Top 10 works of art...

[Colyngbourne]

Okay, it took me ages to whittle it down to 10. These are faves from my comfort zone rather than artworks selected for skill and excellence of execution (though some are that as well):

1. The closest to the original Richard I can get:

Richard III; early C16th portrait
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/HerbertHouston/RichardIIIOrig.jpg

2. One of my fave Orpheus pics (out of a hundred or so I've collected anyway)

Orpheus and Eurydice; 1948 woodcut by Gerhard Marcks
http://static.flickr.com/50/142665281_22d321cbe3.jpg

3. Saw this in New York. A few inches sq, and detail you need a magnifying glass for. (Even on my Flickr page at large size you can't see the detail magnifyed enough.)

St Francis Receiving the Stigmata - Jan van Eyck
http://static.flickr.com/46/142665280_6de5b0ca15_m.jpg

4. Okay - slushy but perfectly Gerard/Margaret from The Cloister & the Hearth

The Kiss - Francesco Hayez
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/HerbertHouston/Hayek-TheKiss.jpg

5. I got Gauguin-ized after reading The Moon and Sixpence in my teens

Te Rerioa - Paul Gauguin
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/HerbertHouston/TeRerioaGaugin1897.jpg

6. Not long after that, I read The Decameron, and this is picture perfect.

A Tale from the Decameron - J W Waterhouse
http://static.flickr.com/53/142665286_1c9b2107f3_m.jpg

7. Yes, there is a preponderance of brown in my pictures ...Raphael's self-portrait

Self- portrait - Raphael
http://static.flickr.com/44/142665282_2267869a59_m.jpg

8. This is in Philly Museum of Art and is huge. I can look at this a long time.

Crucifixion Diptych - Rogier van der Weyden
http://static.flickr.com/53/142665285_22e46a2f3a_m.jpg

9. I saw this in Philly too (not in this pictured location). Very moving and humbling piece of sculpture by Rodin, portraying the Burghers of Calais on their way to death at the hands of the English.

The Burghers of Calais - Auguste Rodin
http://static.flickr.com/49/142665284_d8ea56daec_m.jpg

10. Last but not least, the Angel (brown again) against the Team Valley sky. Glorious heart-swelling wingspan in daylight or at dusk.

The Angel of the North - Antony Gormley
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/HerbertHouston/AngeloftheNorth.jpg

[amner]

Totally with you on 1. and 10., Col. Right, thinking cap on...

[chillicheese]

1. Caravaggio: Supper at Emmanus
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/emmanus.jpg

The light, the depth and the realism all remain with me as clear and powerful as the day I first saw this.


2. Mark Rothko : Untitled
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/rothko.jpg

It's all about texture, you can just feel it on your fingers as you look at it. There's also something elemental about it that strikes you in a disturbing and innate way,


3. Auguste Renoir : The Luncheon of the Boating Party
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/boating_party.jpg

So many stories being told in one picture. Each eyeline creates a new dialogue.


4. Maurice Utrillo : Rue Jeanne D'arc
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/utrillo.jpg

My favourite impressionist, insists that you visit Paris.


5. Leonardo Da Vinci : Virgin and Child with the Infant
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/davinci.jpg

The perfection of the technique is staggering on its own but when compared against his contemporaries it's as if he's travelled back from a distant future.


6. David Hockney : Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/hockney.jpg

This just sums up the 1970s and was painted the same year I was born so it's always felt like my painting.


7. Salvador Dali : Metamorphosis of Narcissus
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/dali.jpg

Never got over this one, the perfect intersection of myth, legend, the surreal, and the superreal.


8. Kazimir Malevich : Samovar
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/malevich_samovar.jpg

Just shows how we actually perceive the world around us.


9. Foster Associates : 30 St Mary Axe
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/DSC00020+.JPG

The Gherkin achieves architectural greatness by making us feel good about the environment in which it stands, just by being there.


10 BMW : K1200R
http://www.chillicheese.plus.com/pics/K1200R.jpg

Does a hundred miles an hour while it's standing still. It just screams "You want me and you know it" (well, to men of a certain age anyway).


Thanks Col, it's been fun compiling this list

[Colyngbourne]

Excellent choices,chilli - I especially like the da Vinci and the Norman Foster and Hockney. The Caravaggio was one that narrowly missed my Top 10.

Everyone else can pile in now! :-D

[John Self]

I feel genuinely unqualified to contribute a list to this thread - I just don't know enough visual art well (or at all really) to put anything in the category I love as against I like. A project for the summer, perhaps...

I am enjoying reading and seeing everyone else's contributions though. Keep them coming!

[Daveybot]

Aaaaaaaaaaaagh! I need to get some work done this afternoon - now it's never going to happen!

Right. thinkthinkthinkwhittlewhittlethink...

[Digger]

oooo I like this thread... will think on't on my way home!

[Daveybot]

Okay, for the purposes of this post I've decided I'm going for fine art and illustration only. Mostly. Agh, it's impossible to draw a clear line through the full art/design spectrum. I think it's probably fair to say my favourite works are those which really span between the two ideas, but hopefully in this list I've picked ones which are nearer the 'art' side of things.

So, in my little list you won't find any buildings, logos, products, typefaces, films or album covers. Quite frankly if I had allowed buildings in then they'd probably have filled up at least eight of the ten spots. I'll save them for another time. Instead, here are the top ten works of art (in no particular order - narrowing it down to ten was hard enough!) I'd happily kill* for:

(edited to add: these images are all links to bigger copies, by the way...) Banksy's rat stencils

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/b.jpg (http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=banksy+rats&btnG=Search)

I've only been making stencils (http://www.flickr.com/photos/davemorris/sets/57910/) myself for a year or so now, and though I think we can all easily appreciate his humour and cheekiness, believe me: Banksy (http://www.banksy.co.uk/)'s technical skill is incredible. The rats are probably my favourites. Their diminutive size and the subtleties of their positioning just made them seem like perfect additions to the city.

