I'm a big fan of Ivan Albright's work - some very dark stuff and not the easiest to 'get', but a supreme artist in my opinion.
Most view this as his masterpiece (me included) and it took him 10 years to finish. A fairly small image below but in real life it is a big canvas - 8' tall and 3' wide.
Art is strange isn't it. A bit like football players: you can just tell when there's that little bit of class that sets them up as better than the rest. I guess for me it would be Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Always thought they were good. But when you actually see them in the flesh, so to speak, they are truly exceptional.
Anyway, changing tack, a close friend attended a gallery opening night of an exhibition and when somewhat the worse for wear on free champagne, he bought this enormous picture. It was an archetypal Montmartre street scene, so not very original, with not much to commend it and what looked like a branch of Cafe Rouge as its main focus. Now, big snag, he lives in a modestly sized 3-bed semi and did not have a wall large enough to hang said painting. So had to get an extension built to accommodate it. A very costly piece of Art.
(I also very much like the Moore sculptures. And would highly recommend a visit to his studios and gardens on the Essex Hertfordshire borders.)
Abstract art does not look like it is as popular on here as figurative art.
And really modern art does not feature as much as the old masters. And male art has been referenced more than work by women.
Here is a piece of modern abstract art called ‘Energy’ by Maria Esmar from 2023.
Did anyone see the episode of fake or fortune ( great show btw) dedicated to Emma Jones? Remarkably she had some of her work exhibited at the Royal Academy from the age of 10
I'm a big fan of Ivan Albright's work - some very dark stuff and not the easiest to 'get', but a supreme artist in my opinion.
Most view this as his masterpiece (me included) and it took him 10 years to finish. A fairly small image below but in real life it is a big canvas - 8' tall and 3' wide.
Outrageous.
If I take any longer than 3 hours to paint the door my Missus does her nut with me.
Great thread and a few of my favs already mentioned above. I'm not sure I have a single favourite artwork but I'm a big fan of Barbara Hepworth and am finally getting down to St Ives to check out the museum and sculpture garden next weekend.
I'd highly recommend checking out OOF magazine if you haven't already - it's all art related to football. Two issues a year and always really good.
Great thread and a few of my favs already mentioned above. I'm not sure I have a single favourite artwork but I'm a big fan of Barbara Hepworth and am finally getting down to St Ives to check out the museum and sculpture garden next weekend.
I'd highly recommend checking out OOF magazine if you haven't already - it's all art related to football. Two issues a year and always really good.
The sculpture garden is the highlight of my annual St Ives trip (don’t tell the family I go to visit!). If you are a Tate member or your ticket allows then its worth visiting more than once if the weather changes as the sculptures can take on very different characteristics, particularly if it rains
Tom Thomson, Canadian painter, one of the 'Group of Seven'. If you're ever in Ontario go check out his and other stuff in the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, the McMichael Collection (near Toronto) and the Tom Thomson Museum in Owen Sound. Lots of other great Canadian artists too....
(I also very much like the Moore sculptures. And would highly recommend a visit to his studios and gardens on the Essex Hertfordshire borders.)
….and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where you can find various works by Moore, Hepworth and Gormley in the park; the Hepworth Gallery nearby is also well-stocked with examples of her work.
A bigger splash by David Hockney is a very pleasing piece
If you’re ever in West Yorkshire, take a trip to Salts Mills, Saltaire, Bradford. Beautiful building and gallery. Always some Hockney on display and quite often, exhibitions. Pretty sure he has one on at the moment as part of the City of Culture year.
But the poor young girl reaching for the block never fails to move me.
….especially as this is one aspect of the painting which is thought to be true, that Lady Jane Grey could not reach the block and had to helped to it by the priest. This huge painting by Paul de La Roche is now one of the star items in the National Gallery, having initially been ignored for many years after it was painted.
(I also very much like the Moore sculptures. And would highly recommend a visit to his studios and gardens on the Essex Hertfordshire borders.)
….and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where you can find various works by Moore, Hepworth and Gormley in the park; the Hepworth Gallery nearby is also well-stocked with examples of her work.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park up there as one of my favourite places in UK. Wonderful place to wander and spend a day.
The James Turrell room on a sunny day is the perfect place to sit.
I also like Guernica. I like the art of Franco-Belgian comics like Tintin and Asterix. On the way home from this year's european driving holiday we stayed in an Ibys Styles in Liege which was themed around the artwork of Morris. He was of Lucky Luke fame and the artwork looked great on the walls.
As suggested earlier I would definitely recommend Saltaire and the Salt Mills gallery if you wanted to see Hockney - we visited earlier this month and a brilliant place to visit.
I like works by German artist Caspar David Friedrich and this one is at the National Gallery
Walter Sickert’s series of the Camden Murders have always fascinated me but he is also an excellent artist.
I remember a TV programme and book (early 80s), which suggested that Sickert was Jack the Ripper. I don't think it's a suggestion that's taken too seriously now.
Might have been Steven Knight who wrote it, it was a good yarn about someone high up getting one of the victims pregnant and precipitating a killing spree to destroy the evidence as such. Sickert was woven into it as he'd done some dark paintings about murders and got named as Jack the Ripper. Not long after it came out the author owned up it was all fiction, but that gets overloooked and periodically the story resurfaces - Patricia Cornwell who is a fine author seems to have taken it as Gospel and has done a couple of books about him, think she's barking up the wrong tree myself.
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Beautiful photos. Most notably these 2
Is it true that artists have messy houses?
And male art has been referenced more than work by women.
Here is a piece of modern abstract art called ‘Energy’ by Maria Esmar from 2023.
Anyway, changing tack, a close friend attended a gallery opening night of an exhibition and when somewhat the worse for wear on free champagne, he bought this enormous picture. It was an archetypal Montmartre street scene, so not very original, with not much to commend it and what looked like a branch of Cafe Rouge as its main focus.
Now, big snag, he lives in a modestly sized 3-bed semi and did not have a wall large enough to hang said painting. So had to get an extension built to accommodate it. A very costly piece of Art.
(I also very much like the Moore sculptures. And would highly recommend a visit to his studios and gardens on the Essex Hertfordshire borders.)
Remarkably she had some of her work exhibited at the Royal Academy from the age of 10
Hangs in my living room.
I'd highly recommend checking out OOF magazine if you haven't already - it's all art related to football. Two issues a year and always really good.
https://oofgallery.com/about-oof-magazine
Not as dark as some of his stuff!