Infinite Art Tournament

Saturday, June 15, 2019

The Ladder of Art -- Week #29

Cast your votes for up to four of these seven artists by Friday June 21. For clarifications, consult the Ladder of Art FAQ.

Daubigny and Chase come off of bye week for this rung, and two painters from the Unitedstatesian scene enter the fray. Will they rise, or will they fall?

Last Week's Results

This Week's Contest

Washington Allston
1779-1843
American

Tournament Record: Tied for 429th. Lost to Algardi and Albers; was the first artist exited from the Tournament. 8 votes for, 18 votes against (.308).

Andy Warhol
1928 - 1987
American

Tournament Record: Tied for 435th. Defeated Alfred Wallis; lost to Édouard Vuillard and Vigee-LeBrun. 11 votes for, 25 votes against (.306).

Mark Gertler
1891 - 1939
British

Tournament Record: Tied for 435th. Lost to Théodore Géricault and Gentile da Fabriano. 7 votes for, 16 votes against (.304).

Tied for Third, Week #28.

William Merritt Chase
1849 - 1916
American

Tournament Record: Tied for 439th. Beaten by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and Christo. 6 votes for, 14 votes against (.300).

Placed Second, Week #26
Tied for First, Week #27

Willem Kalf
1622 - 1693
Dutch

Tournament Record: Tied for 454th. Lost to Wassily Kandinsky and Richard Parkes Bonington. 7 votes for, 18 votes against (.280).

Tied for First in Week #22.
Placed Second in Week #24.
Tied for Third in Week #25.
Placed Fourth in Week #26
Placed Third in Week #27.
Placed Second in Week #28.

Bernardino Luini
c. 1481 - 1532
Milanese

Tournament Record: Tied for 461st. Lost to Mabuse, AKA Jan Gossaert, and to Aristide Maillol. 6 votes for, 17 votes against (.261).

Tied for First in Week #19.
Tied for Third in Week #21.
Placed Third in Week #22.
Tied for Fourth in Week #23.
Placed Fourth in Week #24.
Tied for First in Week #25
Tied for Fourth in Week #27.
Tied for Third in Week #28.

Charles-François Daubigny
1817 - 1878
French

Tournament Record: Placed 505th. Lost to Salvador Dali and Aelbert Cuyp. 4 votes for, 26 votes against (.133).

Finished First in Ladder Week #2.
Finished First again in Week #4.
...and again in Week #6.
...and in Week #8.
...and in Week #10.
...and in Week #12.
...and in Week #14.
...and in Week #16.
...and in Week #18.
...and in Week #20.
Tied for First, Week #22.
Placed Third in Week #24.
Tied for First, Week #25.
Tied for First, Week #27.

Cast up to four votes in the comments by Friday morning!

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Left Bracket Round 8: Caillebotte v. Leonardo da Vinci

Caillebotte has been full of surprises since the beginning of the Tournament, starting with the fact that someone named "Caillebotte" qualified for entrance and continuing right through his stunning 8-2 Grudge Match reversal that sent Degas to the lockers and made him one of the last six artists in the show.

Whereas, everyone has heard of Leonardo da Vinci. He's a big big challenge for Caillebotte this round, having just fallen to John Singer Sargent in the quarters.

Gustave Caillebotte
1848 - 1894
French

Impressionists such as... Gustave Caillebotte enthusiastically painted the renovated city, employing their new style to depict its wide boulevards, public gardens, and grand buildings.... Caillebotte’s 1877 Paris Street, Rainy Day exemplifies how these artists abandoned sentimental depictions and explicit narratives, adopting instead a detached, objective view that merely suggests what is going on. - The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Defeated mobile pioneer Alexander Calder in Round 1.
Held out against Edward Burra in Round 2.
Fought to a draw with Caravaggio in Round 3.
Crushed Corot in the Round 3 tiebreaker.
Blasted Mary Cassatt in a Round 4 15-0 blowout.
Beat Frederick Church easily in Round 5.
Lost to Edgar Degas in Round 6.
Upset Hieronymus Bosch in the Left Bracket Sixth Round.
Upset Albrecht Dürer in Sixth Round Elimination by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Nudged Remedios Varo out in the Left Bracket Seventh Round by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Beat Degas in a stunning Grudge Match reveral in Seventh Round Elimination.

Leonardo da Vinci

1452 - 1519
Italian

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most intriguing personalities in the history of Western art. Trained in Florence as a painter and sculptor in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo is also celebrated for his scientific contributions. Leonardo’s curiosity and insatiable hunger for knowledge never left him. He was constantly observing, experimenting, and inventing, and drawing was, for him, a tool for recording his investigation of nature. Although completed works by Leonardo are few, he left a large body of drawings (almost 2,500) that record his ideas, most still gathered into notebooks. He was principally active in Florence and Milan, but spent the last years of his life in Rome and France, where he died. His genius as an artist and inventor continues to inspire artists and scientists alike centuries after his death.

