The Play-In Sub-Tournament is over!!!
Or is it?
It is! Over the past few years, we've put 96 artists through the grinder of direct democracy, and out at the other end have emerged our consensus favorites: Adams, Amador, Banksy, Benton, Bourguereau, Cartier-Bresson, Goldsworthy, Grandma Moses, Haeckel, Oudry, Rockwell, and Varo. That's certainly not a list that any of us would have picked if it were all up to him or her, so that's cool.
So what's the catch?
There are two little pieces of outstanding business from the Play-In Sub-Tournament. They stem from -- and it is painful to say this -- mistakes. Errors. Missteps. Made by me, Michael5000.
It all started in July 2012 with the very first artist in the First Flight of Phase 1, Bill Viola. And then it happened again in Flight 5, with Wright of Derby. Neither of these guys did especially well. Viola batted .333 and Wright .385, and they dropped out without making it to Phase 2. It was only afterwards that I noticed that both of these guys are already on the main Tournament list! (Technically, Chuckdaddy noticed it. But then he mentioned it to me, and then I noticed it.)
Well. Could we just let them take their spots when we get to the Vs and Ws, as if nothing had happened? After they had already lost in the Play-In Tournament? That doesn't seem right! But should we just give their Round 1 competitors (Marie-Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and Grant Wood) a bye round? No, that doesn't sit well either. Instead,
Viola and Wright must fight for their right to enter the Tournament!
Each will compete in a three-way contest. Their opponents will be the four remaining Play-In artists, among those who have not won their way into the main Tournament, with the highest product of Phase 1 and Phase 2 voting scores. You can vote for one artist in each of these two rounds. To avoid further complications, and to stack things in favor of the defendants, any pertinent ties will be resolved by seeding order, with Viola and Wright seeded first. The winners will enter the tournament in two or three years, when we get to the end of the alphabet.
The "Fight for Their Right" contests will be open only until Friday, June 26.
#1 Bill Viola
Born 1951
American
Placed Sixth in Phase 1, Flight 1, with a voting score of .333.
#2 M.C. Escher
1898 - 1972
Dutch
Tied for First in Phase 1, Flight 4, with a voting score of .733.
Placed Third in Phase 2, Flight 4, with a voting score of .417.
#3 Giovanni di Paolo
Siennese
c. 1403-1482
Tied for Third in Phase 1, Flight 10, with a voting score of .636.
Tied for Second in Phase 2, Flight 1, with a voting score of .417.
Tied for Fourth in the Phase 2 Tiebreaker, with a voting score of .308.
Vote for one artist only in the comments. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome.
16 comments:
Sweet! I love that the play-in tournament keeps getting added wrinkles. It gives me hope that maybe this tournament could be infinite.
But let's not get cute again, everyone. MC Escher deserves a place at the table!
Escher!
Please explain: would di Paolo, Escher, and the other two artists with "the highest product of Phase 1 and Phase 2 voting scores" be otherwise out of the tournament at this point? Because that phrase makes it sound like they'd still be in. (Subtext: Are they being punished for your mistake, or given a second chance?) Sub-subtext: I am stalling for time before I am forced to choose between Escher and di Paolo, having no doubt unfairly written off Bill Viola based on a few still images. Sub-sub-subtext: the work week has started again, and I am dragging my feet.
Escher, by a mile.
Mrs: I apologize for not including enough verbiage about this little wrinkle. I have now clarified it a little. di Paolo,* Escher, and the others would otherwise be out of luck, as they are not on the list of sub-tournament winners in paragraph one. They are not being punished for my mistake, but given one last extra chance.
I, for one, think that the mistakes make the tournament that much more interesting! Keep it up.
I'll go di Paolo, despite my love for Escher. I really like God's circle thing in the first painting!
Escher!
OK, I have been fond of Escher's meticulously constructed crazy perspectives since I was a kid, but it's di Paolo's late Gothic crazy perspectives that make my heart go pitter-pat. That third one especially, with its roofscapes and deskscapes anticipating di Chirico, the cubists, Escher himself...and in the next town over, the Florentines are busy codifying the rules for this stuff. I'm with di Paolo!
Viola. Because why not? Escher is admittedly awesome, but I've promised myself to vote for art I _like_ in this thing, based on the images presented, and to be totally honest Escher has always given me the creeps in a not-good way. Kind of like Borges but I like Borges better and would vote for him in a Borges v. Escher matchup. And I feel like I just voted for di Paolo in something else. Was it the write-in tournament? I'm kind of confused. Having a baby has destroyed my mind.
Escher, though as Mrs5000 has commented di Paolo laid the foundation for his skewed-arches schtick four centuries earlier.
Di Paolo, and I don't even feel like I'm betraying my childhood self and an early love of Escher. Nope. No guilt here. None. Couldn't possibly be less conflicted about this.
viola or escher? seriously? what an agonizing choice. i have to go with escher because his influence was so broad, but it kills me to be voting against viola.
di Paolo
Hi, long-time reader, first-time commenter, love the Tournament. I'll go with Escher!!!
via the US Postal Service, there's a vote for Giovanni di Paolo!
It's a long time since this got sorted out, but for the record I'll mention that voting is closed on this one. Viola couldn't put up much of a fight for his right, garnering only a single vote. Di Paulo came up with five, but it was Escher who will take the "V" slot, having won an outright majority of seven votes.
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