What's your favorite piece of art?

I was never an art guy growing up. I used to think that people would call anything a masterpiece, even if it seemed to be something made in a pre-k crafts class (think dots on the wall).

After taking a gen-ed class back in community college, I started to understand why people respected and appreciated art. Art wasn't as superficial as I thought it seemed to be. Most pieces evoke thought, as well as tell a history of people's failures and triumphs.

Art is the story of the human condition. In this spirit, I wanted to share some of my favorite "stories". I'm always looking to add more to my list, so please share yours! These are some I can think off the top of my head:

  • Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich
  • Mandolin and Guitar by Pablo Picasso
  • Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez
  • The Treachery of Images (This is Not A Pipe) by Rene Magritte
 

My favorite piece of art currently is a pastel painted of my family by a friend of mine who died in the past year. What made it really special is that he painted it from the first photo taken of my wife and I with our two adopted sons in their orphanage, and we had no idea he was doing it. He was a really accomplished artist, and he presented it to us framed beautifully.

I used to own an obscure painting entitled, "The Art Collector" which was both beautiful and sinister at the same time. I bought it from a gallery about to go under, so at $2,000 I got it for pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, I agreed to let my second wife have it in our divorce in order for me to take a 1982 Dom Perignon Rosé that held a great deal of "fuck you" value for me. I ended up enjoying the bottle at Friday lunch at Galatoire's (my NOLA readers will know what I'm talking about) with my current wife while we were dating, and no less than 25 of our fellow patrons (as well as every waiter) came up to the table to say hello, and pulled the bottle out of the bucket just to see the label. On balance, probably the better art investment.

I also happen to own one of Dan Mackin's rarer pieces (Dolphin Trio), but it's in storage so I can't enjoy it here in Paris.

 

Since the cash is not coming in yet I repainted Jackson Pollocks Number 23.

It didnt turn out to be exact like the original but is a rather a personal intepretation of it. It still looks great and I take it whenever I move and its the first thing I put on the walls.

By the way it is an awesome conversation starters with the ladies when they visit my pad.

"too good to be true" See my WSO Blog
 

I have 5 Franklin Saye original oil paintings my grandmother gave me before she moved. He's a really good regional artist and most of his work is sold word of mouth rather than in a gallery...not worth as much as some of the aforementioned but still great in that the prints have sold very well.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

I don't own any pieces of art other than some prints & such yet, but I hope to soon enough. However at my father's house is my favourite painting of all. It is a Canaletto which depicts a busy river scene in C18th London.

Possibly the most scary moment of my life was when I was a kid kicking a soccer ball around the house and accidentally slammed it against the frame of this very painting!!!

 

I'm only a poor college student, and so my "collection" consists of only a print of Scuola di Atene. Though it of course has to be my favorite because I only have the one, in fairness, I bought the print because it was my favorite (I love the Renaissance and its impact on art, science, etc.).

@ Eddy-- You, sir, are a boss.

"Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on 'income distribution', the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: it is earned." -Thomas Sowell
 

Again, I am no art expert, but from the (minimal) research that I have done, I think that Pollock's work is renown because he was a leader in the abstract expressionist movement, with No. 5 being his most famous painting. I think that famous works of art become famous not necessarily for how "good" they are, but for what they represent (a movement, a change in style, etc.).

 

Starry Night ftw! I like both versions to be honest - the bridge and the village versions. My thesis prof was a huge fan of Van Gogh. A starry night coffee mug gift to him, in exchange for a less difficult life for me. I also love Munch, Rembrandt, David and Dali.

My favourite painting though, would be the painting depicting all the nations marching in line as they were predicted to have revolutionary movements for freedom. Never remembered the name of the painting or the painter, but the concept was beautiful and so relevant for its time.

GoldenCinderblock: "I keep spending all my money on exotic fish so my armor sucks. Is it possible to romance multiple females? I got with the blue chick so far but I am also interested in the electronic chick and the face mask chick."
 
 
 

Not sure who the artist is, but it's a real masterpiece- whenever I look in the mirror the portrait staring back at me.. Just seems to capture what I'm feeling, ya know?

26 Broadway where's your sense of humor?
 

That's incredibly beautiful. Anyone know where to find a higher-rez photo of it? Google is turning up 1024 × 1024 max which is bumming me out.

"A modest man, with much to be modest about"
 

Tangential: Wikipedia has a list of the most expensive paintings. A lot of them have high-resolution scans available online.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings

Has anybody ever considered Google Image Searching these (big shoutout to the image search Chrome extension), downloading the highest-resolution pngs one could find, take those nice big files to a Kinkos, print them, frame them, and hang them up on apartment walls to impress friends and girls like one isn't a total incorrigible plebeian?

...Or is that just my dumb, posturing, sex-and-friendship-craving ass?

"A modest man, with much to be modest about"
 

Saw the thread title, came to post The Treachery of Images myself. There isn't a single painting in the world I think about more than that one.