- The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Pounded Sir Peter Lely in Round 1.
Skunked Stanley William Hayter in Round 2.
Beat the Limbourg Brothers in Round 3 by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Made it easily past El Lissitzky, though many voters expressed mixed feelings, in Round 4.
Blasted past Klee in Round 5.
Trounced Timothy Ely in Round 6.
Beat Monet in Round 7.
Lost to Sargent in Round 8.

Saturday, June 8, 2019

The Ladder of Art -- Week #28

Cast your votes for up to four of these seven artists by Friday June 14. For clarifications, consult the Ladder of Art FAQ.

We say farewell to longtime Ladder-climber Edward Wadsworth this week, whose 14 appearances hoisted him a whopping 45 rungs up the artistic pecking order. And, we'll say hello to Mengs, Gertler, and Bellmer, who will be hoping to do the same!

Last Week's Results

This Week's Contest

Anton Raphael Mengs
1728 - 1779
German; worked internationally

Tournament Record: Tied for 435th. Lost to Hans Memling and Roberto Matta. 7 votes for, 16 votes against (.304).

Mark Gertler
1891 - 1939
British

Tournament Record: Tied for 435th. Lost to Théodore Géricault and Gentile da Fabriano. 7 votes for, 16 votes against (.304).

Hans Bellmer
1902 - 1975
Polish; worked in France

Tournament Record: Tied for 435th. Lost to Giovanni Bellini and Bernardo Bellotto. 7 votes for, 16 votes against (.304).

Jean-François de Troy
1679 - 1752
French

Tournament Record: Placed 438th, actually. Beaten by Toulouse-Lautrec, defeated Cy Twombly, and Lost to Titian. 12 votes for, 28 votes against (.300).

Tied for Fourth, Week #27.

Canaletto
1697 - 1768
Italian (Venetian); also worked in England

Tournament Record: Placed 448th, actually. Beat Robert Campin, then lost to Caravaggio and Alexander Calder. 7 votes for, 17 votes against (.292).

Placed First in Week #24.
Placed First again in Week #26.

Willem Kalf
1622 - 1693
Dutch

Tournament Record: Tied for 454th. Lost to Wassily Kandinsky and Richard Parkes Bonington. 7 votes for, 18 votes against (.280).

Tied for First in Week #22.
Placed Second in Week #24.
Tied for Third in Week #25.
Placed Fourth in Week #26
Placed Third in Week #27.

Bernardino Luini
c. 1481 - 1532
Milanese

Tournament Record: Tied for 461st. Lost to Mabuse, AKA Jan Gossaert, and to Aristide Maillol. 6 votes for, 17 votes against (.261).

Tied for First in Week #19.
Tied for Third in Week #21.
Placed Third in Week #22.
Tied for Fourth in Week #23.
Placed Fourth in Week #24.
Tied for First in Week #25
Tied for Fourth in Week #27.

Cast up to four votes in the comments by Friday morning!

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

The Provisional Championship Match: Bruegel v. Sargent

Here it is, my friends -- eight years later, there are only two undefeated artists left. Let's find out which one is the (provisional) GOAT.

Why provisional? Because, since it's a double-elimination tournament, the winner will still have to hold his own against the winner of the Left Brackets.

Pieter Bruegel (the Elder)
c.1525 - 1569
Dutch

A number of Bruegel’s paintings focus on the lives of Flemish commoners.... But while these works demonstrate the artist’s attentive eye for detail and attest to his direct observation of village settings, they are far from simple re-creations of everyday life. The powerful compositions, brilliantly organized and controlled, reflect a sophisticated artistic design.... Bruegel’s use of landscape also defies easy interpretation, and demonstrates perhaps the artist’s greatest innovation.... These panoramic compositions suggest an insightful and universal vision of the world — a vision that distinguishes all the work of their remarkable creator.

- The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Trounced his own son, Jan Bruegel the Elder, in Round 1.
Won easily against living artist Daniel Buren in Round 2.
Scorched respectable Victorian Ford Maddox Brown in Round 3.
Made it past Botticelli in Round 4.
Beat Gianlorenzo Bernini in Round 5 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Beat Albrecht Altdorfer easily in Round 6.
Pulled away from Degas eventually in Round 7.
Surprised Vincent van Gogh in Round 8.

John Singer Sargent

1856 - 1925
American

Although Sargent painted, showed, and won praise for both portraits and subject pictures at the Salons between 1877 and 1882, commissions for portraits increasingly demanded his attention and defined his reputation. Sargent’s best-known portrait, Madame X, which he undertook without a commission, enlisted a palette and brushwork derived from Velázquez; a profile view that recalls Titian; and an unmodulated treatment of the face and figure inspired by the style of Édouard Manet and Japanese prints. The picture’s novelty and quality notwithstanding, it was a succès de scandale in the 1884 Salon, provoking criticism for Sargent’s indifference to conventions of pose, modeling, and treatment of space, even twenty years after Manet’s pioneering efforts.