Artists for these times.

[Matthew]

For the past couple of months, I have been finding that the the art of Francis Bacon has become very important in terms of my seeing/understanding today's world. The themes of violence, religion, anger, self-doubt, the need to look honestly at something, all these notions run thoughout his life and art. Maybe it's just my own confusion over this world that is making me seeing all these things in Bacon, but his art seems to be made for these strange and violent times. Is anyone else finding an artist that is speaking to them especially given the current world situation?

edit for picture

Edited May 17, 2004 by Matthew

[Man with the Golden Arm]

What a good idea for pulling up a parallel.

Whilst I can't see your attached image you are spot on with Bacon. I feel like a 'vegetarian walking into the butcher shop' these days and Francis certainly expressed much of that feel.

I also think Picasso's "Guernica" much expresses today's world in all of it's blue gray horror.

[wesbed]

I also think Picasso's "Guernica" much expresses today's world in all of it's blue gray horror.

Man, no kidding.

[Jazzmoose]

Whoa. Is that Zippy the Pinhead in the electric chair???

[Joe G]

I'm no expert, but I usually feel better after gazing at some of Alex Grey's work.

[Matthew]

Whoa. Is that Zippy the Pinhead in the electric chair???

This explains some of it.. From The Francis Bacon site.

Bacon’s most recognizable image, and hence most famous painting, is the screaming pope of Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953. As the title states, this picture was inspired by Diego Velázquez’s extraordinarily lifelike portrait of a powerful and unscrupulous pope who duplicitously took the name Innocent. Painted in 1650 at the height of the Baroque period, shortly after his arrival in Rome from Spain, it was Velázquez’s eminently successful attempt to rival the portraiture of Titian and the great painters of Italy. The subject of the painting is unquestionably the most powerful man in the world. He sits confidently on the papal throne, fully at ease ex cathedra -literally from the cathedral seat-as God’s representative on earth. The true brilliance of Velázquez’s accomplishment in this painting is to have satisfied his demanding papal client with a flattering, beautifully rendered portrait while at the same time passing on for the ages the unmistakable hint of corrupt character and deep-seated deceit behind that well-ordered and stern facial façade. Haunted and obsessed by the image . . . by its perfection, Bacon sought to reinvent Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X in the papal portraits that form the focus of the current exhibition. In the great Des Moines painting, the Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, Bacon updates the classical image by transforming the Spanish artist’s confident client and relaxed leader into a screaming victim. Trapped as if manacled to an electric chair, the ludicrously drag-attired subject is jolted into involuntary motion by external forces or internal psychoses. The eternal quiet of Velázquez’s Innocent is replaced by the involuntary cry of Bacon’s anonymous, unwitting, tortured occupant of the hot seat. One could hardly conceive of a more devastating depiction of postwar, existential angst or a more convincing denial of faith in the era that exemplified Nietzsche’s declaration that God is dead.

[couw]

I'm no expert, but I usually feel better after gazing at some of Alex Grey's work.

you should check out some of Moebius drawing methinks.

[Chrome]

[brownie]

Mark ROTHKO!

The more I look at his paintings, the more I am impressed by all there is into his art.

There was a retrospective of Rothko's work at the Paris Museum of Modern Art several years ago.

I had seen some of his paintings before but this was really like 'hearing' Charlie Parker for

the first time.

[king ubu]

Mark ROTHKO!

The more I look at his paintings, the more I am impressed by all there is into his art.

There was a retrospective of Rothko's work at the Paris Museum of Modern Art several years ago.

I had seen some of his paintings before but this was really like 'hearing' Charlie Parker for

the first time.

I had a very similar experience about two or three years ago when the Fondation Beyeler in Basle had a Rothko exhibition.

His work continues to grow.

ubu

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Ralph Steadman's Zinfandel take on The Pope.

It's subtle yet oaky nose with hint's of chocolate and dried leukocytes go great with Bacon.

