Anyone have any faves? I've been doing a museum tour here recently and have two that immediately come to mind. This one called L'Enigme by Gustave Dore, which is in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris:



And this one called The Orator, which is in the LA Contemporary Art Museum:



I could stare at both of those for hours.

It pretty much ends and begins with Van Gogh, at least for me. The guy dealt with some really potent internal deamons and is one of the symbols of the starving artist. I wasn't big into art until I checked out Van Gogh's museum in Amsterdam. The first time I went I had taken about 13 grams of Hawaiian shrooms and it was a mind-blowing, transcendent experience. I was seeing evil, sneering faces swirling in his paintings of hay fields and images of monsters and creatures in moving dark clouds and sky. I felt like I really understood what he was going through. The second time I went I was just a bit stoned. Still it was incredible. I don’t get that feeling or reaction from within with any other artist.

But the Musee D'Orsay is by far my favorite museum. It has my favorite Van Gogh works. I just really enjoy the impressionism style and I don’t know of a museum with a better variety of that style.

I'm a big fan of Geopoliticus Child Witnessing The Birth Of The New Man, by Dali :



and Raft of the Medusa, by Theodore Gericault.

My favorite thing about Van Gogh is that his paintings are totally three dimensional. So much paint on the canvas.

We gots to have more art fans round here.

I'm currently reading:

Anyone who likes art should read Heller's Picture This.

Speaking of Raft of the Medusa, did you know that the model for the (likely dead) raft passenger bent over backwards and hanging into the water at the bottom right of the painting was none other than fellow French romanticist Eugene Delacroix?

Actually I was mistaken. Delacroix is the dead passenger lying face down in the foreground with his arms outstretched. I learned that wrong back in the day, I guess.

I love this painting by Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes . It feels as though it is lit from within.

I've seen that one before. Definitely dig it.

Saw this one the other day.

Is that at the Getty?

Yup. Still amazed that the Getty is effing free. Pay $8 bucks for parking, take the rail up to the top and enjoy four full buildings of priceless art, including a number of priceless Monet, Manet, van Gogh and Pissaro works, all for free. I go there all the time. They had a traveling exhibit of Bernini's bust work the last time I was there a couple weeks ago.

I thought it looked familiar. I was there in '06 when they had an amazing display of Ansel Adam's original prints. That guy had an amazing eye for capturing life.

My favourite

You guys have to go to St. Petersburg, FL to the Salvador Dali museum!

I didn't realize there was a Dali museum in Florida.

Currently reading:

It's like 20 minutes from my house. It's pretty cool.

I feel like I like really cliched artists, but my favorites are Van Gough, Picasso, Dali, and Monet. Sorry, I'm mainstream.

They're mainstream for a reason. You put any of the Impressionists in front of me -- Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Degas, Morisot -- and I'm hooked in for hours. I have a van Gogh and Manet print on my wall right now.

Modern and fringe art is intimidating. A lot of it is overwrought nonsense. I love abstract impressionism but I'm not dense enough to consider it immune to the kind of wankery that makes it seem like the height of pretension. And the extravagant prices some of this mess draws at auction will echo that sentiment.

If you're interested enough in "new" art, try Agusti Puig and Laurie Maitland. I'm just getting into newer stuff myself, but its a good entry point. I tried getting into straight Rothko, color stuff, and that is unbelievably intimidating on first blush.




And I live in the Florida panhandle, so I'm seriously tempted to make a road trip to check out those Dalis.