The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Velázquez v. Duchamp!

And here it is, folks: the final match of the First Round of the Infinite Art Tournament!

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Diego de Silva y Velázquez
1599 - 1660
Spanish

Tied with Victor Vasarely in his first try at the First Round.

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Marcel Duchamp
1887 - 1968
French

Tied with Raoul Dufy in his first try at the First Round, back in January 2013.

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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 at least one month past posting.

The Infinite Art Tournament Left Bracket Third-Round Elimination: Bouguereau v. Bellows!

George Bellows (4-1-3) had a rough-and-tumble route to this contest.  After a Left Second Round tie with Bingham, he locked up again in the Left Third with Ford Maddox Brown.  The tiebreaker, with Avercamp, was also a tie.  Only in his third shot did he beat Ingres to make it through to Elimination.  Essentially, the three tied matches of Avercamp/Arcimboldo, Bellows/Brown, and Jordaens/Ingres all went into the hopper, and it was Avercamp, Arcimboldo, and Bellows who found their way out.  Bellows appears now in his ninth contest, probably only the second artist (following Avercamp, who pulled it off on Tuesday) to show up that many times.

Meanwhile, Play-In artist Bouguereau has had a more placid run, with a simple 3-1 record in the Tournament proper.  

Arguably, the two guys have a somewhat different tone.  Let's see who prevails!

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Adolphe William Bouguereau
1825 - 1905
French

• Finished Second in Phase 1, Flight 2 of the Play-In Tournament with a voting score of .733.
• Finished First in Phase 2, Flight 2 of the Play-In Tournament with a voting score of .455.
• Walloped Domenico Beccafumi in the Main Tournament First Round.
• Walloped Gwen John in Round 2.
• Lost to Frida Kahlo in Round 3 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Cruised by Guido Reni in the Left Bracket Third Round.

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George Bellows
1882 - 1925
American

• Defeated Bernardo Bellotto in Round 1 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
  
• Beaten by Giovanni Bellini in Round 2 in a fair fight.
• Tied with George Caleb Bingham in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Knocked out Louise Bourgeois in the Left Bracket Second Round Tiebreak.
• Wiped the floor with François Boucher in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination.
• Tied with Ford Madox Brown in the Left Bracket Third Round. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Tied with Hendrick Avercamp in a second try at the Left Bracket Third Round. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat Ingres in the Left Bracket Third Round.

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Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

The Infinite Art Tournament Left Bracket Third-Round Elimination: Avercamp v. Anguissola!

Hendrick Avercamp lost his first match back in November 2011, but since then has stayed alive with a remarkable string of four wins and three ties.  To make it to his ninth Tournament appearance, which is probably a first for any artist, he knocked out Jacob Jordaens, who had a final record of 3-2-1.

Meanwhile, Sonifbusa Anguissola has been locked in a match against Jacques-Laurent Agasse since November 2013 waiting for Avercamp to catch up.  Agasse was in the first match of the Tournament, so if there's any contest to the longest span of time active in the Tournament, it only starts now: Agasse went 2-2 and was active from September 10, 2011 to September 23, 2017: six years, thirteen days.  But, Albrecht Altdorfer started on October 8, 2011 and hasn't had a loss yet, so Agasse won't last long on the top of the pops.  He'll also be surpassed by either Avercamp or Anguissola, or maybe both of them.

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Hendrick Avercamp
1585-1634
Dutch

• Lost to Francis Bacon in Round 1.
• Clobbered Frank Auerbach in Left Bracket First-Round Elimination.
• Handily defeated 20th Century French painter Balthus in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Locked in a tie with Hans Baldung in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Freaked out the squares by knocking out Josef Albers in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination Tiebreak!
• Tied with Giuseppe Arcimboldo in the Left Bracket Third Round. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Tied with George Bellows in a second try at Left Bracket Third Round. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Finally got through the Left Bracket Third Round, three years later, with a decisive victory over Jacob Jordaens.

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Sofonisba Anguissola
c.1532 - 1625
Italian

• Defeated Italian predecessor Antonello da Messina in Round 1 by two votes -- a one-vote swing would have resulted in a draw. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!
• Lost to Fra Angelico by a two-vote swing in Round 2 in a match that was thought to be a tie for more than a year. YOUR VOTE EVENTUALLY COUNTS!!!
• Lit it up all over Karel Appel in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Tied Antonello da Messina in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination -- but thereby wins the pairing according to the Grudge Match Rule -- YOUR VOTE SURE COUNTS!!!
• Beat Jacques-Laurent Agasse in a November 2013 Left Bracket Third Round match that stayed open for three years and ten months. YOUR VOTE EVENTUALLY COUNTS!!!