----------

NC Wyeth's Giant illustration

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/ncw.jpg (http://www.syntheverse.com/images/preview/2365-079.jpg)

I love illustration (http://drawn.ca/), and feel it's all too often overlooked as an art form. Wyeth's work particular grabs me, though. So incredibly rich and filled with beautiful detail. It's hard to choose between my favourite illustrators, but Wyeth particularly sticks in my mind. Not included here would be a whole load of other more 'comic' but nonetheless beautiful work by Bill Watterson, EH Sheppard, Quentin Blake, Walter Moers, and Dave McKean.

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Salvador Dali's The Christ Of St John Of The Cross

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/sd.jpg (http://dali.urvas.lt/forviewing/pic20.jpg)

Ahhh, I wrote about this one somewhere else, I think. Perspective, composition, shading, subtlety and so on...

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M.C. Escher's Up And Down.

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/mce.jpg (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/e/escher/escher_up_and_down.jpg)

All his stuff is beautiful, staggeringly clever, and astoundingly well-drawn, but this is by far my favourite. It's so peaceful and uses only a single trick of perspective to create a really engaging composition.

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Katsushika Hokusai's In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/kh.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Tsunami_by_hokusai_19th_century.jpg/800px-Tsunami_by_hokusai_19th_century.jpg) http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/k.jpg (http://www.jupe.se/groupies/kozyndan.jpg)

Though alongside that I've put Kozyndan's awesome 'bunny' remix, which I think I may like even more. It's such a cheery example of how we re-appropriate culture - an activity some of y'all might have gathered I'm rather interested in...

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The Book Of Kells

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/bok.jpg (http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Ekjolly/151/images/kells2.jpg)

Again - really a 'design' I guess, but I'd still love it even if I didn't know it was writing. This is my favourite page, and like stencilling I've dabbled in celtic knotwork and spirals myself - this has been going on for about 13 years now, though, and I don't think I could ever reach the intricacy and glorious composition these guys managed.

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Roy Lichtenstein's Wham!

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/rl.jpg (http://nettonet.org/Nettonet/101%20Painting/Studies/wham.jpg)

...because, well, 'WHAAAAAM!' I mean, it says it all.

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Edward Hopper's Nighthawks

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/eh.jpg (http://www.people.virginia.edu/%7Eopr9t/psyc/img/hopper.jpg)

For the lighting.

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Ansel Adams' winter photo of El Capitan

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/aa.jpg (http://www.posterunlimited.com/imagebase/IMA/jpgs/A68.jpg)

...though again, it's hard to pick a favourite from such an incredible collection.

----------

And finally, I've gotta agree with so many others - Anthony Gormley's Angel Of The North.

http://www.avfn58.dsl.pipex.com/images/screengrabs/ag.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/angelofthenorth/interesting/)

Edited: Bzzzzzt! Sorry Angel, you've been booted from my list in favour of The Headington Shark (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=36486&postcount=56)!

----------

*Well, you know... maybe a bug or something.

[Daveybot]

9. Norman Foster : 30 St Mary Axe
[persnickety architectural pedant]

Officially that should probably read 'Foster Associates' because the main architect on this little number was actually the former co-director Ken Shuttleworth. (Well, his minions will tell you that, anyway.) Shuttleworth left the mothership a couple of years ago to form his own practice, Make Architects (http://www.makearchitects.com/). Though the practice is enjoying some big successes in architectural circles right now, the names 'Shuttleworth' or 'Make' are yet to know the popularity of the Foster brand. Probably Shuttleworth is most well-known for the design of his own abode, the wonderful Crescent House (http://www.btinternet.com/%7Ekenshuttleworth/index.htm).

http://www.sto.ee/evo/web/sto/481_EE.jpeg

[/persnickety architectural pedant]

[maxivida]

Klimt, Danae

http://home.comcast.net/%7Egodlikepoet/images/Modren_Art/klimt.danae.jpg

Mapplethorpe, Lisa Lyon

http://www.masters-of-fine-art-photography.com/02/artphotogallery/database/mapplethorpe01.jpg

Rossetti, The Beloved

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/r/rossetti/rossetti_beloved.jpg

Sally Mann, Jessie Bites

http://www.art-forum.org/z_Mann/Images/SM_JessieBites1985_600.jpg


Blake, The Ancient of Days

http://www.migraine-aura.org/images/William_Blake_The_Ancient_of_Days_1794.jpg
Man Ray, Tears

http://pointofview.bluehighways.com/images/ManRay-Tears-1930.jpg

Buonarotti, Pieta

http://www.modjourn.brown.edu/Image/Michelangelo/Pieta.jpg


Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes

http://www.abcgallery.com/C/caravaggio/caravaggio22.JPG

LaChapelle, Last Supper

http://www.davidlachapelle.com/gallery/David_LaChapelle_Studio_Inc.gif
http://www.davidlachapelle.com/gallery/David_LaChapelle_Studio_Inc.gifhttp://www.artnet.com/artwork_images_424157556_176228_David-LaChapelle.jpg

Alma-Tadema, Silver Favourites

http://www.lyons.co.uk/A4H/classic/Alma-silverfav.jpg

[Daveybot]

Wow, Maxivida. I've never seen that 'Jessie Bites' one before - What an arresting image. I can see its influence in your photography!

[Digger]

Ok, here are mine:

I would also like Klimt’s Danae, just left by her lover, curled in blushing sleep.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Egodlikepoet/images/Modren_Art/klimt.danae.jpg

and Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/HerbertHouston/AngeloftheNorth.jpg

To these I would add, in no particular order because it’s too hard and it depends so much on my mood…

Jacob Epstein’s Jacob and the Angel a sculpture that I used to walk across London to see at least once a month, the strength and solidity radiates out from this sculpture. I was devastated when Tate put it somewhere else.

http://www.artfund100.org/images/key/fullsize/jacob_and_the_angel_epstein.jpg

Egon Schiele’s Seated woman with bent knee. She’s so sassy! And I am jealous of his line drawings they are so seemingly careless, and yet so strongly evocative.

http://www.artunframed.com/images/compressed/compressed5/schiele.jpg

I wanted to find Lucian Freud’s sketch portrait of his daughter Esther (I think), but can’t online for some reason so here is his self portrait. If I could commission a portrait of myself, I think I would have Freud paint it. Many say his paintings are ugly, I think they’re honest, he sees so deeply.

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/freud/freud.reflection.jpg

Next, for the quality of light, Vermeer and his young woman holding a balance. His work is luminous, and I like the way his subjects are usually interested in something…

http://www.glyphs.com/art/vermeer/balance.jpg

Moving swiftly on we find the exuberant vivacity of Jackson Pollock’s Number 31, 1950 it’s hard to get an appreciation of the depth and movement of Pollock’s work if you’re not standing in front of it, I loved seeing this in person in MOMA NY.

http://www.moma.org/images/collection/FullSizes/00323038.jpg

Getting closer to the end, Rembrandt Self portrait as a young man

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/self/self-1629.jpg

I love the clean lines, bright colours and strange inclusion of some Swiss mountainside of Patrick Caulfield’s After Lunch

http://www.popartuk.com/g/l/lgtsa905.jpg

And finally I have always loved Dante Gabrielle Rossitti’s Proserpine. I dreamt of being her when I was younger (of course without being stuck in Hades for so much of the year). She seemed so sad and beautiful to me. And of course, it’s Jane Morris – so close to my own name – and I’ve got the hair! Sigh.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Proserpine.jpg/250px-Proserpine.jpg

honorable mentions to those who nearly made it in.... Piranesi and his imagined prisons. Durer's sleepy rabbit, Gustave Dore's magical imagination... I love seeing other's choices. Fabulous.

[rick green]

Great thread! :-D It's fascinating to see everyone's choices. They're all so revealing. ;-) So here, in no particular order, are mine.

1. Barnett Newman's Ulysses

http://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/ntm2/Images/ntm3-1-24.jpg

(Newman and Rothko are both favorites, but since Amner [edit: sorry, chilli-cheese--that was you, wasn't it!] already praised the latter...) This is a monumental piece. It was one of the first abstract expressionist paintings that moved me. Inspires a real sense of vertigo.

2. Yves Klein's Leap into the Void

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_1992.5112.jpg

Did I say vertigo? This is what happens when you surrender yourself to modern art. ;-)

3. Cy Twombly's Bay of Naples

http://static.flickr.com/52/142912519_ddf0a34bcd_o.jpg

Hurrah for preschool nostalgia! Twombly is the apotheosis of fingerpainters. He strips art of all pomposity and gets into the messy wonder of it all. Here's a link to an interesting profile with a picture of the artist in front of my favorite of his paintings: Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor (http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/06/04/arts/design/04twom.html?ex=1147320000&en=029d2872b8a7158c&ei=5070).

4. Fragmented Sculpture of the Emperor Constantine in Rome

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/romanciv/Romancivimages23/constantinestatue.jpg

There's something wonderfully ironic about the casual way these fragments are displayed. Ozymandius comes to mind.

5. Fountain by R. Mutt aka Marcel Duchamp

http://www.teleculture.com/images/Fountain-R-Mutt-1917-1964.jpg

The original "ready-made" sculpture. Did I mention irony? It was difficult to decide between this and L.H.O.O.Q. (http://www.luc.edu/depts/history/dennis/Visual_Arts/14_Dada_Duchamp_LHOOQ.jpg)

6. Bonnard's Triptych The Mediterranean

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/imgs_En/08/hm88_3_1_14_0.jpg

The light is exquisite in this enormous painting. If you ever get to The Hermitage, please seek it out.

7. Magritte's The Invisible World

http://www.the-artfile.com/gallery/artists/magritte/invisibleworld.jpg

I could have chosen a dozen (http://www.artres.com/LowRes2/TR3/F/W/7/X/ART95143.jpg)or more (http://www.abcgallery.com/M/magritte/magritte25a.JPG)paintings (http://www.abcgallery.com/M/magritte/magritte35.JPG)by Magritte--my all time favorite artist. His technique is impeccable, his images shocking, mysterious and enlightening by turns. I can't think of any painter that approaches his profundity. What will people make of him in 500 years I wonder?

8. Fountain and Kinetic Sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely

http://archiguide.free.fr/PH/FRA/Par/P04FontStPhaTin.jpg

The most delightful public art I've ever seen. This sort of thing represents my values much better than the old equestrian statue. They should put one of these in front of the White House. ;-)

9. Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece

http://www.anthroposophy.org.nz/images/The%20Resurrection%20of%20Christ.jpg

I've never seen it in person, but wow. This is an image of God I can get behind. Really amazing.

10. Hiroshige (any number of woodblock prints)


http://www.treehugger.com/files/hiroshige%20town.jpg

Daveybot already mention my other Edo period favorite, Hokusai. I love them both, but Hiroshige seems the more daring in terms of color (http://www.wisegorilla.com/images/japaneseprints/Hiroshige%20Irises_X.jpg)and composition (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hiroshige/takanawa.jpg). Aren't these are the guys that inspired impressionists and post-impressionists to get bold with their color schemes?

Honorable Mention:

Maurice Denis' Mother and Child (http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/imgs_En/08/hm88_3_1_14_4.jpg)
Luis Fernandez's Dos Palomas (http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/lfercatalogo/obra/lfer230.jpg)
Pretty much anything from Herge's Tintin
http://www.spiderbomb.com/burgundy/Tintin/Shooting.jpg

[maxivida]

Daveybot, thanks! Here (http://www.art-forum.org/z_Mann/gallery.htm) is a gallery of Sally Mann's family portraits. My other favourite is Emmet, Jessie, Virginia (http://www.art-forum.org/z_Mann/Images/SM_EmmetJessieVirginia1989_600.jpg). Her sepia toning is so subtle yet each photograph is very dramatic.

[rick green]

I love the Van Eyck, Renoir, Escher, Man Ray, and Rembrandt.
This is so fun. Please do keep them coming people. :-D
I can't see the appeal of Gormley's Angel, though. Is it really, as I read on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_the_North), "an icon expressing the 'essence of Englishness?'"
Not very flattering, in my humble opinion. Does anyone care to defend her honor?

[Daveybot]

I love the Van Eyck, Renoir, Escher, Man Ray, and Rembrandt.
This is so fun. Please do keep them coming people. :-D
I can't see the appeal of Gormley's Angel, though. Is it really, as I read on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_the_North), "an icon expressing the 'essence of Englishness?'"
Not very flattering, in my humble opinion. Does anyone care to defend her honor?

oooh, go on then - I'll have a go. I'm not an art critic, though, so don't put any special value in what I say!

