The Greatest Artist?

No it isn't Hirzel or Liebermann, maybe he was Austrian, I'm confusing myself the more I think about the painter I have in mind. He used very dark tones, perhaps he was using charcoal even, he's very stylistically defined as in you can't mistake his work.

Tolkien stays Spoony, any man who writes a language and invents a Universe virtually as detailed as our own deserves his place in the Pantheon.

Milton and Chaucer probably deserved a look in.
 
AdZzUtd said:
Lit? Here we go mate, what do you reckon this:

Dostoevsky
Poe
Shakespeare
Goethe
Tolkien
Kafka
Conrad
Orwell
Steinbeck

Very Eurocentric, there are alot more I wanted to include, whom I've either forgotten or simply won't list because it'll drag on for pages.
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Add:

Nabakov
Mann
Moliere
Schiller
Rimbaud
Rushdie
McCarthy
ad infinitum
 
AdZzUtd said:
No it isn't Hirzel or Liebermann, maybe he was Austrian, I'm confusing myself the more I think about the painter I have in mind. He used very dark tones, perhaps he was using charcoal even, he's very stylistically defined as in you can't mistake his work.

Tolkien stays Spoony, any man who writes a language and invents a Universe virtually as detailed as our own deserves his place in the Pantheon.

Milton and Chaucer probably deserved a look in.
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Any person who invents assexual hobbits in a flat one dimensional world, where everything's black or white deserves a punch for being a fake arse wigga living in la la la land. In fact Tolkein offends me more than Hitler.
 
AdZzUtd said:
No it isn't Hirzel or Liebermann, maybe he was Austrian, I'm confusing myself the more I think about the painter I have in mind. He used very dark tones, perhaps he was using charcoal even, he's very stylistically defined as in you can't mistake his work.

Tolkien stays Spoony, any man who writes a language and invents a Universe virtually as detailed as our own deserves his place in the Pantheon.

Milton and Chaucer probably deserved a look in.
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Kokoschka?
 
There's too many writers to list properly, so I'll just post some favourite fiction & nonfiction books:

Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sexual Personae - Camille Paglia
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Ghost Story - Peter Straub
Rosebud - David Thomson
Oscar Wilde - Richard Ellman
Orlando - Virginia Woolf
Affinity - Sarah Waters
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
Ways of Seeing - John Berger
 
Dickens, Ibsen, Galsworthy, Austen, The Brontes, Wilfred Owen, William Blake, Graham Greene.

In terms of script writing, Poliakoff.

And if people are having Tolkien then I'm saying Rowling, which I know will get laughed out the park, but that universe is brilliant, so I don't care.
 
Spoony Youngblood said:
Any person who invents assexual hobbits in a flat one dimensional world, where everything's black or white deserves a punch for being a fake arse wigga living in la la la land. In fact Tolkein offends me more than Hitler.
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:lol: The Lord of the Rings works as a perfect juxtaposition to texts like Brave New World, 1984 and A Modern Utopia. Tolkien rolled romanticism, infact beyond, medieval chivalry and placed it starkly against the industrialized world and if you wanted to go against J.R.R's own wishes you have an allegory of 19th Century history all the way through World War 2. The characters may have been simplistic as in they had clearly defined values, but the sense of good and bad, right and wrong, was much clearer if you suppose one side are the allies and the others are fascists.
 
cinc said:
Kokoschka?
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No, though he's fantastic. The artist I have in mind used virtually no colours, just tones of black and occasionally white.

I have to admit, I never liked 'A Picture of Dorian Gray' should I return to it? Austin was fantastic, in Jane for example, you can see how well she uses the concept of hidden meaning, the language and dialogue reveals virtually nothing. Fantastic writing, I also enjoyed Plath. But hate Dickinson.

The Fall of the House of Usher is one of my favourite short stories.
 
AdZzUtd said:
:lol: The Lord of the Rings works as a perfect juxtaposition to texts like Brave New World, 1984 and A Modern Utopia. Tolkien rolled romanticism, infact beyond, medieval chivalry and placed it starkly against the industrialized world and if you wanted to go against J.R.R's own wishes you have an allegory of 19th Century history all the way through World War 2. The characters may have been simplistic as in they had clearly defined values, but the sense of good and bad, right and wrong, was much clearer if you suppose one side are the allies and the others are fascists.
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BNW...the irony was Huxley became a bit of a druggie later on life. Tut tut, modern society and its moral decay eh?
 
