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[Hanstock]

If you could own any one piece of art, what would it be and why?

[Bill]

I can not think of a single piece of art that has ever moved me is that weird

[Hanstock]

I wouldn't say it's "weird" because there are a lot of people who are not moved by "art" in its classic sense. Is there any sort of artistic medium (cinema, music, etc) that you would say HAS moved you at some point?

[Andy]

My immediate reaction would be a print of this:

by Banksy, but that's just off the top of my head. Im sure theres a few I'd like more if I could just get the old memory working a bit harder.

[Alicia]

This is tough. As much as I love paintings, conceptual art, and sculptures, and wish I could just say, "a HOUSE by Eric Owen Moss", I ultimately think the single-most thing that has ever inspired me is David Hockney's Pearblossom Highway.



American, California, April 11 - 18, 1986
Chromogenic prints mounted on paper honeycomb panel
78 x 111 in.
97.XM.39

It is ~750 photographs that he took of Pearblossom Highway in California then placed them all together to form the entire scene. AMAZING. He does this a lot, but this piece is my favorite. I am fortunate to have seen it twice in my lifetime. It had already inspired me before I saw it in person. But when I first saw it at the Getty, it was like someone took my heart, and tried to push it out through my eyes. I didn't cry, almost did, but it was that overwhelming as I stood in the same spot with my mouth half-agape for minutes. The second time I saw it at the MOCA, at a David Hockney exhibit. The exhibit had similar stuff that took up entire walls, of the Grand Canyon and other stuff. Tiled pictures he took of human beings, paintings that I'm not all too thrilled about by him, etc. But I turned one corner, saw Pearblossom Highway, and stood in front of it and shook my head in disbelief at how breathtaking it was for a second time.

I'm weird. I love art, but when I visit art museums, I walk through them quickly. It has nothing to do with not appreciating things, it's just how I take things in. If I spend time looking at something longer, it's to see the brush strokes, or how something was done. This is one of a few pieces where I have to stop.

I have a poster of it that I bought from the Getty and it is HUGE, and too big to frame without it costing at least $150 because it'd have to be custom-made. I plan on eventually framing it and putting it on my wall in the house I'm going to settle down in for life, whenever/wherever that's gonna be. It's currently in a cardboard tube in my closet.

One day I'm going to drive down Pearblossom Highway and take a picture of this shot, 22 years later. It will probably be the most meaningful photography escape I'll ever take.

[B]

Anything by Van Gogh, preferably Branches Of Almond Tree In Bloom or Starry Night over the Rhone. Or fucking Starry Night, for that matter.

Steve Ditko's original art for the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15.

[Alicia]

for the love of

post pics plz

Even if it is Starry Night that everyone's seen.

[Kyle]

The original Tycho and Gabe character sketches, no question...

[Kyle]

naw idk maybe georges de la tour's penitent magdalene cuz i dig the fuck outta de la tour's facility with light and something about it is profoundly calming but i couldn't really imagine having a house where it wouldn't feel really aesthetically out of place, tho of course that's a pretty silly consideration to make

[Borkelmans]

The notebook full of Steve Buscemi drawings from Ghost World.

[B]

Anything by Van Gogh, preferably Branches Of Almond Tree In Bloom

or Starry Night over the Rhone.

Or fucking Starry Night, for that matter.

Steve Ditko's original art for the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15.

[Alicia]

Thank you!

One of my favorite Van Gogh's was Vincent's Room:



Because my art history teacher used to tell us personal stories behind each picture. And his room being such a single-person's lonely room lead into the story about why he cut off his ear for the one woman (a prostitute) who said she loved him, and how he used to walk past his "older" brother's grave (who died as a baby) every day before school. Since Vincent's parents named him after his brother, as a kid, he'd walk past "his" grave every morning.

[Bill]

I wouldn't say it's "weird" because there are a lot of people who are not moved by "art" in its classic sense. Is there any sort of artistic medium (cinema, music, etc) that you would say HAS moved you at some point?

I don't know that I have ever been moved by anything. I admit I'm actually not sure what being moved feels like.

[Kyle]

it's like a boner but all over

[Hanstock]

bill have you ever wept

have you ever seen a sunbeam emerge from a cloud

have you witnessed a butterfly alighting atop the head of a retarded child

[Greg]

I've actually seen that last one.

[Mike]

Also going with Starry Night over the Rhone, because I find the combination of the night sky and the reflection of lights on the other side of a body of water is among the most aesthetically pleasing things to me.

But whatever I'm dating a painter.

[Wat, But A Girl]

Metamorphosis III or really anything else by escher

[mreow]

My best friend was really big into airbrushing when we were like 14. Once she made the most surreal, strange but vibrant painting of a tree and she hated it and kind of tossed it aside, but I thought it was wonderful and said so but she never gave it to me because she hated it so much. It makes me sad to think of it being discarded and hated.

[Andy]

Here are some others I might choose from mostly in the realm of Art History:

Francisco Goya's Third of May
http://www.artmuseums.com/thirdofmay.jpg
I didn't like this painting at first, but the story behind it, and the continued looking at it gave me more appreciation for it. It's a very emotional piece.

I always liked this from Otto Mueller:

I always liked this self portrait because it is only in self portraits that he paint so brutally with his colors. Most of his works fit this painting more:

Which is nice, but the self portraits just draw me in. That first painting actually has had a lot of effect on the way I approach drawing and painting. It's like a visual representation of the idea that people are their own harshest critics.

There's also this one print down at this Barbecue place (Mojos, and it is the best barbecue place on this plane of existence) that, like the others in that place, has a blues theme. It's just a man on the edge of a porch playing guitar, which is admittedly lie 90% of blues art, but this one is really just so impressively done to me. I really really love it, I just don't remember the artist's name, or if he would even have a picture of it online anyway.