Reviews
Who's your favorite???
OK, I'll get things started here. My hands down favorite is Lucian Freud. I love the texture of his thick impasto style (which I try to emulate) and the color of his painted flesh (which I cannot emulate, try as I might). He's led a life dedicated to his art at the total expense of everything else (family), which I would not want to do, but I can appreciate and look at with awe.
But as a figurative artist Freud's an easy one. That's like saying you're really into pop art and Andy Warhol was super cool. So here's a couple lesser knowns that I'm totally into:
Jason Shawn Alexander
Aaron Kraten
Peter Michael
Care to add to this list???
But as a figurative artist Freud's an easy one. That's like saying you're really into pop art and Andy Warhol was super cool. So here's a couple lesser knowns that I'm totally into:
Jason Shawn Alexander
Aaron Kraten
Peter Michael
Care to add to this list???
Replies to This Reviews
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Permalink Reply by Dennis victor h andersen on -
michael kvium
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Permalink Reply by John Collier on -
Thanks, I hadn't heard of him. I found some good images of his work at:
http://www.faurschou.com/artists/michaelkvium/
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Permalink Reply by Amy Kollar Anderson on -
I think my current favorite figurative artists are: Judith Schaechter's ( http://www.judithschaechter.com ) twisted women; Isabel Samaras's ( http://astrocat.com/samaras/index.html ) smooth skinned ghouls; Laurie Lipton's ( http://www.boomerang.co.za/sites/laurielipton/default.asp ) haunting pencil people; Michael Hussar's ( http://www.michaelhussar.biz/ ) sick sirens; and Travis Louie's ( http://www.travislouie.com/ ) creepy portaits.
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Permalink Reply by joe kelly on -
my favourite by a long shot is 'Lord' Frank Auerbach, and not just because of the quality of his work...he just gets on with it in the studio, doesn't do interviews or hype himself up, he just does it and does it well, the first real portraitist I was inspired by at school, there was this series of documentary photos in one of his catalogues where he was in the midst of a charcoal portrait......there were 20/25 photos showing how the portrait had developed, by his own words he wasn't trying to reproduce what he saw but rather, capture the 'essence' of the individual...this notion struck a chord with me in my art-adolescence
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Permalink Reply by Lola Scarpitta on -
Do they have to be alive? I love Manet. If I could go back in time and knock Eva Gonzales on the head and take her place as his one and only student, I would.
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Permalink Reply by Jim on -
Salvador Dali. Why? He's so cliche right? Well whatever, i don't care! He's got this one picture called "The Great Paranoiac". Several bodies huddle together to form a frowning face! I love the double images!
Here it is for your convenience: "The Great Paranoiac".
The picture was about the tension of the people of Spain before the Spanish Civil War. The juxtaposed bodies and faces both express their feelings beautifully and intelligently.
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Permalink Reply by NoMe Edonna on -
Jenny Saville, Francis Bacon, Inka Essenhigh, John Currin, Lisa Yuskavage, David Choong Lee, Neo Rauch, Hans Bellmer, Otto Dix, Paul Cadmus....
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Permalink Reply by carole rowland on -
What about Maggie Hambling, she's done all types of art but always comes back to life drawing, her figures and faces just seem to emerge from the lines
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Permalink Reply by Matthew Foster on -
Auerbach is my absolute favorite, but I'll mention David Park and Nathan Oliveira sense I don't see them on the list. Oh and also Leon Kossoff and Elmer Bishoff. Both the London school and the Bay Area Painters are probably my largest influence.
For those who love the process of painting, these guys are the best, you really become absorbed in the care taking and struggle of the painting as an object, and relate to the figure as a reason to pursue sorting the mess out.
I really like seeing both of these groups together because of the color choices, clearing identifying through the colors where they live and the striking difference between London and San Fransisco.
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Permalink Reply by Hillel Kagan on -
There are so many that picking a favourite is like picking drink over food, they're all necessary. Michelangelo, da Vinci, Velasquez, all pretty damn good figurative painters. Narrow the question down to who's the favourite or more precisely important and relevant for our particular time and place.
There have been a lot of very good choices here; Freud, Auerbach & Kossoff (I always put them together), Uglow (out of Sir Richard Coldstream and a whole slew of other followers), Bacon, Saville, Park & Bishoff (not mentioned, Diebenkorn who should be here with his buddies from that time. Manet, Degas And howzabout Modigliani, Soutine, Picasso (without whom there'd be no Bacon) and on and on. Cezanne wasn't a figurative painter per se although he painted some great portraits, I exclude the bathers, for myself not amongst his greatest work but they were his attempt at greatness. The figure just couldn't sit still enough for him to paint it. But he did teach us (artists) how to look and see with modern eyes after the advent of photography and commercial lithography and now all this digital imagery that has so inundated are society to the point where people are inured to the construction and only see the literal image and everything is equal and negated.
So for me the greatest figurative artist for our age is still Giacometti for coming after Cezanne and demonstrating the sheer impossibility and futility of the whole enterprise.
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Permalink Reply by 48073 on -
The inner truth of this equality is able to unite us, thus saving the planet and offering world peace in the end.
(yeah, i hear you, but it is true)
48073.
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