The Infinite Art Tournament, Round One: Sheeler v. Sherman!

Charles Sheeler
1883 - 1965
American

-----

Cindy Sherman
Born 1954
American

----

Vote for the artist of your choice! Votes go in the comments. 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: Estes v. Fabritius!

Well, Carel Fabritius is hot off of a victory over Jan Van Eyck, and Van Eyck beat Richard Estes back in 2013.  So obviously, Fabritius is going to win this one.  Or will he?
 
Leaving us this week are Van Eyck (2-2; 22 vf, 27 va) and the Tsugouharu Foujita (2-2; 30 vf, 20 va).  Foujita's vote ratio "batting average" of .600 trails only Antonello da Messina, Boccioni, Alma-Tadema, Joseph Cornell, and Oskar Kokoschka among exiting Tournament artists. He knocks Bierstadt out of his recently claimed sixth spot on that list.

---

Richard Estes
born 1936
American

• Beat Max Ernst on the last vote in Round 1. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Lost to Jan Van Eyck in a 2013 Round 2 match by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTED!!!
• Beat Edvard Munch with a late run in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Beat Max Ernst handily in a Grudge Match.
• Snuck by Tsugouharu Foujita by a vote in the Left Bracket Third Round. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

---

Carel Fabritius
1622 - 1654
Dutch

• Skunked Henri Fantin-Latour in the Tournament's second-ever shutout in Round 1.
• Lost to Lyonel Feininger by a two-vote swing in Round 2. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!
• Made it past Jean Fouquet in the Left Bracket Second Round by a safe margin.
• Crushed Fantin-Latour, again, in a Left Bracket Second Round Elimination grudge match
• Upset Jan Van Eyck in the Left Bracket Third Round.

----

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.

Crime and Punishment 2016

I read Crime and Punishment by eye in 2011, wrote a generally hostile review of it here, and gave it four stars on GoodReads. Over the last few weeks, I listened to it and thought it was terrific! I'm giving it four stars!

What changed? Well, for one thing I've obviously become more parsimonious with my GoodReads stars.

Why did I like it better this time? To start with, I listened to a very strong performative reading (Anthony Heald, in a Blackstone recording), which is kind of like having a Shakespearean actor helping you understand Shakespeare. It helps! The translation was, I think, a little more lively; Blackstone doesn't credit a translation but -- oh hey, it's on the image I just found!! It helped, in a densely written book, that I already knew what was going on (I think of this as "The Ulysses Effect"). Probably, in a densely written book, it's just plain easier to listen than read.

But also, I understood the book differently as a whole this time than I did the first time around. It seemed like an organic whole with conceptually related parallel plots, rather than one central plot with subplots that mostly served to mark time. The heightened emotional states, for whatever reason, didn't seem as extreme as they did before.

But the main difference was that this time I found Crime and Punishment kind of... well... funny! Not a knee-slapping, chortling kind of funny, but wry and ironic. The first time through, I felt that Dostoevsky was trying to refute the Nietzschean claptrap that Raskolnikov has hooked his wagon to. On second reading, I think he's just making fun of it. He certainly has fun with Raskolnikov's critical thinking; the lad doesn't have a single thought in his pretty little head that doesn't have a completely contradictory concept, held with an equal passion, bouncing up against it. He is the classic college sophomore, knowledgeable and foolish. His clumsy crime that opens the book is a horror, of course, but it is also a carefully planned and hopelessly inept farce. Other scenes -- the bickering of Sonya's mother and her German landlady, or Porfiry's jovially relentless interrogations -- are equally comic under the stern surface of their dry, just-the-reported-speech-ma'am narration.

I've had a lot of people tell me that my "Game of Reading," with all of its re-reading of books I've already read, is kind of crazy. Well, it's obviously not for everyone. But, it really is giving me some new... what? Perspectives and insights? Which is kind of fun! I'm glad I reread Crime and Punishment!


p.s. One of my Goodreads friends has a one line review of C&P: "Raskolnikov thinks too much." Nah. Hamlet thinks too much. Raskolnikov just talks too much. If he did a little more actual thinking, he wouldn't decide that it would be cool to kill somebody.

