Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Second Round: Fantin-Latour v. Fontana!

Henri Fantin-Latour
1836 - 1904
French

Skunked by Carol Fabritius in Round 1.
Pummeled Jean Fautrier in First Round Elimination.






Lucio Fontana
1899 - 1968
Argentinian

Beat neon light guy Dan Flavin by a single vote in Round 1. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!
Lost to Tsugouharu Foujita in Round 2.






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, but likely much longer.

11 comments:

Morgan said...

Eh, not really feeling either of these. I guess I'll vote for Fontana.

Elizabeth said...

Fantin-Latour. I just can't get into Fontana's knifework.

Freddy Krueger said...

Love LOVE Fontana

pfly said...

I usually like "avant garde" modern art. I avoid saying "I don't get it" or "a three year old could do that". But, knife guy's stuff, you know, I don't get it. And not only could a three year old do that, but probably *would* do that if given a canvas and a knife.

On the other hand, if knife guy can inspire grumpily muttering about modern art from me, maybe I should vote for him. ...nah. Fantin-Latour.

Christine M. said...

Fantin-Latour

lamanyana said...

Fontana

Chuckdaddy said...

The father of Spatialism! Nope, sorry, Wolverine I'm going with Fantin-Latour, no matter how many manifestos you wrote.

Ben said...

Fantin-Latour.

mrs.5000 said...

Fantin-Latour for me.

Michael5000 said...

Looks like I neglected this one, or just put it off for later. It's kind of a tough one. Fantin-Latour gains some cred with me when it is revealed that he can paint something besides bouquets.

As for Fontana, I think it's easy to underestimate how difficult it is to handle paint and stretched canvas. There is a lot of technical skill and intentionality involved in his work, and while it is theoretically possible that "a child could make one" (which you could not say for, for instance, The Garden of Earthly Delights, it is awfully hard to imagine a conjunction of circumstances, materials, volition, restraint, and dumb luck in which a child would. Fontana's pieces are what he wants them to be, and should to be judged by their impact as legitimate art objects.

Where does that leave me? Hmm. I like the shall we say "spatial rhythms" of the first two," and I find them more interesting than Fantin-Latour's two representative nosegays. So, I'm going to give my vote to Fontana on his way out.

Michael5000 said...

And with no further votin', it looks like it's 6-3 to Fantin-Latour, with Freddie Krueger as an observer with a non-binding vote. Thanks for turning out!