I think there are certainly other valid forms of art than painting, but both of mine are painters, and I make both choices not as an art critic but based on the personal reaction I had to their pictures when I saw them "in the flesh" so to speak.
Modern
Winstanley. I hope you will forgive me showing an example of what he paints. I think the single word that would most describe it to me is haunting. I remember at about age 20 walking round the Tate and coming across a picture of his (a room with a turned off TV and empty seats) and just staring at it for 30 minutes feeling it eating into me, saying something wordless and I think terrible to me.
His paintings to me speak of alienation so powerfully, of lonliness, of institutions, of heart breaking sadness and poignancy... I dont mean to sound pretentious, but it really is to me a fuck of a lot more than a dimly lit empty office
Maybe its again the thing about the yearning for religion - but I couldnt in any number of words say about modern life what this painting seems to say to me. I think it really is like a true image of the soul of a soulless world.
Ever
Caravaggio
I knew a bit about him before, but the time I really got into him was when I was walking round the National Gallery one Saturday. I'd tagged along with a coach trip from work to London, assuming there was a pub crawl happening, but none did I ended up on my own and so wandered round the National to kill the time... and came across a painting which just struck me dumb. It's of Jesus, at a table with two disciples and the landlord of the pub, just at the moment the disciples realise who he is (he isnt wearing a beard and they dont recognise him) - the lighting, the way he captures the moment and emotion, is just incredible and awe striking. I'm not an incredibly religious person, but to me I guess it did feel a bit like actually looking at the human incarnation of God in the face - which isnt even something I necessarily believe in - but if he was, somehow that felt like what he would have been - if that makes any sense.
After I read and watching a bit more about Caravaggio, I guess he was by any standards a madman, but to me he is the greatest genius of art. He pained things that no one before and since could have done, he pained religious scenes in a way that probably very few people who are ever genius' could even conceive of.
I'm not an expert on art history or anything, but from prints I have seen there are a number of his paintings which simply are stunning.
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Im not very eloquent about things like this I guess, but please other people post what you feel about your greatest artists. I didnt put up a Caravaggio image, because I guess that most people who are interested in art will know who he is.