10 Works of Art
Lists are fun to compile, but in many ways a list of only 10 favourites tends to be bland because there is very little room for the less obvious. My list of music choices after all, including two Mozart, two Bach, two Schubert, hardly unexpected. Perhaps I should have have listed some Beethoven rather than Alkan, but the individuality is necessarily at the margin ... so with a personal choice of art pinned on this pinterest board (and individually linked) https://www.pinterest.com/anthonyfinkelst/art/
This picture stands alone amongst the works of the artist and very little is known of it. The figure, so individual, is unidentified, as is the patron and the setting for which it was painted. The main figure is placed subtly off the centre and it is painted as if from below, emphasising the enigmatic presence of the pierrot.
I first saw this painting in the Wallace collection on a quiet, slightly overcast, weekday when there were few visitors. The symbolism is powerful but there is a human touch to the figure of the dancer looking out of the frame of the picture towards the viewer.
This beautiful, subtle and striking picture by Artemesia Gentileschi constructs a tension between the calm face and rich fabrics and the violence of the severed head.
A visit to Florence, and after the brute force of the Michaelangelo David, the contrast of this slim figure of the boy David is shocking. The work seems fresh almost contemporary and the balance between strength and vulnerability is captured in the delicate pose.
Not a King, not a General, not a great patron of the arts; a tailor at his trade caught in this fine and very human portrait.
Seen close to, the picture is flat and the weave of the canvas shows through paint and yet despite this it conveys a strong physical presence, it as if we have entered the space and can smell the starch and the sweat.
Violence, suffering and, perhaps redemption, encompassed in this sharply lit moment. It seems extraordinary that a still, almost cramped picture, can contain this movement and tension. This is religious art at its very greatest.
A modern take on the classical still life, lyrical, beautiful and engaging.
I could, of course have selected any of the Rembrandt self portraits and would have remained on safe ground. This is only marginally a more unusual choice. In it Hendrickje Stoffels, in an echo of Bathsheba bathing, is seen holding up the edge of her chemise which is painted with a single brush stroke that captures both the movement but also the transparency and the play of the light. It is sublime artistry.
Goya: And There's Nothing to Be Done (Y no hai remedio) from the Disasters of War
From this burning, bitter, black series of 'emphatic caprices'. There is nothing to be done, no colour, no light, no forgiveness in these raw prints.