Monday, October 1, 2007

Back to School


September is over and the winner of the September poll asking “What is your favorite art- or artist-related song?” is over. The winner and new champion is Mona Lisa by Nat King Cole, with 7 votes, just edging out Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) by Don McLean, which had 6 votes. Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War by Paul Simon trailed with 4 votes and Andy Warhol by David Bowie landed just 3 supporters. Poor Mona Lisa by Britney Spears couldn’t manage a single vote. Will the hating never stop?


Now that the school year is back in gear, I thought it would be appropriate to really hit the books and ask: “If you could see an exhibition of all the major works of just one school, which one would it be?” Be true to your school and vote for one of these groups (prominent alumni in parentheses):

Abstract Expressionists (Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko)

German Expressionists (Egon Schiele, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde)

Impressionists (Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir)

Post-Impressionists (Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat)

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Edward Burne-Jones)

These selections obviously reveal my own preferences, especially the German Expressionists, but I’ve tried to offer something for everyone. Schools and labels are usually pretty weak ways of lumping unique artists under the same category (unless you do it self consciously, like the Pre-Raphaelites, of course), so this isn’t the most accurate of opinion polls but it should be interesting.

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