Actually I'll start by saying that I agree with you - it doesn't to me show any particular 'essence of Englishness'. To me it shows a good deal more grace and humility. For me there are many elements which I like...

Material
Rust. I'm a big fan of pre-rusted steel, and here it seems particularly appropriate. Now that the shipbuilding industry of the area is gone, it seems the perfect material choice. It's a very touchy-feely material with a beautiful colour that at the same time gives a real impression of age and, well, death. I've heard many people say it should have been something shiny like gold or brass, but this choice is far more appropriate and humble in its feeling of solid, lasting, humble yet strong presence.

Pose
He just stands there politely, wings outstretched. He has a commanding presence without appearing overly showy. This is what angels are like - impressive without shouting about it.

Size
Aw, let's face it - that wing span is just incredible. Muchos kudos to Arups for the engineering.

...yeah, that sums it up for me. It's a great big, staggeringly bold, quietly-spoken angel. Rather than any particularly strong feelings about beauty, form, craft and so on, my feelings about this sculpture are predominantly that it just feels really appropriate.

[Digger]

I don't know about Englishness in general, English steel works and empty Tyneside ship yards yes. It faces south, standing on a rise in a bend of the motorway, Newcastle council estates at her/his back Yorkshire and the south in front, it is a most unusual place for a huge statue. As you stand at its feet, local football clubs can be heard practicing over a hedge. It is graceful and yet industrial. Although I sometimes remember it as smaller it is a huge statue and despite the steel of its wings it feels somehow light. I love it.

[Colyngbourne]

Re the Angel
It's the rust, and yet the smoothness of it - clean straight lines balanced against the curves on the body and legs; yet the rigidity of that immense wingspan which seems to hold up the sky and arrest the air around it. It surprises you as you breast that part of the dual carriageway (heading north) or travelling south, you swoop up towards it.

I think nearly everyone local to it - in Gateshead/Newcastle and in Co. Durham - loves it. There are always folk to be seen pottering around its feet.

[m.]

I'm not very knowledgeable about visual art too, but here's a couple of things I like, not ten cause I didn't want to think too long, in no particular order:

Modigliani - representative choice, I like others too

http://www.pitoresco.com/universal/modigliani/modigliani01.jpg

Leonardo da Vinci:

http://wk.pl/foto/f103.jpg

Caravaggio:

http://http://wk.pl/foto/f103.jpghttp://mapage.noos.fr/dardelf2/museum1/Caravaggio.jpg

Georges de la Tour

http://www.madamedeshoulieres.com/images/chap/savie/illus/grand/madeleine.jpg

Leonor Fini, this or something other

http://home.flash.net/%7Ekvanlaan/FINIPRESANCESANSISSUE.JPG

I don't know if these are in my top ten, but I like them. Maybe I'll think about something more later.
http://http://mapage.noos.fr/dardelf2/museum1/Caravaggio.jpg

[JunkMonkey]

Start of my list: (I will have to go away and think about all the possibles these are definates).

1
http://www.junk-monkey.freeserve.co.uk/blog/DSCF0004.JPG
Nose Lady by Yugi Hiratsuka.

2
http://www.junk-monkey.freeserve.co.uk/blog/DSCF0005.JPG
Osaka Diptych of Officials by Kunisada

Both of these bought when I had a disposable income. Sorry about the crap flash.

3
http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/T/T01/T01589_9.jpg

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space Umberto Boccioni (http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=771&page=1) 1882-1916
This is in Tate modern. I was there last year and stroked it when no one was looking


4
A 16th C Dutch (?) Madonna and Child in the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull that I wanted to steal for so long. I used to go there in my lunchtimes and look at it. Exquisitely detailed gentle little painting. I would stare at it for ages and contemplate how long it would take me to unscrew the thing from the wall and shove it in my bag. It was tiny, beautiful, only held on with two crosshead screws, and so near the door onto the street that if I hadn't been such a fucking wuss - sorry, I mean decent upright citizen - it would be on my living room wall right now. It was one of the reasons I quit Art college. I would look at it and think "That's Art - what we're doing in school is wank". I can't find the picture on the web. Take it from me. It's great.

5
http://www.artofeurope.com/velasquez/vel3.jpg
I've spent more than my fair share of time staring at this one too. Forget about the dubious angles of the reflection and the dodgey forshortening of the right arm - when you look at it in the gallery it's just the most exquisitely painted arse in the history of Western Culture.

To be continued...

[John Self]

I love the Magritte stuff you've linked to, rick.

[m.]

I look at the choices I posted yesterday and I see that they are really more about my mood at the moment of posting than my absolute top ever. I guess. lol. Ah, let it stay like that.

[Daveybot]

Trying to predict what Digger would pick yesterday was an interesting exrecise. I got a few (Gormley and Pollock), was not surprised by a few more (Caulfield, Freud) and some of them I'd never seen before.

Meanwhile at the same time I keep seeing other peoples choices (Pollock, Caulfield, Magritte, Duchamp, Herge...) and thinking 'Doh! Why didn't I include them?!' I'll stick with my top ten as they are, but it's bizarre how many times I've seen something pop up here that didn't make itself known to my memory while I was composing my list. Weird that things I like so much can't even be recalled when I'm trying to.

[chillicheese]

yes, I'll end up with a top 10 of the top 10s if I read this thread through any more. Can't believe I missed Magritte, and Max's were all stunning works.
Thanks for the Foster Assoc tip - I knew it was wrong when I wrote it but I was sure of correction here.

Perhaps a top 10 design might be interesting. Although that would rule out the chances of getting any work done today.

[m.]

I thought about including Cézanne but I don't know if I have a favourite painting of his. Sometimes I even think I don't like him that much (too cool) but then I see something of his and I know I do. But anyway, googling I found this quote from Modigliani: (http://www.mystudios.com/gallery/modigliani/chaim.html)

"Cezanne's figures, like most beautiful statues of antiquity, do not see. Mine, in contrast, do. They see even if I have not drawn their pupils. But like Cezanne's figures, they want to express nothing but a mute affirmation of life."
Nice.

