Round Six: da Vinci v. Ely

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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.

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Timothy Ely

born 1949
American

Timothy C. Ely is an renowned and enigmatic figure in the book world. He is part of that discipline, yet lives and works in a universe apart. His one-of-kind manuscript books combine elaborate and often mysterious painted and drawn folios contained within finely crafted bindings, which are his inventions or variations on traditional binding techniques. Each book carries layers of both materials and meaning. Close study of each drawing can elicit revelations, personal to each viewer.

- Abby Schoolman Books

• Took First Place in Phase 1, Flight 7, with a voting score of .813.
• Tied for First in Phase 2, Flight 5 of the Play-In Tournament with a voting score of .500.
• Laid a beating on William Dobson in Round 1.
• Surprised Man Ray in Round 2.
• Upset Édouard Manet in Round 3 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat fellow Play-In Tournament artist Ernst Haeckel in Round 4.
• Stunned Henri Matisse in Round 5.

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The Infinite Art Tournament Left Bracket Third-Round Elimination: Stella v. Sutherland!

Both of these guys have lost to Jan Steen, but where's the shame in that?  Jan Steen's in the Fifth Round!  He's painting against Vermeer!  But in this match, Sutherland and Stella are vying for the chance to take on Turner. 

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Frank Stella
born 1936
American

• Lost to Dutch master Jan Steen in Round 1 by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Skunked -- Skunked! -- Canadian painter Jean-Paul Riopelle in First Round Elimination.
• Snuck by Clyfford Still in the Second Round by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat George Stubbs in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat Rufino Tamayo in the Left Bracket Third Round.

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Graham Sutherland
1903 - 1980
British

• Defeated George Stubbs in Round 1.
• Won easily against Clyfford Still in Round 2.
• Lost badly to Jan Steen in Round 3.
• Beat Terbrugghen in the Left Bracket Third Round.

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Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

The Infinite Art Tournament Left Bracket Third-Round Elimination: Vlaminck v. Whistler!

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Maurice de Vlaminck
1876 - 1958
French

• Defeated Simon Vouet in Round 1.
• Lost to M.C. Escher in Round 2.
• Made it past Alfred Wallis in the Left Bracket Second Round by a safe margin.
• Defeated Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination.
• Beat Waterhouse in the Left Bracket Third Round.

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James Abbot McNeill Whistler
1834 - 1903
American; worked in Britain

• Defeated Sir David Wilkie in Round 1.
• Lost to Rogier Van der Weyden in Round 2, but there's no shame in that.
• Crushed Antoine Watteau in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Defeated Sir David Wilkie, again, in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination.
• Beat Édouard Vuillard in the Left Bracket Third Round.

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Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Round Six: Sargent v. Sheeler

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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.

- The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

• Beat Juan Sánchez Cotán easily despite crowd support in Round 1.
• Skunked Roelandt Savery in Round 2.
• Skunked Dutch still-life master Rachel Ruysch in Round 3.
• Crushed Henri Rousseau in Round 4 by a two-vote swing.
• Encountered some resistance, but prevailed, against Round 5.

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Charles Sheeler

Self-Portrait, 1925.

1883 - 1965
American

As he entered the 1950s, Sheeler developed a distinctive late style. He still depicted urban architecture and industrial facilities, but he reduced objects to flat planes, rather than volumes, and pared away more detail than ever before.... He also devised complex, multiple-viewpoint compositions by overlapping two or more photographic negatives of the same subject and then transferring the resulting, synthesized image to canvas.... He left behind a body of work that explored the balance between abstraction and representation, photography and painting, an increasingly mechanized present and a more homespun past, uniting all these aspects in a skillful (and occasionally ambivalent) tension.

- - The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

• Beat Cindy Sherman in in Round 1.
• Defeated Jan Siberechts easily in Round 2.
• Beat Georges Seurat in Round 3 by a two-vote margin. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat Kurt Schwitters in Round 4 by a safe margin.
• Defeated Paul Signac in Round 5.

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Left Bracket Round Four: Oldenburg v. Rockwell!

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This Left Bracket Fourth Round Match is between Claes Oldenburg (5-1, 42-25, .627) and Norman Rockwell (3-1, 37-14, .725).  Leaving the Tournament after falling to Oldenburg is José Clemente Orozco (3-2, 32-25, .561).

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Claes Oldenburg
Born 1929
Swedish-born American

• Walloped Orcagna in Round 1.
• Lost to José Clemente Orozco in Round 2.
• Made it past Parmigianino in the Left Bracket Second Round by a safe margin.
• Beat portraitist Bryan Organ in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination.
• Beat Ben Nicholson in the Left Bracket Third Round.
• Beat José Clemente Orozco in a Left Bracket Third Round Elimination rematch by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

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Norman Rockwell
1894 - 1978
American

• Placed Third in Phase 1, Flight 5, with a voting score of .538.
• Placed Second in Phase 2, Flight 3, with a voting score of .500.
• Crushed Arthur Dove in Round 1.
  
• Walloped the Master of Moulins in Round 2.
• Blasted Alphonse Mucha in Round 3.
• Lost to Claude Monet in Round 4 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

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