Picasso Was The Bees Knees!

Rembrandt Picasso.....a toss up.....

Robert Taylor gets my vote, followed closely by Robert Bateman.

I would pick Vincent Van Gogh.

One thing I've learned about Picasso over the years is that his talent was multi-faceted, and endless. As an artist, he could execute anything. The public sees only his semi-abstract paintings, but he could also draw beautifully and with extreme realism.

JC, that is what makes this site fun, the wide range of opinions! I had to look up both of those artist as I was unaware of who they were. Turns out I have seen Bateman's work before but not Taylor. Both are awesome illustrators!

While I like many of the "great masters" of the past, especially Dali and Monet, I find I am far more drawn to the works of the two Roberts above. It has as much to do with their choice of subjects that appeal to me as it does with their style.

I might go for DaVinci because his wide range of interests.

Cool, I could have many directions in my choice on this thread myself but Picasso whips people up a bit and I figured would attract some interesting responses, I do love his work!

Edward the ending of the film short on Picasso really blew me away... Wow!

I am inescapably drawn to Van Gogh. His drawing and painting techniques, his vivid colors, cause me to cry and celebrate life at the same time. So POWEFUL. I honestly cannot get over that an entire generation missed it while he was alive.

I have debated with myself many times over this. I always come back to Michelangelo.

Hard to debate that one Kevin!

Seek out the "Mystery of Picasso" maybe on Netflix. I saw it back in the 80s when they re-released it. Fascinating film using techniques that allow the view to experience a Picasso painting as it happens.

Monet is my all time favorite. Love many others but Monet takes the cake for me.

Love his sense of light and feel for paint!

Double post sorry!

Well Ronald, so far I have had the privilege of standing in front of the works of everyone named here and probably more who will be. Now one's favorite is always subjective, but if you look at the work accomplished by Michelangelo (even head to head with da Vinci) he talks ones breath away. Picasso is a great favorite of mine, as is Van Gogh, whose accomplishments in a relatively short life are hard to comprehend. Of course others will name different artists, to which I can only say (in the Irish) "good on ya!"

I have many. Raphael, Rembrandt, DaVinci, Bouguereau, Velazquez, Alma Tadema, Poussin, and the list goes on... Very hard to just pick one.

Interesting to me that none of the artist named have been within the last 100 years.

Sorry again, using my I phone!

That was for Phyllis.

Very good artist? One of my favorite. The greatest? Far from it.

I know y'all need to buy a VG!!

Ron,

Within the last 100 years?

James Rosenquist

Dave
davidbridburg.com

Dis a gree... Positively disagree both as an artist and as a person worth knowing

Artist can be from anytime I was just wondering if there were any artist Phyllis felt strongly about that lived in the last 100 years since she gave a larger list.

I am a great fan of the modern realists, Wyeth, Hopper, as well as surrealists like Ernst and Magritte. I appreciate Picasso, but his work doesn't resonate with me the way some others do.

I am going to stray from the group of people you probably traditionally think of as artists, because I think an artist can be something even greater.

My pick, then, would be Buckminster Fuller. Picasso really does not compare, in terms of depth and breadth of genius, visual and verbal facility.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema died in 1912, does that count? :} Those are the ones that I highly regard and I was not aware that they were supposed to be within the last 100 years.... Sorry! Just my opinion, I also love antiques, just who I am.
While I admire Picasso as an artist, I am not a fan. Again, just me.

Salvador Dali to me was significantly better than Picasso. I think I like Salvador Dali's work more than any other artist from the past or the future. However I don't know if I could say best artist ever. I would argue that Salvador Dali was one of the best in the past 100 or so year's. To me Picasso is interesting but I find some of his work boring.I never find Salvador Dali's work boring. Ok sometimes I do but most of the work is very good.

Thanks Abbie! hugs

Cynthia, love them as well,Never cared much for Wyeth till I saw one for real, awesome painter!

Phyllis, the pick or picks can come from anytime. I just noticed that all the artist you chose were back in time a fair piece and was wondering why that was. Your love of history answers that for me.

Rembrant, Titian, Michelangelo.

Don, I have always liked Dali's work. Prefer his earlier 1930's to 1940's work to his latter work.

Ronald your statement got me to relook over some of Dali's work. I might agree with this statement about the 1930's and 40's but then again it seems like he was making more art in those time's. in the 50s and 60s he seems to put in more pattern of small thing's all over some work's. However besides that I don't notice a huge shift in his work from the 40s to say the 50s and or 60s although there is a change.

Vermeer and Keith Haring, for obviously different reasons except they both draw me in.

Rembrandt,Caravaggio,Davinci,Rubens,Bouguereau,Raphael,Vermeer,Bierstadt, Gentileschi Sorry I cant think of just one..

How did I forget to put Audubon! I learned much of what I know studying his works.

Any and all of the Flemish greats.
I just don't get Picasso, and I don't really want to.

Terry
tlmair.com

Andrew Wyeth. I positively swoon.

Picasso concerns me.

