Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Left Bracket Seventh Round: Caillebotte v. Varo



The first of four Left Bracket Seventh Round match pairs Caillebotte, who has just scored an upset against Albrecht Dürer, against Remedios Varo, who has lost her "Elite Eight" match against Vincent van Gogh.  Caillebotte and Varo are perhaps the least widely known artists still alive in the Tournament, meaning that one Cinderella story ends here -- but the other will continue at least one more round.


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










Remedios Varo
1908 - 1963
Spanish; worked in Mexico
Her paintings are carefully drawn, making the astonishing stories or mystic legends especially convincing. Rejecting the male-dominated language of Surrealist doctrine, Varo often painted magnificent heroines busy with alchemical activities. A delicate figure may spin and weave tiny threads transforming them into musical instruments or fashion them into paintings of small birds. The settings are often medieval tower rooms equipped with occult laboratory devices. Figures wearing tattered garments may emerge from a forest of withered trees.... Varo borrowed from Romanesque Catalan frescoes and medieval architecture, mixed nature and technology, and combined reality and fantasy to create worlds that elude time and space.
- National Museum of Women in the Arts
  • Finished First in Phase 1, Flight 3 of the Play-In Tournament with a voting score of .917.
  • Finished First in Phase 2, Flight 1 of the Play-In Tournament with a voting score of .500.
  • Beat André Beauneveu in Round 1.
  • Defeated Katsushika Hokusai in Round 2.
  • Thumped Dutch Master Pieter De Hooch in Round 3.
  • Crushed Andō Hiroshige in a Round 4 11-1 blowout.
  • Beat Edward Hopper in Round 5 by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
  • Beat Thomas Hart Benton in Round 6.
  • Lost to Vincent Van Gogh in Round 7.








13 comments:

Christine M. said...

Varo

Morgan said...

Varo. There's a certain level of mastery in her works that I think is missing in those of Caillebotte.

DrSchnell said...

Caillebotte

Nichim said...

Remedios Varo

boonec1974 said...

Caillebotte!

Michael5000 said...

Mariah says 'Varo' on Facebook.

Candida said...

Break heart, drop blood, and mingle it with tears.

These are two of my favorites in the whole competition. They're probably 1 and 2, though it's really hard to figure out which is which....

I googled Caillebotte, and he has some pieces that show a very distinctive viewpoint (sometimes literally, as with a piece where he painted the sidewalk, looking almost directly down on it). And I could gave at his paintings for hours.

Then, with Varo, I look at her work and think, DANG! She is something else. And I love her work. It's not just different, it's radically different.

Okay. So. I guess--Caillebotte today.

mrs.5000 said...

We saw a Caillebotte portrait today, at the Seattle Art Museum, and I thought, yep, I'm gonna have to vote for Caillebotte.

Michael5000 said...

Susan votes for Varo.

Michael5000 said...

I haven't voted, and I can tell that my vote can't count, which is kind of liberating. Caillebotte!

Michael5000 said...

Oh check it out, Rebecca threw in a vote for Caillebotte as well.

Michael5000 said...

So I guess my vote did count, which isn't so liberating. But that's OK! It just means that Caillebotte wins, six votes to five, and heads on to the next round!

Nichim said...

Dammit dammit, I'm too late, I'm sorry for betraying you, Remedios.