AdZzUtd said:
No, though he's fantastic. The artist I have in mind used virtually no colours, just tones of black and occasionally white.

I have to admit, I never liked 'A Picture of Dorian Gray' should I return to it? Austin was fantastic, in Jane for example, you can see how well she uses the concept of hidden meaning, the language and dialogue reveals virtually nothing. Fantastic writing, I also enjoyed Plath. But hate Dickinson.

The Fall of the House of Usher is one of my favourite short stories.
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Franz Kline? He's american though

This makes me mad!
 
AdZzUtd said:
I have to admit, I never liked 'A Picture of Dorian Gray' should I return to it?
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I think it's both good and bad, mate. I like Wilde's elegant style, rather than the actual storytelling.
 
That's what I did. I wish I could remember, I suppose he was similiar to Diefenbach (or atleast some of his darker work.)
 
No, I'm trying to remember the context of his work when I saw it on a television documentary, which was about Berlin as far as I can remember. However, I think he's quite obscure and looking at the pages upon pages of German Artists, it seems our chances are slim.

We should continue, perhaps with Philosophers? Or do we consider them under Literature?
 
Ludwig Meidner?
 
Nope, he was more traditional in style, for the life of me I cannot recall his name or the title of one of his works. I remember a landscape, a lighthouse and a sort of town in the distant painting.
 
Achenbach is quite similiar, but the actual artist is darker.
 
But seriously, I loves me some Durer, Saenredam, and a bit of Christen Kobke as well.
 
I've been re-reading Civilisation by Kenneth Clark recently. An excellent book - though dated a little & rather Eurocentric - giving a superb overview of the arts and their impact on our lives.

Ruskin said: "Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last."
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An abridged version of the book can be read online here:

CIVILIZATION by KENNETH CLARK


The television series can be viewed from here:

 
Julia+Margaret+Cameron+1+.jpg



Some wonderful work from Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron:

Julia Margaret Cameron in the V&A's new Photographs Gallery - Telegraph
 
Michelangelo is the greatest artist who has ever lived, no one else comes close, here's why

He was probably the greatest painter (sistine chapel) sculptor (David) and architect (St Peter's) and he was considered to be the best in all of these

The Italian renaissance is considered the greatest period of art ever, and he dominated and influenced that period.

The art world past and present are pretty unanimous in this assessment.... there is no competition!!.... end of story
 
This thread is (despite it's title) more about personal favourites, mate. :) Personally, I prefer Donatello's & Bernini's David.
 
SteveJ said:
This thread is (despite it's title) more about personal favourites, mate. Personally, I prefer Donatello's & Bernini's David. :)
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Just interested to know who Caf people consider to be the finest artist (in all media, not just painting) and/or their favourite. Mine is Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the sculptor:

Actually it's asking for either, I responded to the first underlined part if that's okay with you
 
What a wonderful thread. :)


While "the greatest artist" might not be that appropriate as Art is generally an expression of the human mind and the greatest artists are those who are able to represent what they feel on visual medium with greatest technique, skill and creativity.

While you could compare artists from the same time period I don't think there is just one Greatest Artist.In the 19th century you have masters like Da vinci, Carvaggio, Michelangelo,Peter Paul Rubens, Raphael..etc on the present day you have artists that work in the entertainment and the video games industry,illustrators,commercial artists, tattoo artists and the most gifted graffiti artists that currently encompass the majority of todays art world.

EDIT: Steve , apologies just saw your post above :).
 
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This is the one of the Master's masterpieces. Michelangelo Buonarroti.

A lot of critics pounce on this piece of genius complaining about the body proportions, complaining about how small his hands and legs are about how its anatomically wrong but anyone who has actually studied anatomy will know that this anatomically is a perfect representation of the human body. Michelangelo knew his anatomy, infact he knew it better than most of the artists of the current age. Every tendon, muscle in that drawing is proper.

Michelangelo didn't draw what was there. He knew how to represent realism(which IMO is the toughest style to master). That was childsplay to him. He knew the human body so well, his drawings were super realistic. I can go on and on about how amazing this particular drawing of his is but he is easily in the top 3 .

One of the greatest artists (both skillfully and successfully) to have ever graced the planet.
 
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