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December 1999
Poll: Who is Producing the Most Interesting Art Today?

Enough of that retro of-the-century and of-the-millennium stuff. Which living artists are doing work right now which inspires, informs, shocks, delights or moves us?

Through this poll, we are hoping to identify the fine artists creating the most interesting work today. We can't step outside of history to judge which artists of our era will prove to be the most important or influential, but here's hoping that the search for interesting art will provoke an open-ended and fruitful debate.

This poll should be a useful counterpart to our list of Top 30 Most Searched-For Artists, which rarely contains artists currently working. Bridget Riley is the only living artist currently on that list; she and Andrew Wyeth are the only ones to have ever made the list (in the 10 months we have been online).

We will publish interim standings, as well as final results after January 31. This exercise is intended to be fun, so please don't take the rankings seriously. We will also publish some of the comments provided.

Update December 16: At the risk of skewing the results, I'll report that controversial photographer Cindy Sherman is leading the polling, followed closely by the cerebral Mark Tansey, the monumental Chuck Close, and the medieval Odd Nerdrum.


Straightforward Rules:
  • You may vote several times for different artists
  • Don't vote multiple times for the same artist, or your ballots will be rejected
  • If you're an artist, encouraging people to vote for you is OK, but just include a link to us (i.e. don't copy the voting form onto your own site)
  • If you send spiders (computer programs) to our site to vote for you multiple times, you are so disqualified
Privacy statement: We will only use your email address to contact you if you specifically ask to be updated; personal information about you will never be shared with third parties.


Poll Closed - Thank You




Previous Features
  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