[.:.impossible]

In reference to Vint's vegetarian comment, Basquiat.

I think a lot of the digital artists are really nailing it for me lately. It may seem silly to include people who do print design, and typeface for that matter (!), in a thread like this, but I think they deserve equal credit as artists. I see a collision between the grit of real life and the pop sheen in a lot of recent design.

Edited May 18, 2004 by .:.impossible

[7/4]

I'm no expert, but I usually feel better after gazing at some of Alex Grey's work.

Me too.

I played a benefit a few years ago in a room full of his paintings. Intense.

[7/4]

Mark ROTHKO!

The more I look at his paintings, the more I am impressed by all there is into his art.

There was a retrospective of Rothko's work at the Paris Museum of Modern Art several years ago.

I had seen some of his paintings before but this was really like 'hearing' Charlie Parker for

the first time.

Rothko is always intense. Love that stuff.

[Joe G]

I'm no expert, but I usually feel better after gazing at some of Alex Grey's work.

Me too.

I played a benefit a few years ago in a room full of his paintings. Intense.

Wow! Cool, man. B)

[.:.impossible]

That is intense. We had a print of his at our house in college. I had forgotten his name over the years. Very vibrant and three dimensional Buddhist images.

[7/4]

That is intense. We had a print of his at our house in college. I had forgotten his name over the years. Very vibrant and three dimensional Buddhist images.

With an amazing amount of detail!

[.:.impossible]

I can imagine! I'd love to see one of his paintings in person. Like I said, all I've seen are prints.

[alankin]

Philip Guston

[Dr. Rat]

I figure the artist who ost speaks to this era will have some sort of real insight into it. Is the defining characteristic of our era warfare? I doubt it. I'm 37 and I've never had to worry about war. Partially that's a function of being American, but that's not the whole of it I wouldn't think. That war and fear of war is a relatively strange thing is probably true of more people in our era than it has ever been.

Considering that the first half of the twentieth century saw slaughter on a scale quite unimaginable to us, I think the "our era is one of warfare" proposition is a stretch.

If our era is distinct from preceding ones, war, bloodshed or even official hypocrisy are not what make it distinct. These are more like eternal verities.

--eric

(edit for agreement in number on the final verb.)

Edited May 19, 2004 by Dr. Rat

[Joe]

Alan -- I would pick Guston as well...

Also, B. Newman and E. Kelly.

[AmirBagachelles]

How about Edwin Starr, or was that Tolstoy?

[Simon Weil]

I figure the artist who ost speaks to this era will have some sort of real insight into it. Is the defining characteristic of our era warfare? I doubt it. I'm 37 and I've never had to worry about war. Partially that's a function of being American, but that's not the whole of it I wouldn't think. That war and fear of war is a relatively strange thing is probably true of more people in our era than it has ever been.

Considering that the first half of the twentieth century saw slaughter on a scale quite unimaginable to us, I think the "our era is one of warfare" proposition is a stretch.

If our era is distinct from preceding ones, war, bloodshed or even official hypocrisy are not what make it distinct. These are more like eternal verities.

--eric

(edit for agreement in number on the final verb.)

I think today does bear a resemblance to the First World War, in the sense that that was just totally futile and went on for years and years - just killing people and eating resources. To me Iraq is like that and Israel/Palestine is like that.

There are loads of good artists from WW1, but the one I particularly like is Paul Nash (I also like poetry etc from this period) Here is "We Are Making a New World" - a spiritual portrait of Bush's legacy:

The Mule Track:

I can't see Al Qaeda giving up for years.

Simon Weil

[ghost of miles]

Simon & others interested in WWI art:

WWIart

I am unspeakably ill-informed regarding most visual art... hence I will offer my bumbling opinion that the illustrative art of graphic novelists Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware speaks to my American times.

[7/4]

Daniel Clowes

Edited May 19, 2004 by 7/4