[ono no komachi]

Ah, the perils of debating too long... Daveybot beat me to the Hokusai view of Mt Fuji in the hollow of a wave, and Digger's favourite Schiele is the same as mine!

I can't possibly order these, so here they are in random sequence.

Egon Schiele, Self Portrait

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d2/1schiele.portrait-black-vase.jpg/250px-1schiele.portrait-black-vase.jpg

Picasso, Guernica (detail only here)

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/scw/photoessay/guernica.jpg

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2002/images/73_43_mondrian_broadway_sm.gif

Atypical Dali. Girl Standing by a Window

http://www.irishart.com/blog/dali_irish_art.jpg

Van Gogh, Vincent's Chair with Pipe

http://www.frenchculture.org/art/pix/vangogh-chair.jpg

Hans Holbein, Portrait of Sir Thomas More

http://www.tudor-portraits.com/ThomasMore1_small.jpg

Henri Rousseau, Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)

http://www.irishart.com/blog/rousseau_irish_art.jpg

David Inshaw, Goldfinches

http://tabretts.co.uk/works/Inshaw/Goldfinches_W150.jpg

Jan Vermeer, The Astronomer

http://www.lps.uci.edu/home/web-tools/vermeer-astronomer.jpg

Hokusai, Mt Fuji with Thunderstorm below the Peak

http://www.stmoroky.com/reviews/gallery/hokusai/fuji24.jpg

[Daveybot]

Aaaagh! Mondrian! Of course! And Rousseau! Gah! Ten simply isn't enough....

Perhaps a top 10 design might be interesting. Although that would rule out the chances of getting any work done today.
please don't anyone set that up yet! I have a portfolio review hand-in on thursday and if someone starts it I'll have to kill my wifi adapter with a five-pound lump hammer in order to have any hope of resisting!

[maxivida]

Egon Schiele, Self Portrait

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d2/1schiele.portrait-black-vase.jpg/250px-1schiele.portrait-black-vase.jpg



Live long and prosper! :lol:

[John Self]

A couple of your pics aren't showing up for me, ono.

[ono no komachi]

Which ones, John? I'll try and find better links.

[Daveybot]

Which ones?Van Gogh and Picasso aren't showing up for me...

[ono no komachi]

Has there been any improvement, guys?

[John Self]

Yes all OK now!

(By the way if anyone is hotlinking to other people's sites, bear in mind that the links might not be there for ever so it's not a bad idea to try to link to your own copies of the pics in Flickr/photobucket etc if we want to still see the pics in a year's time. Oh that and the fact that hotlinking is dreadfully improper...)

[maxivida]

How can hotlinking be more dreadfully improper than nicking a pic off someone's website and putting it on your flickr page? :-)

[Daveybot]

I hosted my own thumbnail versions but made them links to larger images elsewhere. So, viewing this thread only eats up my own bandwidth, but if anyone follows the links then they'll still be eating other people's bandwidths without the formatting originally intended by that third person. I'm not sure where that puts me in netiquette terms but would welcome some input - anyone?

[John Self]

I think that's fine Davey. Max, as Daveybot's response suggests, the only reason hotlinkling is dreadfully improper (and I cite generally accepted netiquette here, not my personal opinion) is because it uses up other people's bandwidth, ie every time someone views this Palimpage, some poor innocent's monthly limit is slowly being reached. Of course in a small site like ours it hardly matters, and anyway it's never stopped me from linking book cover pics directly off Amazon - hell, they can afford it.

[chillicheese]

If you post an image on a website then you are offering it up for anyone to download (unless you do one of those sneaky transparent layers over the top of it).

Linking direct to the image is a bit rude as every time the page loads it will contact the hosting server. This just increases traffic which may affect performance (although not usually cost).

The other side of the coin is duplication of storage. Each time we download an image to host it ourselves we are doubling the storage used by the image. I don't know how much disk space there is in the world but it probably doubles every year at least and is massively wasteful.

[gil]

1. I actually own one of my top pieces of art, a watercolour of the early 18th century, artist uncertain.
http://static.flickr.com/21/30297723_86a19a2944.jpg

2. I love Gormley's Angel, too, especially since we are close friends of Gormley's sister, but there's a special place in my heart for Epstein's Rock Drill, which I saw at an exhibition in Edinburgh as a child.
I was hugely impressed, and no picture conveys the weight of this creature.
http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/T/T00/T00340_8.jpg

3. Turner's Fighting Temeraire - OK, very famous, but I liked it BEFORE it was on every chocolate box.
http://www.wmich.edu/~emrl/vt/pics/turner_temeraire_mid.jpg

4. Doisneau's Kiss - Doisneau - THE photographer

http://www.javadmon.akkasee.com/archives/image/Doisneau_kiss.jpg

5. Van Gogh's Wheat field with cypresses.
http://www.o-livro.de/pictures/artwork/van-gogh_weizenfeld-mit-zypressen.jpg
(And a copy of it painted by Beryl and hanging on our stairs)
http://static.flickr.com/33/49321112_68a26333d1_o.jpg

6. Lichtenstein. I like Whaaam best, but we've had that one. Here's a collage.
http://www12.brinkster.com/firsttango/varios/lichtenstein%20collage.JPG


Below here, it's mostly categories, rather than specifics:

7. I love good graffitti. I was delighted by Daveybot's Banksie suggestion - pardon my ignorance, I'd never heard of him till today but loved his website.
As a token, I append one of the imaginative municipal graffitti in Sunbury Cross Roundabout Underpass. There are more on my Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/crudpuppy/. http://static.flickr.com/49/143348119_ea31ec2875.jpg

8. I adore the impressionists. Monet's poppies and water lilies are,
of course, commonplace. As a representative of the rest, I
suggest Utrillo..
http://www.somegate.com/upload/Snow_White_1083495035_gallery26_05.jpg

9. Chinese watercolours, especially these vast landscapes
http://www.the-gallery-of-china.com/chinese-landscape-painting-L5704.jpg

10. Milles -
http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd0836/millesgarden-27.3.jpg

11 - 99. Oh, choices, choices. Dali, Pre-Raphaelites, Japanese prints, Durer, Beardsley, Vigelund, Geoff Hunt's marine illustrations, etc, usw...

