My favorite painter - Marc Chagall
Mudpuppy
Chagall.
My choice reflects my taste, and more importantly my ideals towards
painting, that the subject material is the most important facet of an
art work. Compared to Van Gogh, who I also view as brilliant, I
prefer Chagall, due to his inventiveness and imaginative choices of
subject material.
One can see this in comparing their self-portraits.
Obviously Van Gogh was more of an expressionist, using subtle facial
expressions to convey whatever he felt about himself. Still, while
some people really appreciate these little details, still I look at
his self protraits and all that I see is three slightly different
views of a tormented redheaded man. True there are plenty of emotions
in his face, and I can appreciate that over a plain stick figure
drawing or even just an average portrait.
But to me, I'm more drawn to the imaginative style of Chagall's self
portraits. One of his earlier and most famous self portraits has him
perched piggyback on top of his wife's shoulders and holding a
wineglass. Another one, "Self Portrait with Seven Fingers", has him
with seven fingers on one hand.
I guess because of my inclination towards really imaginative works, I
should be a Picasso fan, and I am to some degree. But I still
overwhelmingly prefer the style of Chagall.
One thing that is especially amzing about his work is that he was one
of those painters who lived a long long time, (90 years), and painted
practically up until his death, yet there is very little changes in
his style. ONe can view a work of his from the turn of the century,
and it will have the same elements as one created in the early 1980's.
The floating figures, caught in a gravitally challenged landscape with
figures bearing horseheads, and chickenheads.
His paintings were a predecessor to surrealism, and I recommend anyone
studying art to do a little research on Marc Chagall.
Other favorite painters are: Picasso, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky.
Favorite contemporary artists: Dan Namingha, Judye Saffle, Wayne
Thielbold
If you have time, check out my online gallery (which bears little
resemblance to any Chagall works) at: