Thursday, January 15, 2009

Vote for top artists of 20th century

Vote here for your top artists of the 20th century at the Saatchi Gallery website

I voted for these. [In brackets, their ranking and the number of votes after I was done.]

Pablo Picasso [1; 121795]
Paul Klee [19; 111912]
Anselm Kiefer [63; 82626]
Alice Neel [147; 78573]
Andy Warhol [9; 112772]
Auguste Renoir [51; 83819]
David Hockney [81; 81950]
Agnes Martin [185; 60769]
Sean Scully [388; 49555]
Joseph Beuys [32; 107115]

Evidently it's a Phaidon list and not everyone who is anyone is on it.

Vote here for your top artists of the 20th century



8 comments:

Duncan Astbury said...

500 is a lot and many I have to admit I don't know but here is my list.

My big favorites are:
Tamara De Lempicka
Man Ray

And others I voted for:
Pablo Picasso
Hans Bellmer
Marcel Duchamp
Cindy Sherman
Le Corbusier

Anonymous said...

Mary
I'm impressed by your work at your main site. Wow, your surely have the 'eye' for colour and very painterly technique. I've noticed also, that your are a close follower of my 'writings'- feel grateful and nervous a bit cos of that - sometimes it's just 'playing around'... Thanks.

Mary Adam said...

Interesting list Duncan, only Picasso in common! Is that because you're mainly a photographer?

Katarzyna, thanks for comments and yes. I don't agree with everything you say (e.g. Bacon and Rothko), but I do enjoy your writing about studying art. Sometimes it's a stimulus to develop a different point of view or to start an internal debate. Why do I really think such-and-such, am I being honest with myself? And so on.

Duncan Astbury said...

I suspect the answer is yes, I come at this as a photographer. Well Picasso almost seemed too obvious and I am not an out and out cubist. Perhaps that's why I like Tamara, she sometimes gets referred to as a soft cubist.

I think I have an interest in media beyond the canvas. Man Ray I think of as primarily a photographer, both in the context of fashion (Bizarre) and surrealism.

I do like artefacts that challenge me. Hans Bellmer's dolls are haunting. I do like funny things like Dali's Lobster Telephone but for sheer cheek you have to give some credit to Duchamp with his ready mades, I wish I had thought to just stick my name on a urinal!

I can only take so many bowler hatted men but find Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" a defining statement on perception.

Mary Adam said...

I love the train coming out of the fireplace, it's so beautifully painted, everything seems just right. But other than that surrealism's not my line. I like good drawing best, and colour, that's where my list comes from. Not familiar with some of yours, will look them up, one never knows. I don't have many photographers on my list and Man Ray isn't one of them but it's partly ignorance -- how about Brassai? or Richard Avedon?

Duncan Astbury said...

Yes, certainly Brassai and Richard Avedon are good.

If you caught my post, Seven Photographs That Changed Fashion:
http://astbury.blogspot.com/2009/01/seven-photographs-that-changed-fashion.html

One of the photos that Rankin recreated was a Richard Avedon, the classic model with elephants, the original can be seen here:
http://www.richardavedon.com/

Mary Adam said...

great link to the Richard Avedon site, thanks Duncan -- fabulous portraits. Andy Warhol's scars, what an image! So factual. You can almost tell what had to be repaired inside there.

Unknown said...

Hi Mary, Why I voted for Picasso with so many great artists to choose from. His body of work encompasses so many different styles and media. He mastered every one and had something important to say in each of them. I am always amazed at the quality and variety of his work even the throw away sketches are vibrant. I could go on and on. That doesn't mean that I don't admire many other artists, but if I have to choose just one, after much careful thought, it has to be him. Even if this decision seems rather conventional.