Art.....

[Everybody Wang Chung]

[Morley]

This banana taped to a wall recently sold for over 6 million dollars:



https://www.npr.org/2024/11/21/nx-s1-51 ... rt-auction

Ha! Maurizio Cattelan is hilarious. I've tried to dislike the guy, but I never seem to be able to manage it. He continuously trolls the art world, but many still keep taking him seriously. For years after he became successful, no one knew who he really was, because he'd hired a younger, handsome actor to pretend to be him in interviews.

Contemporary art has a postmodernist problem and he plays right into it. I think that he offers some of the best critique of the art market that there is--but it seems to pass over everyone's heads.

One of Cattelan's greatest hits was the golden toilet he created when he found out Donald Trump was running for US president.


Maurizio Cattelan, America (2016)

https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/che ... -of-Trump


From Guggenheim's website:

'Enter Cattelan’s “America” (2016), the 18-karat gold, fully functioning toilet that was installed at the Guggenheim for nearly a year in a long-term, sculptural performance of interactive art. Like all of Cattelan’s most complex works, this sculpture is laden with possible meanings.'


When Trump became president in 2016, he asked the Guggenheim if he could borrow a Van Gogh. BBC wrote this article about their reply.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42827291

If you're not familiar with the story, it's well worth the read.

[Markk]

Thanks again Morley for sharing.

Pieter Bruegel the elder.

"Netherlandish Proverbs"

So much going on here, so much detail, and a huge spectrum from practical to strange. For me it almost has a Where's Waldo feel. From my reading he focused a lot on painting the life of a peasant.



Here is another one...."Conversion of Paul " I am blown away at his colors and depth.

[huckelberry]

I am happy to enjoy a painting by Grandma Moses they're they're Pleasant and kind of expressive in their own way on the other hand I find the comparison to Bruegel rather uncomfortable. Bruegel l is one of my favorite artists , I love how he constructs these enormous spaces of deep richness.One thing I think about when perspective is discussed is that Bruegel doesn't really use perspective ,in fact maybe the fact that he avoids perspective is what allows him to make such Grand spaces. Perspective has sort of a way of constricting space sometimes.e

[huckelberry]

This banana taped to a wall recently sold for over 6 million dollars:



https://www.npr.org/2024/11/21/nx-s1-51 ... rt-auction

Ha! Maurizio Cattelan is hilarious. I've tried to dislike the guy, but I never seem to be able to manage it. He continuously trolls the art world, but many still keep taking him seriously. For years after he became successful, no one knew who he really was, because he'd hired a younger, handsome actor to pretend to be him in interviews.

Contemporary art has a postmodernist problem and he plays right into it. I think that he offers some of the best critique of the art market that there is--but it seems to pass over everyone's heads.

One of Cattelan's greatest hits was the golden toilet he created when he found out Donald Trump was running for US president.


Maurizio Cattelan, America (2016)

https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/che ... -of-Trump


From Guggenheim's website:

'Enter Cattelan’s “America” (2016), the 18-karat gold, fully functioning toilet that was installed at the Guggenheim for nearly a year in a long-term, sculptural performance of interactive art. Like all of Cattelan’s most complex works, this sculpture is laden with possible meanings.'


When Trump became president in 2016, he asked the Guggenheim if he could borrow a Van Gogh. BBC wrote this article about their reply.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42827291

If you're not familiar with the story, it's well worth the read.

Morley, thanks for inviting me to look a little further at this artist. Previously I had not bothered to look at his other things.

[huckelberry]

Museum of bad art what a thing that woman in a blue dress is really quite good in a way for being a bad art I guess

[Gunnar]

Thanks for sharing this with us, Markk! This is the most interesting thread I have seen in a long time. I knew that Grandma Moses was a famous painter, but that was all I really knew about her. I did not know what an interesting character she was. I intend to learn more about her and enjoy more of her work.

[canpakes]

Maybe not anyone’s favorite piece, and I’m sure that everyone here has seen it already, but the backstory is fun:

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/amp/ ... edic-opera

[Markk]

I am happy to enjoy a painting by Grandma Moses they're they're Pleasant and kind of expressive in their own way on the other hand I find the comparison to Bruegel rather uncomfortable. Bruegel l is one of my favorite artists , I love how he constructs these enormous spaces of deep richness.One thing I think about when perspective is discussed is that Bruegel doesn't really use perspective ,in fact maybe the fact that he avoids perspective is what allows him to make such Grand spaces. Perspective has sort of a way of constricting space sometimes.e

That makes sense about perspective. Given your training what is "depth?" When I use the term in regards to Bruegel, I meant it in the context of more or less from "front to back" there is just so much to see and take in. In other words maybe "compressed vastness?" Does that make sense?

More home work on accurate terms.

I'm gong to reach out here and I would appreciate your trained thoughts on my naïve way to try to explain what I am seeing with Bruegel. He seems to be almost abstract in thought, while not with his brush. I am a loss of word on how to explain it.

In the painting below, in my opinion it is a mixture of normalcy, religion, demonic stuff, and I think, deep perceptions of 16th century everyday life.

In the first building on the left, upstairs, in my interpretation there is a man with a tooth ache in the first dormer window, and to his left there is a "dentist" pulling a tooth of a man. This seems like it might be a normal occurrence; as with the two men talking while shearing their sheep below them, and two women gossiping. And then in the lower left hand corner there is a woman holding down a demon while she appears to be looking at maybe her husband that has a knife, with one shoe on, beating his head against that a wall as if he was possessed? At the center of the canvass there is a fox sitting at a table with a bib on, with a plate in front of him.... waiting for food? There is just so much here.

Is there a name for this kind of "style?"





Here he seems to "settle down." I am not sure if the leather jacket is painted as worn, as old leather does, or it is from normal wear of the substrate and paint of a 500 year old painting, probably both....but either way it is awesome.

"The Peasant and the Birdnester"




Good stuff, I appreciate your opinions.

[Chap]

In the painting below, in my opinion it is a mixture of normalcy, religion, demonic stuff, and I think, deep perceptions of 16th century everyday life.

In the first building on the left, upstairs, in my interpretation there is a man with a tooth ache in the first dormer window, and to his left there is a "dentist" pulling a tooth of a man. This seems like it might be a normal occurrence; as with the two men talking while shearing their sheep below them, and two women gossiping. And then in the lower left hand corner there is a woman holding down a demon while she appears to be looking at maybe her husband that has a knife, with one shoe on, beating his head against that a wall as if he was possessed? At the center of the canvass there is a fox sitting at a table with a bib on, with a plate in front of him.... waiting for food? There is just so much here.

Is there a name for this kind of "style?"

The painting is an attempt to illustrate a number of proverbs and proverbial expressions common in the Netherlands of Bruegel's time - hence its apparently chaotic and bizarre content. You will find a full list of the proverbs illustrated in the painting here:

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