[gil]

Oops - I used the same Utrillo as chillicheese.

And if the BMW bike counts, why did I forget Lamborghini?

And, ono, I would have had the same Rousseau tiger had you not beaten me to it.

And I missed all the Dutch masters! How could I?

[Colyngbourne]

I like the Milles, gil. We were able to visit the Milles-garten (sp?) when we were in Stockholm aeons ago.

[gil]

Millésgården (pronounced Meel-aze-goard-en) is wonderful. When we lived in Stockholm it was a favourite outing.
(It's so hard to get the right spelling - is there any way just to type html into this edit box?)

[JunkMonkey]

Perhaps a top 10 design might be interesting.
When we get round to this can we take the London Underground Map and the Anglepoise Lamp as read?

[Daveybot]

I'm not listening I'm not listening! la la la la la la! Stop it! You're making me think, dagnammit!

[Lizzy Siddal]

In no particular order:

1) Chardin - Lady Drinking Tea 1735
Hangs in the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow. You can often find me staring in awe at the wisps of steam rising from the teapot and cup.

http://static.flickr.com/44/143592313_6454c7b7e3_m.jpg

2) Turner - The Grand Canal Venice
You have to see this picture to appreciate the scale, grandeur and the incredible 3D effect.

http://static.flickr.com/54/143561390_b590093a5c_m.jpg

3) Renoir - Umbrellas
Living in Scotland, you learn to appreciate these things.

http://static.flickr.com/49/143561391_5566bcdc76_m.jpg

4) Van Gogh - Almond Blossom
Delicate and gorgeous!

http://static.flickr.com/50/143561388_d2572df54b_m.jpg

5) Degas - Dancers in Blue
Noone does ballet dancers like Degas .... and, if Col prefers the brown palette, it appears I have a thing for the blue.

http://static.flickr.com/50/143584608_29a7bce7e6_m.jpg

6) Kandinsky - Im Schwarzen Viereck
A representative (non-blue) choice. Impossible to select a favourite.

http://static.flickr.com/56/143561389_466fd9a748_m.jpg


7) Goya - Colossus
I sometimes share the feeling!


http://static.flickr.com/52/143561392_234c5db64e_m.jpg
8) Munch - The Scream
I know this feeling also! Teenagers don't have the copyright on angst!

http://static.flickr.com/46/143584607_d94da424fb_m.jpg

9) George Baraque - Mandola
I just didn't understand cubism until I stood and wandered around this picture. Then wow! (The effect won't come across in this image but I had to mention it.)

http://static.flickr.com/54/143584609_6a42246336_m.jpg

10) The M8 Heavy Horse
Glasgow's equivalent of the Angel of the North. A wonderful animal which raises a smile everytime I drive past.

http://static.flickr.com/7/5946371_80e1781b1f_m.jpg


Thanks, Col. Great thread. I've had a wonderful evening compiling this.

[rick green]

I love the Magritte stuff you've linked to, rick.

Hmm. A couple of them aren't showing up anymore. Could it be that hotlinking thing?

[John Self]

I'm still seeing them all, rick - though it could be that my computer has just stored the images in its cache.

[amner]

All Angels & Demons here, but nothing to do with Dan Brown...


1. Degas: Yellow Dancers (in the wings)

http://static.flickr.com/50/143972077_94c8cda612_o.jpg

Lizzy's spot on with Degas, but I prefer the yellow. Recently on loan to Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum.

2. Blake: The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun

http://static.flickr.com/55/143972079_14282752c1.jpg

With Max on Blake, look at the power and the menace in that. Remarkable.

3. Abel Lafleur: Nike of Samothrace (Winged Victory)


http://static.flickr.com/50/143972081_d92efe73eb.jpg

The original Jules Rimet trophy. Beautiful, isn't it? It's almost a shame the Brazilians won it outright because the replacement is a monstrosity.

4. Unknown: The Lincoln Imp

http://static.flickr.com/43/143972080_aea4b91b8a_o.jpg

An iconic image from my (and Notty's) home town cathedral. Just an elaborate mason's mark, really, but now an extraordinarily pervasive symbol in Lincolnshire (and further beyond if you care to look: a copy was made in C19th for Lincoln College, Oxford - whose head porter is called the Imp - and the local student newspaper is called the Imp), so the wee fella is well-travelled.

5. Sidney Paget: Moriarty

http://static.flickr.com/45/143972377_703f68e452_o.jpg

The best of the Holmes illustrators and the most recognisable. Brilliantly evocative.

6. Hablôt K. Browne: Shadows

http://static.flickr.com/37/143972378_04f400b0b7_o.jpg

Can't mention Paget without giving Phiz a run, too. Dickens doesn't need complementing, but Browne manages to make himself indispensable. This, of course, from Bleak House.

7. JMW Turner: Rain, Steam and Speed

http://static.flickr.com/46/143972379_57d9a959d5.jpg

Repeating gil, here, but how can you not like Turner, the power and intensity is majestic. Love it love it love it.

8. Unknown: Japanese infantry taking Wong Nei Chung Gap, Hong Kong, 1941

http://static.flickr.com/50/143972380_aba0a64662.jpg

I have a personal connection with the fall of HK, which is how I came across this. There's a frightening, chilling sense of speed and chaos at work here that gives it a sinister feeling of immediacy and confusion.

9. Charles Pears: Underground Poster

http://static.flickr.com/44/143972082_eba2d343f6_o.jpg

Awesome. Pears did dozens of Underground posters, and other tourism posters and maritime paintings, the lot, mostly in the twenties, and they're all exceptional pieces of art. This is a poster for the tube! The tube! Better than all the *&^%ing mobile 'phone gubbins we get these days. Fabulous.

10. Gormley's Angel

http://static.flickr.com/55/143972076_6a52a20893_o.jpg

...again. Rick, you just have to see it.

[Colyngbourne]

Lots of excellent choices there - better sense of scale for the Angel; the Nike is beautiful too. And the Blake, the Turner, the Moriarty (illustrations -another, slightly more bookish, Top 10 maybe...?)

[John Self]

I'd never seen the original Jules Rimet trophy before now. Yes, it's a damn sight better than the finger-moulded-clay-with-gold-leaf-highlights one they now have.