Ah... Ronald, glad you came around or I would have a long drive out to California to school you. I lived near the Wyeth Museum for 9 years and spent many a happy hour there with clients, my family, and often by myself. Both praised and maligned the Wyeth family has been a force in American art for over 100 years.

This is my take on Wyeth with my wife as model.

There are so many greats and I have so many favorite artists, it's difficult to pick just one. However I find Picasso's boundless creativity , artistic playfulness, diversity of media and mastery of so much, puts him at the top of my list.

Here are a couple of my Picasso tributes:

.

Kevin, wyeth's work taught me that there is often a big difference between the image in a book and the actual piece.

Kevin, wyeth's work taught me that there is often a big difference between the image in a book and the actual piece.

I like Norman Rockwell. The guy's draftsmanship was simply amazing. Maxfield Parrish is another fave of mine, and so is W.W. Denslow.

Leonardo DaVinci and Monet

I liked Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, August Macke, Franz Marc. They influenced me to be free with my brushstrokes rather than attempting super realism. They also taught me to love color and being messy and creative.

I like Maurice Utrillo and many others.

Can anyone here separate their personal taste from what makes great art great art

Robert think that is hard. Guess if I had to go just with taste I would lean to Chagall or Soutine. My pick of Picasso is a combo of loving his work and his impact on the art world of today.

Vasili Kandinsky
René Magritte
Diego Velázquez
Pablo Picasso
Paul Klee
Francis Bacon

The best artist who ever lived is most likely someone no one ever heard of. Who know's why history decide's to record things. Perhaps the best artist live's today(there are more people today then all the past human's combined so by number's the best artist should exist today not to mention more people then any other time before are doing art and studying it) will this artist be realized or die poor and alone with there art discovered year's after there life or never at all. (although I still think Salvador Dali is one of the best and can out paint any of the old master's as well as have more interest and oddity in the work then most other artists, )

Van Gogh is the best and is selling on FAA.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/vincent-van-gogh.html

monet, van gough, picasso, dali for me.

I love Picasso and his art.But in view of peoples different tastes for art the best "artist" is probably the one that your enjoying at the time.

Monet - his works are so bright and refreshing even today. It's nice to see Canadian artist Robert Bateman mentioned in this thread.
I also like the Group of Seven, who painted predominantly Canadian nature scenes. I like wildlife and nature and Carl Rungius is another favorite of mine, he lived in Banff where he painted the wildlife of the area. More contemporary artists I like are Bob Kuhn, who painted wildlife in a unique way, and Howard Terpning, whose western art is incredible.

You're all way off the mark - especially the OP regarding that self-confessed charlatan, Picasso: The greatest artists in human history were the dudes that created the Lascaux Cave paintings, which are estimated to be over 17,300 years old.

Try to imagine the quantum leap of creativity it must have taken to boldly recreate, in the darkness of those damp caves, scenes of animals, human figures and abstract signs in two-dimensions, using their hands and whatever mineral pigments they could rustle-up!

And don't get me started on those fantastic star charts...

These guys were geniuses, relatively speaking.

Darn it Patrick you make a very compelling point. But one problem, there were no art critics to elevate them. Also, probably some wonk commented on how the bull was drawn. Back then you could probably kill your critic.

Another double post... iPad being very funny today.

Can't say who the greatest of all time is...can only relate to my own personal preferences and influences, those who have brought me back again and again for decades of looks. So, for me, its Max Beckmann, Egon Schiele, and Oskar Kokoschka. Certainly the bag is open to squeeze in a few others...

All funnin' aside, Patrick makes a very good point. I think most of us approach a question like Ronald's with the understandable position of what type of art we like. But the crux of the question concerning who is the greatest artist ever (to date) requires going past our personal likes and looking at other factors. What type of influence (in their time, or lasting) did/does an artist have? How extensive their body of work? Did they move art forward, or merely do a great job during their time? Of course with a very few, as in da Vinci and Michelangelo we had 2 artists who could paint, sculpt, do architecture, and invent. This being a short list of their abilities.

Influence in the world of art (past and future) in their "times" narrows the list down a whole lot. As the cave painters were not in recorded history, they must lead the pack but remain anonymous. That leaves only a very few (I will probably leave someone out) da Vinci, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Malovich, Picasso, and (love him or hate him) Warhol. There have been MANY who did great work but few who literally changed the world.

Much of the early cave paintings were created as part of a shamanic show/ ceremony where I would image the painter, the healer, the fire keeper and later the sacred clown were seen in mystical context and not so much artistic context

Oh Robert... that is just great.

Robert, too good! Loved the "after birth"!

Thanks guys but does it add the debate? I think so

There are a lot of questions that pop up, for example can you compare an artist from one era to another? How about a photographer to a sculpture? Folk artist to elephant painting.

You were asking about the greatest artists, now in my mind thats a pretty high standard, greatest, greatness........ that would require objectivity to answer don't you think, not sure many can look at it objectively without slipping in their taste or pet peeve with the established art world..

Robert, just asking opinion, you would not be able to get a group of artist to agree on anything for real, esp. greatest artist. I see no way personal opinion and taste would not come into play.

you have low expectations Ronald ...

Just keeping to the ground.