The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Third Round: the Master of Moulins v. Moreau!

The Master of Moulins has had an odd Tournament career, never really getting to compete against someone his own age.  This round is as close as he's come, as he faces up against Gustave Moreau, who lived only four centuries after him.  The Master is 3-1-1, Moreau -- who has also only faced relatively young competition -- is 2-1.  Which one of them will add another victory, and which will exit stage left?

---

Master of Moulins (probably Jean Hay)
late fifteenth century
French

• Defeated Robert Motherwell in Round 1.
• Skunked by Norman Rockwell in Round 2.
  
• Tied with Paul Nash in the Left Bracket Second Round. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat L.S. Lowry in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Beat the twentieth century's Arthur Dove in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination.

---

Gustave Moreau
1826 - 1898
French

• Beat Giorgio Morandi in Round 1.
• Defeated impressionist Berthe Morisot in Round 2 by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Clobbered by Claude Monet in Round 3.

----

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, Round FOUR: Patenier v. Pissarro!

It's the first weekend of an even-numbered month, so here comes the Fourth Round!  This one features two artists who are hot off Third-Round victories over big-name twentieth century painters!  Which one will keep his winning streak going?  Let's find out!

---

Joachim Patenier (usually "Patinir" these days)
1485ish - 1524
Dutch

• Skunked German Expressionist Max Hermann Pechstein in Round 1.
• Beat Francis Picabia in Round 2.
• Stunned Pablo Picasso with a one-vote victory in Round 3. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

---

Camille Pissarro
1831 - 1903
Caribbean-born; French

• Lambasted Andrea Pisano in Round 1.
• Came from behind to beat 15th century master Pisanello in Round 2.
• Won easily against Jackson Pollack in Round 3.

---

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. Fourth-round matches are open for at least three months after posting.

The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Third Round: Mabuse v. Lotto!

Here's another Left-Bracket Third-Rounder, with Jan Gossaert, Mabuse, whatever you want to call him, meeting up with his contemporary Lorenzo Lotto.  Mabuse got here by beating the 20th Century's Paul Nash; Lotto got here by losing to Nash's contemporary Thomas Hart Benton.

---

Mabuse / aka Jan Gossaert
c.1478 - 1532
Flemish

• Beat Bernardino Luini in Round 1.
• Lost to René Magritte in Round 2.
• Crushed Tony Cragg in terms of votes -- although many voters were torn -- in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Ousted Paul Nash in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination.

---

Lorenzo Lotto
1480 - 1556
Venetian

• Defeated abstract American Morris Louis in Round 1.
• Nudged Lorenzo Monaco in Round 2 by a two-vote swing. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Crushed by Thomas Hart Benton in Round 3.

----

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: Géricault v. Magritte!

You wouldn't have expected Théodore Géricault to end up in a match against René Magritte, but then again you really wouldn't have expected there to be an Infinite Art Tournament in the first place.  Géricault hangs on into the Third Round by eliminating Ambrogio Lorenzetti, while Magritte falls into this match after being defeated by Andy Goldsworthy in the Right Bracket Third Round.

---

Théodore Géricault
1791 - 1824
French

• Routed Mark Gertler in Round 1.
• Lost to Artemisia Gentileschi in Round 2.
• Tied with Taddeo Gaddi in the Left Bracket Second Round.
• Defeated Lorenzo Monaco in the Left Bracket Second Round tiebreaker.
• Held out against Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Left Bracket Second Round Elimination.

---

René Magritte
1898 - 1967
Belgian

• Skunked -- skunked! -- sculptor Aristide Maillol in Round 1.
• Won a close one against Mabuse in Round 2.
• Lost badly to Andy Goldsworthy in Round 3.

----

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.