Welcome/Artist Search Top 30 Most Popular Artists Monthly Features Art Museum Sites Worldwide Fine Art Links More About Us The Most Efficient Ad Targeting in the World Popup Glossary of Art-Related Terms
                    
Artcyclopedia

Feature Archive
                    
 

February 2000
Results of our Most Interesting Living Artist Poll

Andrew Wyeth was voted the most interesting living artist by our visitors. Below are the top ten ranked artists, as well as some comments we gathered about why people voted the way they did. Thanks to all who participated.

  1. Andrew Wyeth
    American high realist painter, highly regarded both for his landscapes and for his figurative works. His work is genuinely intriguing, and he is sometimes classed as a Magic Realist due to the evocative nature of his paintings. His immense popularity is remarkable, given his uncompromising and unsentimental, almost bleak, vision.

  2. Odd Nerdrum
    Norwegian painter whose nightmarish works with their medieval imagery are somewhat reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch.

  3. Chuck Close
    American artist specializing in huge paintings and prints of the human face. He started out as a photorealist, but with time his portraits have become more and more abstract. In 1988, in mid-career, Close was paralyzed due to a blood clot in his spinal column. He regained partial use of his arms, and was able to return to painting after developing techniques which allowed him to work from a wheelchair.

  4. Cindy Sherman
    American photographer specializing in conceptual self-portraits. Some of her subject matter is kind of controversial.

  5. Mark Tansey
    Cerebral American painter whose work is rooted in literary history as well as in the study of 20th-century artistic movements.

  6. Carole Hand
    A San Francisco Bay area painter specializing in portraits of jazz greats.

  7. Lucian Freud
    German-born British painter, considered one of our time's great figurative artists.

  8. Tracey Emin
    Part of the recent "Sensation" show and one of the leading members of the Britpack. She was shortlisted for Britain's Turner Prize for her recent installation, "My Bed." (Two self-styled performance artists, who tried to "push her work to further limits" by entering the installation and staging a pillow fight on the bed, were not nominated.)

  9. Dale Chihuly
    American glassmaker. Fantastically innovative, and possibly the leading artist working in this medium.

  10. Bill Viola
    American video artist. One of the first important artists working with video.





Below are some comments people have made about why they voted for a particular artist:

 
Fukuda: He paints like a geographer makes his map: accurately, smooth, color sensitive. The result is a magnificent abstract modern painting with texture popin'up like a lacework. He is a modern brazilian painter.
Winston Graca
 
Patrick Caulfield: Although, maybe classed as "pop art" his use of colour and shadows transcends this level.
jann carvill
 
Wyland: Known for his "Whaling" walls and undersea paintings, I am always in awe of his ability to capture the wonderous creatures found under the sea.
 
Andrew Wyeth's work combines great sensitivity and subtlety with amazing technical mastery. No other artist alive today is capable of such fineness and brilliance.
Phil Hull
 
Carole Hand: Her art like jazz is fluid, spiritual, suprising, dynamic and soulful.
 
G. Harvey's street scenes and Civil War paintings are simply great. I look forward to his new releases.
Chas. T. McGill
 
Bryan Smith: While his medium [computer-generated art] is unusual, his results are amazing.
Mark Kayser
 
The works of Damien Hirst offer another battlefield for Piccaso an Duchamp. He makes us look as and think. Totally disturbing and *#$%*@* beautiful at the same time.
Brandon Marsh
 
Robert Rauschenberg is for me, a satisfying balance between the conceptual and the aesthetic. His versatility is evident in his diverse catalog, and his experimentation with various movements and techniques make him an important and respected figure in the "art world".
Anne Drogyness
 
Balthus paints the enigmatic in a uniquely powerful way.
Jack Gjovaag
 
Tracey Emin: british artist, turner prize '99 nominee. interesting because she might be genuine or might be an act.
 
Louise Bourgeois: I think she is the greatist living artist, and through out her very long career, her work has always been fresh.
 
Howard Hodgkin: Optimal appreciation of the painting medium through which to evoke affective and intellectually stimulating imagery.
 
Andrew Wyeth: I've met both Mr. and Mrs. Wyeth in person and it impressed me how they are down to earth people who loves art and lives for art.
 