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Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Zuccarelli v. Zurbarán!

At this point, the Infinite Art Tournament would like to thank Phaidon Press for compiling The Art Book, which -- unbeknownst to them -- provided the idea and the basic roster for this complicated art-historical entertainment.  Which is, mind you, far from finished yet.

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Francesco Zuccarelli
1702 - 1788
Florentine; worked in Venice and Britain

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Francisco de Zurbarán
1598 - 1664
Spanish

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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 at least one month past posting.

The Semi-Finals: Picasso v. Prud'hon!

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"Semifinals" designates the Fourth to Seventh Rounds of the Infinite Art Tournament.  This is a Left Bracket Fourth Round Match between Pablo Picasso (5-1, 37-18, .673) and Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (3-1, 29-15, .659).  Leaving the Tournament after a grudge match loss to Picasso is Piero di Cosimo (4-2, 39-27, .591).

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Pablo Picasso
1881 - 1973
Spanish

• Beat Piero della Francesca easily in Round 1.
• Beat Piero di Cosimo in Round 2.
• Upset by Joachim Patenier in the Round 3 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat Pisanello in the Left Bracket Third Round.
• Defeated Piero di Cosimo a second time in a Left Bracket Third Round Elimination Grudge Match.

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Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
1758 - 1823
French

• Drubbed Francesco Primaticcio in Round 1.
• Beat Sir Henry Raeburn in Round 2.
• Defeated Nicolas Poussin in Round 3 by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!
• Lost to Raphael in Round 4.

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The Infinite Art Tournament, First Elimination Round #62/64

Faceoff #1: Watteau v. Wesselmann

Antoine Watteau
1684 - 1721
French

Pasted by Waterhouse in Round 1.

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Tom Wesselmann
1931 - 2004
American

Lost to Britain's Carel Weight in Round 1.

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Faceoff #2: West v. Wilkie

Benjamin West
1738 - 1820
American; worked in Britain

Lost after leading early against Van der Weyden in Round 1.

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Sir David Wilkie
1785 - 1841
British

Drubbed by Whistler's mother's son in Round 1.

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Vote for the two artists of your choice! Votes generally go in the comments, but have been known to arrive by email, by postcard, or in a sealed envelope.

Please note that you may vote only once in each face-off.  Opining that both of the artists in one of the two face-offs is superior to the other is fine, but casting your votes for two artists in the same face-off is not permissible.

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Zoffany v. Zorn!

Johann Zoffany
1733 - 1810
German; worked in Britain and India

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Anders Zorn
1860 - 1920
Swedish

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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 at least one month past posting.

The Infinite Art Tournament Left Bracket Third-Round Elimination: GRUDGE MATCH: De Hooch v. Homer!

Today's match features two artists last seen all the way back in 2015. Dutch master Pieter De Hooch (3-1, 23-22, .511) takes on American Winslow Homer (4-1, 48-19, .716). If you look at those statistics, Homer looks like the clear favorite -- except, when these two guys met in March 2014, it was Mr. De Hooch that ended up winning, seven votes to six. This of course makes this contest a Grudge Match, and means that Homer would have to beat De Hooch outright to stay alive. A tie would go to the Dutchman on the strength of his earlier win.

The artists that fell in the Third Round were Meindert Hobbema and Ferdinand Hodler.

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Pieter De Hooch
1629 - 1684
Dutch

• Overcame Gerrit van Honthorst, his countryman from the previous generation, in Round 1.
• Shocked American Winslow Homer in Round 2 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Lost to Remedios Varo in Round 3.
• Snuck by his near-contemporary Meindert Hobbema in the Left Bracket Third Round by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

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Winslow Homer
1836 - 1910
American

• Beat the great German expatriate Hans Holbein in an unusually high-octane Round 1 match.
• Lost to Dutch master Pieter De Hooch by a single vote in Round 2. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Crushed André Beauneveu in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Decisively beat Katsushika Hokusai in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination.
• Crushed Ferdinand Hodler in the Left Bracket Third Round by another two-vote swing.

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Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.