This thread is partly inspired by a book written by the former director of the Louvre ("Only in America"), and partly inspired by a recent BBC poll meant to rank the greatest paintings in Britain. Anyhow, all statements in this thread represent only the viewpoints of the author and are therefore not subject to derision, anger or indignation. They are opinion. So without further ado, the greatest paintings in America:
1) The greatest painting in America is...............
Juan de Pareja by Juan Velazquez. Gasp! A simple portrait the greatest painting in all of America?!???!!!??? Absolutely! I believe Velazquez is the greatest painter in the history of art. No other artist attained both truth and beauty in their art with such frequency. And this may very well be his greatest picture. I have been to the Prado and through the museums of England, and none of his other paintings can match the intensity and honesty of the subject's gaze. Pareja was a slave, but one senses a nobility that defies labels and titles. The more I look at this painting, the more I know him. The brilliant strokes of paint, while breathtaking, become secondary. The angel of death has cheated us out of the pleasure of conversation with Pareja, but thanks to Velazquez, his soul lives with us to this very day. And make no mistake, this is no insult to the art of America; after all, Velazquez has the greatest painting in England (Rokeby), Spain (Las Meninas), and certainly one of the five greatest pictures in Italy (Pope).
Metropolitan Museum of Art
2) Les demoiselle d'avignon by Picasso. Not since Giotto and Duccio has there been a painter so critical to the course of history. And not since Giotto's frescos in Padua has there been a singular work of art so revolutionary as this one. In a single canvas, Picasso has shattered the rules of not just painting, but of art in general. Very easily the most
important piece of art in America. When Picasso painted this, people were still getting around by horse and buggy, a few humans had just conquered the skies, and the most advanced computing device was still the abacus. This work was a starting gun for a century of immense change. Picasso is saying, "let's get this party started right!" And it doesn't look the slightest bit dated. It still looks new!
museum of modern art
3) Autumn Rythm by Jackson Pollock. Modern art is chalk full of stories about artists breaking rules. But the greatest rule-breakers of them all were Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. Pollock was the father of the abstract expressionist movement, America's first major
movement it could call its own. Autumn Rythm is one of a series of paintings created in 1950 tht is considered among his greatest. One gets easily lost in the neural tangles. Pollock's dance around the canvas results in a universal truth--beauty and order from chaos. It hangs proudly in his adopted hometown of New York. A few miles away at the MOMA, one can appreciate the full the gamut of his work in a room dedicated to progression of his art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The famous photograph of Pollock working on his masterpice--Autmn Rythm
4) Madonna and Child by Duccio di Buoninsegna. This devotional picture from 1300 may be small in size but it its importance in art history is immeasurable and is most likely the greatest Italian Renaissance painting in this country. How did we get from the flat Byzantine images of the Middle Ages to the dynamic three dimensional images of masters like Leonardo and Botticelli? This painting is a critical missing link. To us it may seem a bit boring, but to the lucky Italians for whom this was painted; this was radically diffirent way to look at Mary and Jesus. Instead of cold stoicism from cartoonish figures, we see a soulful mother worrying about what is surely a terrifying future, and a loving baby exploring the world around him. In recent decades this painting was talked about in art history circles as if it were a the loch ness monster, seen by a select few only a handful of times over the past century. When it was put up for sale the Met quickly snatched it up before the Louvre had an opportunity to counteroffer. $40 million dollars may seem like a lot for such a tiny painting, but some in the fine art business say it could have easily fetched twice that amount if put up for public auction. Certainly a new American treasure.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
5) The Crucifixion by Jan van Eyck. Inexplicably, Eyck is overshadowed by his contemporaries in Italy. But this is the father of oil painting we are talking about, and he therefore deserves his spot in the pantheon of art megastars. As always he displays in this canvas the precision of a surgeon; but the real brilliance in
this picture is how he presents a familiar scene from an entirely different perspective, with emotion we have never before seen in a crucifixion; and emotion we will never again see from van Eyck himself. In the lower left hand corner you see Mary unable to stand upright against the weight of her grief, and flowing robes that reveal only a sliver of her face. A face so full of sadness words cannot do it justice. Others carry on, ignorant of this grief and of the suffering above them, as they converse and laugh. In my opinion this is his singular masterpiece.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
6) Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. This might be the most famous painting in the United States. I am not a fan of landscape artists, but the two exceptions are Breughal and van Gogh. Here, van Gogh has captured an essential truth of southern France, of night, and of himself. This is his best painting, and I'm not sure he even knew it. He copied most of his images multiple times, but not this one.
Museum of Modern art