Godwin Bradbeer: Sensual and spiritual, Godwin's drawings at their best touch the numinous. His "Man of Paper IV" was the stand-out winner of the 1998 Dobell Prize (Australia), and his work continues to develop in inspiring, challenging and witty directions.
 
Damien Hirst: After the glory and optimism that was Modernism, and the playfulness that was PostModernism, he serves as a counterpart to all of our inbuilt inhibitions, and all of our preconceptions about the serious purpose of art... while remaining serious nevertheless.
Scott Koterbay
 
A visionary artist who is renown both as painter and sculptor and holds the world record price for a portrait of a living person at $2.1 million, Brett-Livingstone Strong intends to create an 1100 foot tall "Angel Monument" for Los Angeles. His paintings, inspired and inspiring,are testaments to the incredible life force of our universe and the potential of humanity. Commissioned works include portraits of Dr. Armand Hammer and Michael Jackson as well as the "Bicentennial of the Constitution" Monument unveiled at Independence Hall. Mr. Strong is becoming the Michaelangelo of our time.
Donald Berry
 
Dale Chihuly: I love his work and I love the fact that he is the only artist in the world who has been able to pick up Andy's social gauntlet and run with it. Kind of a "sword in the stone" phenomenon. Name anyone else who is on a first name basis with Rauschenburg, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall and Hillary Clinton?
Mike Venema
 
Bill Viola: Never in my life have I ever walked into a gallery where I felt nervous, anxious, excited, and curious all at the same time. Bill Viola's work can arouse in me all of these emotions simultaneously and make an unforgettable impression on my existence.
R. Rene Carlin
 
See last month's feature for more insightful comments...




Previous Features
  January, 2000
Poll: Who is Producing the Most Interesting Art Today? (Part II)
  December, 1999
Poll: Who is Producing the Most Interesting Art Today? (Part I)
  November, 1999
The Louvre Museum
Artist: Albrecht Dürer
Museum: The Louvre
Book: Paintings in the Louvre
Print: Study of a Horse's Head, by Pisanello
  October, 1999
Impressionism
Artist: Claude Monet
Museum: North Carolina Museum of Art
Exhibit: Monet: O Mestre do Impressionismo
Book: Impressionists in Winter: Effets de Neige
Print: Nympheas avec Effets de Nuage, by Claude Monet
  September, 1999
Optical Art
Artist: M.C. Escher
Museum: The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Exhibit: Trompe l'oeil: The Art of Deception
Book: M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work
Print: Movement In Squares, by Bridget Riley
  August, 1999
Animals in Art
Artist: Antoine-Louis Barye
Museum: National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Exhibit: PBS: American Visions
Book: Natural Worlds, by Robert Bateman
Print: A la Bodiniere, by Théophile Steinlen
  July, 1999
Surrealism
Artist: Odd Nerdrum
Museum: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Exhibit: Virtuo Official Magritte Site
Book: Mystery of Magritte CD-ROM
Print: Santiago El Grande, by Salvador Dalí
  June, 1999
Sculpture
Artist: Audrey Flack
Museum: Carol Gerten's Fine Art
Exhibit: Michael Lucero: Sculpture 1976-1995
Book: Anish Kapoor
Print: Cupid And Psyche, by Antonio Canova
  May, 1999
Women in the Arts
Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe
Museum: National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
Exhibit: Jenny Holzer: Please Change Beliefs
Book: Cindy Sherman: Retrospective
Print: Self-Portrait with Monkeys, by Frida Kahlo
  April, 1999
The Golden Age of Illustration
Artist: Maxfield Parrish
Museum: Fine Arts Museums Of San Francisco
Exhibit: Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe online
Books: Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe
Print: Cinderella (Enchantment), by Maxfield Parrish
  March, 1999
Vincent van Gogh
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Museum: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Exhibit: The Vincent van Gogh Information Gallery
Book: Van Gogh's Van Goghs
Print: Terrasse de Cafe
  February, 1999
Great Art
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Museum: The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Exhibit: John Singleton Copley: Watson and the Shark
Book: The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration
Print: L'Astronomia, by Raphael