On another note, I personally think non-paintings are underrated as a frameable medium of art. I find images that people don't even think of as "art" to be powerful. Take this for example:

Higgs-Boson That's an image of the discovery of the Higgs-Boson. To me, it's simulatenously humbling and a profound reminder of human accomplishment and the unimaginable scope of what's currently unknown about our universe. That's awesome. I'd frame that if I had the time & free space on my wall.

"A modest man, with much to be modest about"
 

I don't know if I have a favorite piece of art but I own two Cleon Peterson's. He's an artist based out of L.A. who's battled homelessness and drug abuse and makes some pretty sweet art based off those experiences. His art deals with violence, cruelty, greed and all that cool stuff. Not sure if it's up everyone's alley but he's quite talented and has work featured all over the world and has the first and only mural ever painted under the Eiffel Tower.

His artwork isn't that expensive (around $150 for a numbered, limited print) but can be hard to get. He posts all of his pieces on Instagram as soon as he puts them up for sale and I have it set up so I get a notification when he posts them. They're normally sold out in a few minutes so I have to make a pretty quick assumption of whether or not I want to own that specific piece of his art.

Here's the one I recently bought:

![http://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/188454788/Burning-the-Dead-P…] Cool looking piece if you ask me but some people find it a little scary... But I guess that's the point of art, to make you look at and realize ideas bigger than yourself.

Quote from the artist on his work: "I want to present things that are cognitively dissonant, ideas that make the viewer have to think critically about the ethical, moral, and historical roles we all play in the world. "

 

My favorite was a painting I saw in one of the big art galleries in DC when I was in high school. It was a portrayal of King David leading an army out the gates and down the hills of Jerusalem. I was astounded by the detail that went in to each of the hundreds of soldiers. Still haven't been able to find the name or picture of the painting.

 

Pieta by Michelangelo Marine by Gustave Courbet Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso

Would post pics but I can't help but fuck up the code

[quote=mbavsmfin]I don't wear watches bro. Because it's always MBA BALLER time! [/quote]
 

Franz Marc's Dog Lying in the Snow

. Beyond this, I have a preference for French impressionists (Monet, Cezanne, Degas, etc.), expressionists (Weber in particular), Seurat, Italian futurists (Sironi), surrealists (Magritte especially), and modern abstract (Mondrian).

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw
 

Any sculpture fans here?

My personal favourite is Remington's Cheyenne http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_07.80.jpg" alt="Cheyenne-Remington" />

GoldenCinderblock: "I keep spending all my money on exotic fish so my armor sucks. Is it possible to romance multiple females? I got with the blue chick so far but I am also interested in the electronic chick and the face mask chick."
 

I was never an art person growing up but while I was in Bilbao I got to see the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition I got to experience how you could decode art a little bit and understand it much better. Even in that short period getting to know who he was and how he was obsessed with certain things like Ancient Eqypt and also the book Gray's Anatomy and how that played out in his work you went from this seemingly undecipherable output (the art) but once you had the context or input you could see why.

bas

 
wilder:

I was never an art person growing up but while I was in Bilbao I got to see the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition I got to experience how you could decode art a little bit and understand it much better. Even in that short period getting to know who he was and how he was obsessed with certain things like Ancient Eqypt and also the book Gray's Anatomy and how that played out in his work you went from this seemingly undecipherable output (the art) but once you had the context or input you could see why.

bas

Ah. All those different complexities. I've been to Bilbao too, what did you do out there?

 

Le genie du mal. Personally prefer this version from a purely aesthetic perspective to L'ange du mal, but the story behind L'ange being "too sublime" that it was removed from the its original place at the Belgian pulpit is pretty damn cool haha.

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Lucifer_Liege_Luc_V… https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Lucifer_Liege_Luc_V…

 

I don't know its name and can't find a picture of it online to identify it. Unfortunately it was in a no photography section, which prevents me from using google reverse image search- nothing matches. It was a series of ink on paper drawing by a french artist from back in the day.

Eastern Asian art is also nice.

**How is my grammar? Drop me a note with any errors you see!**
 
The_Regulator:

I don't know its name and can't find a picture of it online to identify it. Unfortunately it was in a no photography section, which prevents me from using google reverse image search- nothing matches.
It was a series of ink on paper drawing by a french artist from back in the day.

Eastern Asian art is also nice.

What a bummer. What examples of Eastern Asian art did you have in mind?

Not too familiar with it, would like to know more.

 

I have a 5ft x 7ft oil on canvas that is my favorite.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Herbert Leupin PKZ Ad 1942 - He did a lot of great poster ads.

Everything from Rolex to Vermouth

Herbert Leupin PKZ 1942

Just got my hands on an original one of these.

I also qualify designer furniture as art.

Here are some of my favorites: Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen: Womb Chair

Eames Lounge Chair by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller:

Eames

Artichoke Lamp by Poul Henningsen for Louis Poulsen Lighting: Artichoke

Also Harry Bertoia furniture and Bauhaus architecture.

 

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