[amner]

Top 10 Works of Art Immediately Inspired By (Or Which Have Inspired) Books, perhaps?
8)
Hmmm...!

Glad I put the Lafleur up there: the Nike is beautiful...keep looking at it. What is it that Frank Skinner says the replacement looks like? An arm holding a grapefruit covered in custard, something like that?

[maxivida]

It's remarkable how the actor who plays Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes TV series looks almost exactly the same as this drawing. The art of casting!

Blake's Red Dragon is, I think, the most dramatic and terrifying picture of all chosen so far.

The Tube poster is wonderful too - I love art deco, shame I didn't include some of it among my choices.

[amner]

The Tube poster is wonderful too - I love art deco, shame I didn't include some of it among my choices.

Yup. Those 20s tourism posters are magic. This is for Harrogate, fercryingoutloud!:

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/VAS/0000-4320-4.jpg

It could be Nice, or Monaco or Rome or somewhere swish and cosmopolitan.

[Colyngbourne]

It could be Nice, or Monaco or Rome or somewhere swish and cosmopolitan.

I think that's what Harrogate attempts to be.
I find it unctious with ideas above its station. But Agatha Christie liked it, and it has a Betty's which is horrendously overpriced.

[chillicheese]

For the D'bots really but also the other palflickimpsrs too
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceaman/143713990/in/pool-banksy/

[Oryx]

I agree with all!!!

Here are a couple of my favourites that I haven't sen here yet

Van Gogh The Potato Eaters

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/potato-eaters.jpg



http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_53.140.4.jpg

Picasso Woman in white



Bruegel- The Peasant's wedding

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bruegel/wedding.jpg

[Daveybot]

Haharrr! Portfolio handed in and I'm now a man of freedom and leisure!

So, I allowed myself to amble about town taking photos again after a long self-policed absence, and remembered that I hadn't taken any of the Headington Shark (http://www.headington.org.uk/history/misc/shark.htm) yet. I think I might have to boot one of my previous entries out to be replaced by this wonder.

Yeah, The Angel Of The North can be replaced by this instead - Gormley's got enough fans without me! Bill Heine's Untitled 1986

http://static.flickr.com/44/144525103_91bb3dee71_m.jpg

(http://static.flickr.com/44/144525103_91bb3dee71_o.jpg)Though officially it's a commentary on the horrors of nuclear warfare, I must admit my admiration of it is more based on the fact that it's a freaking great white shark in a roof!

[Blackrat]

I applied to join yesterday. This is my first post - I'm not allowed to start a new thread, so I'll tag along here as this was my favourite of what I have seen so far.
My selection arises from a quote in Lawrence Block's The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian,

Just a handful of good painters this century. Mondrian, of course. Picasso, maybe five percent of the time, when he wasn't cocking around. But five percent of Picasso is plenty ... Who else? Pollack. Frank Roth. Trossman. Clyfford Still. Darragh Park. Rothko, before he got so far down he forgot to use color.Not all of those exist, but enough to spend some time with:

Picasso
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu3.gif

Pollock
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu4.jpg

Roth A Chair Contemplating Christianity
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu2.jpg

I think Trossman is fictional

Still
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu1.jpg

Park
seems to exist, but I have not found an example

Rothko
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu5.jpg

and, of course the master,
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/the_pi39.jpg

I would also throw in Barnaby Conrad III, Mondrian's Martini
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/mondri27.jpg

Not sure how to get the images on the page, so I'll return and trythat when I have learned.

Cheers
Nick

[John Self]

Welcome to Palimpsest, blackrat/Nick. Sorry about the not-starting-new-threads thing; we were getting a lot of spammers at one time and this policy was a reaction to that. We may review it in the future.

Oh and you may want to look around for another avatar, to avoid confusion with our member chillicheese... If you've got an avatar pic you like which isn't in our gallery, you can post a link to it on the Avatars thread in the All About Palimpsest forum.

Welcome again!

[ono no komachi]

Think amner's link to the harrogate poster may have been subverted! :lol:

[Digger]

Welcome Blackrat - I love the Pollock. Was in MoMA NY at the beginning of the month and spent ages in the Pollock room, just spectacular.

[leyla]

Welcome, Blackrat. Does your avatar mean you're tall, dark and very strong?

[Hekaterine]

Calm down Leyla! ;-)

[aemy]

I applied to join yesterday. This is my first post - I'm not allowed to start a new thread, so I'll tag along here as this was my favourite of what I have seen so far.
My selection arises from a quote in Lawrence Block's The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian,

Just a handful of good painters this century. Mondrian, of course. Picasso, maybe five percent of the time, when he wasn't cocking around. But five percent of Picasso is plenty ... Who else? Pollack. Frank Roth. Trossman. Clyfford Still. Darragh Park. Rothko, before he got so far down he forgot to use color.Not all of those exist, but enough to spend some time with:

Picasso
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu3.gif

Pollock
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu4.jpg

Roth A Chair Contemplating Christianity
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu2.jpg

I think Trossman is fictional

Still
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu1.jpg

Park
seems to exist, but I have not found an example

Rothko
http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu5.jpg (http://www.snap-dragon.com/_private/turnqu5.jpg)

Hi Nick:

What a wonderful selection. And did Rothko finally give up on colour? If I could hang a copy (large) of the one you show here across my entire front window, I might just get through the bleak mid-winter huddling on the cold shores of Lake Ontario!

Anyway, I'm newish too; welcome aboard!

Aemy

[aemy]

Ah, the Chi Rho cross from the Book of Kells! I have a copy of this one too, DaveyB.

Lovely to see it here,

Aemy

[aquablue]

These are my top three favorite painters. Each piece represented is my favorite work by that artist:

1. Danae by Gustav Klimt (1907)

http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Klimt/klimt7.jpg

2. The Child’s Bath by Mary Cassatt (1893)

http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Impressionist/images/cassatt_lg.jpg

3. Almond Branches in Bloom, San Remy by Vincent van Gogh (1890):

http://www.abcgallery.com/V/vangogh/vangogh53.JPG

How about you? Do you have any favorite painters?

