.” I don’t choose it myself. I do select the second image myself, and try to represent the artist’s overall shtick (as the Art Historians say) as best I can from a brief reconnaissance. If there’s a third image, it’s semi-automatic; I choose it myself from a very limited list. We’ll worry about fourth images when we get there.  Update: fourth images are "automatic."


Q: What if there’s a tie?
A: I have a plan, but haven’t had to put it in action yet. This project is what you might call “emergent,” which is a very professional way of saying “we’re making it up as we go.”


Q: Doesn’t being the artist that comes first on the page give that artist an unfair advantage/disadvantage?
A: Perhaps.


Q: Do YOU vote, Michael5000?
A: Oh, hells yeah! I usually wait a week, though, in order to be an less obtrusive MC. You may have noticed that I’m also keeping separate track as if I was the only one voting, but that’s very incidental to the real tournament.  Update: I stopped keeping separate track of my own votes, as it felt out of the spirit of the thing.


Q: What if a whole bunch of new people started showing up just to vote in the tournament?
A: That would be cool.


Q: What if nobody voted?
A: Than I’d probably stop.


Q: When’s the deadline for voting?
A: Any given pair if artists will be up for at least one month. After a month – generally well, well after a month – I will come by and tally up votes in order to get the post for the next round ready. When I do that? That’s the deadline.

Q: This is silly! / pointless! / shallow! / methodologically flawed!
A: No shit, Sherlock.

Q: Do you really intend to see this thing through?
A: As long as it’s fun to me and to a modest quorum, and I’m able to do it, I imagine I’ll keep pushing it along.  I'm like that.


Q: I sure hope H.R. Giger makes his way into this tournament. Actually, that makes me wonder whether ANY of my favorite artists, (who tend to be commercial/fantasy artists yet are more appealing that the majority of what we've seen on here so far) will make it into the tournament. Artists like Luis Royo, Brom, Dorian Cleavenger, Michael Whelan, Sorayama, Brian Froud, Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazetta, or even pin-up artists like Olivia and those that are harder to classify, like Mark Ryden. Is it truly the infinite art contest? Royo is one of my absolute favorites - I'd put him up against a scribbler any day of the week.


A: I can tell you that not a single one of the artists you mention are among the 1000 in the big, big bracket. (Indeed, it is not an infinite art tournament, only an (anticipated) eight-year art tournament. I exaggerate for effect and for the life-metaphor.) Regrets, in a way, although your complaint is probably more with the dynamics of culture than with what I'm up to in this particular long-term stunt. I hope you'll stay in the voting pool; I'm always interested in what you have to say.

…oh, wait, 

that last one wasn’t a “Frequently Asked” Question so much as a question that reader Voron X posed in December, and the answer I gave him. He makes a really good point. I have pondered, and continue to ponder, the idea of the Infinite Art Tournament hosting an Alternative Infinite Art Tournament. The only problem is… how would I assemble, or where would I find, the list?  I'm open to suggestions!

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Additional Clarifications and Conversation


Anonymous said...

First, this is like comparing apples and oranges. Second, one must possess imagination to appreciate [Artist X]. His work in person is stunning. He is known for his sensuous brush strokes...which is underserved by a computer monitor. My vote is resounding for [Artist X], although I'm not at all surprised that most chose [Artist Y]. How did these two even come to be compared?? Were you flipping through an art collection book arranged in alphabetical order?

Michael5000 said...

Hi, Anonymous!

First, yes, it is much like comparing apples and oranges. They are different things, but in that they are both similarly sized tree fruits, they are much, much more similar to each other than they are to almost all other things. On this basis, it is very reasonable to compare them, as in fact people do all the time. I used to prefer oranges, myself, but apples have been growing on me lately.

Second, as you well know, one must possess imagination to appreciate any work of art; your boy has no monopoly on this.

Obviously, a computer monitor is a limitation for this kind of exercise -- especially for the sculpters -- but we ARE on the internets, so we sort of have to live with the medium.

These two came to be compared because they are bracketed against each other in the tournament which, yes, is seeded by alphabetical order.

Now, polls are long closed on this one and [Artist Y] is already out there duking it out with [Artist Z] in Round 2. You can support [Artist X] in the loser's bracket in a couple of months, if you want, but you'll have to give yourself a handle for the purpose; I'm not going to count purely anonymous votes in the tally.