Your favorite art works

[Ülev]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Square_(painting)

[Hithaeglir]

I have a few favourite painters but the one i single out is Gustav Klimt, i love the sensuality of his artwork and the selection of colours.

[Root]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Square_(painting)

Negroes fighting in a cellar at night lol

[Neon Knight]

I don't follow any particular artists but I prefer classic, romantic and impressionistic styles. One of my favourite paintings is Closing the Gates at Hougoumont by Robert Gibb:

This was painted nearly a century after the battle of Waterloo, to meet late Victorian tastes for dramatic images of British military heroism.

Men of the Coldstream Guards and the Scots Guards are shown forcing shut the gates of the chateau of Hougoumont against French attack.

[Seya]

Nicolae Grigorescu

[Linebacker]

[Svipdag]

Mysterious, I am not sure whether you are SICK or whether your taste merely reflects the values of a society gone mad.

[Root]

Mysterious, I am not sure whether you are SICK or whether your taste merely reflects the values of a society gone mad.

this gave me a very good laugh. Seriously, I'm okay

[magyar_lány]

Renoir - Two sisters on the terrace



Vasarely - zebra

[Kazimiera]

I ask myself the question, what does a sculptor mean by that?

They were created by South African artist, Jane Alexander, in 1986. It was the height of apartheid and a state of emergency had been declared in the country, and the Butcher Boys are an example of political Resistance Art, resistance against the apartheid system.

If you look at them, their ears have been cut off. Their spines have been removed. They've been cut open from the neck down, disabling their voice boxes, have possibly had their hearts removed and there is a flap of thickened skin over the mouths, leaving them unable to speak. It is as if they were human at one stage, but have metamorphosised (seemingly by force) into inhuman creatures, becoming animalistic. There are a number of interpretations.

1.) They are the perpetrators, having imposed the Apartheid regime. They used to be human but have become animals, imposing their belief system and their will on others. They can be seen as evil, the devil (horns), having their hearts (feelings) removed and their spines removed (which can be interpreted as cowardice, being spineless). Their eyes are black, which can be interpreted as blindness, blindness to the plight of others around them.

2.) They are the victims of Apartheid, demonised as "the other", dehumanised and made out to be animals (hence the horns) unworthy of human status. Their voice boxes are gone and their mouths are grown shut, they are unable to make a sound, unable to cry, and unable to hear each others cries because their ears have been cut off.

In most of the pictures they seem white, but they're actually this sickly yellowish colour, as if they are sick.



My own interpretation

When I went to go see them I was unaware of this political angle and I'm glad I didn't know about it, so I could appreciate them for what they are. They life-size and quite imposing. I experienced them as sad, especially the one with the large horns.

The frown on the forehead and the black eyes gave me the impression that he was about to cry and just had to silently accept his lot in life. You're not sure if he can see you or not. Maybe he is looking at you, maybe he is looking through you, or maybe it was just looking. It was like he was sitting there, resigned to the position he found himself in, drained of energy and power. Just sitting and waiting. I don't know for what, but waiting. The low-set horns gave me the impression of a little puppy. Here is this ugly, imposing creature which was trying to retain, or hang onto, a sliver of innocence and childhood and humanity. For me, he seemed the most harmless of the three of them.




I didn't like the one in the middle much. In a way I felt sad for him, but the evil had started to consume him, suffocating him, and he was already more monster than anything else. I experienced pity for him. With the first one, there was a kind of empathy, whereas with the middle one there was pity.




The last one was the most animalistic for me, like a deformed antelope, a deer caught in the headlights. Is he about to jump, or is he shying away? I got the impression that he was shying away, but with antelope you never know. They are unpredictable.




In total, I have never been moved by any piece of art as much as I was moved by the Butcher Boys. I stood there for a long time, looking at them from every possible angle, just to EXPERIENCE them. Normally, for me at least, you look AT art. You look AT a painting or sculpture, it is separate from you, an inanimate object, and you appreciate the talent of the artist. These, however, are different. They grab you at the most visceral level. I think it is impossible for you to come away from them without feeling SOMETHING. The photos definitely don't do them any justice.