I had thought about putting together what I consider the top ten greatest artist of all time. But then I couldn't decide what "great" really meant. It is not merely most important, meaning most influential, but also having a timeless quality. An example would be my friend Andy Warhol. I must grudgingly admit he is the most important, influential artist of the second half of the twentieth century extending into the present. But I feel that influence has been so damaging to the humanist tradition of painting that I can not consider him great. All I could come up with was three and one of those was a tie. They are (in order) Michelangelo, van Gogh/ Gauguin and Picasso with perhaps (don't know) maybe Giotto or Courbet or Manet? And I guess maybe the whole ancient Greek sculpture/ architecture team.
So instead I decided to form my own top ten favorite artist list and here I don't need to know why. This list is good only for February 6, 2011 between the hours of 10 pm and midnight. In no particular order:
1.Michelangelo
2.van Gogh
3.Gauguin
4.Picasso
5.Beckmann
6. Guston
7.Hartley
8.Bacon
9.Titian
10.Cornell
Maybe Next I will tackle the next ten on the list. I think that will be much more interesting and possibly revealing.
No comments:
Post a Comment