[Colyngbourne]

Aquablue, I moved your post/thread about favourite pics into this thread for Top 10 Favourite Works of Art. Hopefully you'll find out some of Palimper's favourite artists in the preceding pages.

[vald]

http://www.poster.net/matisse-henri/matisse-henri-the-dance-5300020.jpg

Sorry. I'm just playing around with trying to send pictures. I don't really know how to do it. :cry: I copied and pasted this one in, as I had trouble with trying to upload from Photobucket. I'm not very techy. Anyway, this Matisse is one of my favs. I'll come back with more if I can work it out. By the way, I love this thread, as art is a great interest of mine.

[Colyngbourne]

If you have saved your fave art images to photobucket, you can grab the URL of each image from there (underneath your pic there, there should be a box showing the URL to use) - then having copied a particular URL, click on the icon with the mountains/yellow sky/moon above a Palimp-Reply box and paste your URL into the pop-up.

[vald]

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh266/montanaspagirls/ophelia.jpg

Thanks Col. I'll have a try. I went into Photobucket for this image, but I think I could have just bypassed it, as I just copied and pasted the image, and I don't think I needed to access them. I saved the image to my folder though.

[BiNS]

I knew I'd seen that picture before:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61XFXVN4VYL._SS500_.jpg

[JunkMonkey]

Gettin' a bit OT here but by happenstance I came across this today in Silcock's Verse and Worse:


A Pre-Raphaelite
Had to have things right.
The patient redhead, Elizabeth Siddal,
Lay in the bathtub up to her middle
(But richly gowned)
To show what she would look like drowned.
At last she sneezed: Oh Mr. Millais,
Do I 'ave to welter 'ere all day?
It's enough to congeal ya:
Posing for Ophelia
Christopher Morely

[vald]

:lol: I believe she caught pneumonia and tried to sue, (or I have I got the wrong person?)

[amner]

As we've talked about the Angel of the North on here so many times, I thought I'd just share this pic:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3344/3308351349_1c58d5d787.jpg


from when we went up there last week. Wonderful it is.

And anyway, I hoped it might re-open the thread for those newer members who may not have seen it yet.

[bill]

I've never even heard of that. It looks awfully impressive.

Also, why are so many of you people on this forum so good at photography? Are you all bussed in here every morning from the same class?

[amner]

I'm torn as to whether the person sat on the foot is a good thing. They're nothing to do with me, but it does give a sense of scale.

[Colyngbourne]

There are another couple of views of the Angel on pg 1 of this thread. It might end up dwarfed in size by the tedious Horse of the South (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5703930.ece) (I'm not going to dignify it with the 'Angel' tag) but it will last longer, be more inspiring, and look less like an outside child's toy.

[amner]

Now, now, Col...it's all in the eye of the beholder!

[John Self]

Chippy northerners!

each testicle [will be] the volume of a people carrier


What's not to like?

[amner]

i like it, too

[amner]

But enough...a few more Top Tens would be wonderful.

[Colyngbourne]

It's a horse, standing still, wearing a bridle, not the prancing heraldic horse (for Horsa) of Kentish history.

All of the shortlisted designs were strange. I would have picked the collapsing pylon, I think.

[bill]

But enough...a few more Top Tens would be wonderful.

http://home.att.net/~tcvcaccc/Romo2.jpg

[Daveybot]

I quite like the horse, myself. It's so thoroughly ordinary, and too much Public Art these days is inspiring or dramatic. About time we spent some money on getting a 'what the... why's there a giant horse?' reaction from Joe Public.

Hugely enjoyable.

[amner]

There should be a Public Art thread, actually...

[John Self]

Bill, I love that painting. It so clearly combines the things the artist loves most. Horses, hunky footballers, haunted mountains, and redheads. More art should be like that.

[amner]

It's excellent, although I think he's poor at human feet...he's obscured them with a rock.

I like the candy-coloured mountain.

[bill]

Please note the fire coming from the horse's eyes. This is clearly an evil horse, which I believe the artist meant to represent evil in some form. Most likely a horse form.

A public art thread would be delightful.

[Colyngbourne]

A great painting, bill. The horse seems to be pretty humanesque, and more like a boxer in stance. And it makes me think of Charlie the Unicorn and the Candy Mountain.

[amner]

The Public Art thread can now be found here (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3930).

[bill]

I've just looked at some of the other pictures of the angel statue, and I have to ask: am I the only one reminded of the wicker man?

http://paganbookworm.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/wickerman.jpg

[amner]

It does...they should pillory a D-List celeb inside it every week, Edward Woodward-style.

[bill]

I would hope that Edward Woodward would actually be spared this time around.

[gil]

I can't say the Kentish Horse inspires anything in me. It looks like a huge plastic toy, not even as original and striking as one of these wind turbines. On the other hand, the Denver Bear (http://www.deskproto.com/gallery/bear.htm) is cheeky - a sort of Banksy prank - and I like it.

[Beth]

http://www.marquetrymurals.com/Original9sec.jpg

What a treat to find this new old thread at the close of a long day!

Children at Play - Oscar Howe. I have a numbered print of this from his museum (http://www.dakotadiscovery.com/subcategory.cfm?cat_id=8&subcat_Id=20). The colors are more beautiful than this image captures; it's my favourite.

http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/%7Esma/images/homer.jpg

Cloud Shadows - Winslow Homer

http://hoocher.com/john_singer_sargent/Sargent_John_Singer_Mrs_George_Swinton.jpg

Mrs. George Swinton - John Singer Sargent, an immense portrait, 90 inches in height. Spent a rapt hour in front of her once at the Art Institute of Chicago. Couldn't get away...

http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Vermeer/images/assoupie1.jpg

Asleep - Vermeer

http://www.discoversd.com/images/OriginalImages/Admin/Article/keefe1-27May2008073522805000.jpg

Georgia O'fCourse

[Fester]

My Top 3

L'Ange du Foyer ou le Triomphe du Surréalisme - Max Ernst

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz253/Fester847/L27Ange_du_Foyeur.jpg

Whaam! - Roy Lichtenstein

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz253/Fester847/Roy_Lichtenstein_Whaam.jpg

The Tetons and the Snake River - Ansel Adams

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz253/Fester847/Ansel-Adams-The-Tetons-and-the-Snak.jpg