If you’ve ever visited the historically charged city of Philadelphia, you might have wandered around the rooms of The Barnes Foundation. Paintings from different periods mixed together crowd the walls, creating an enriched dialogue of colors and aesthetics. Albert Coombs Barnes, the ideologist, would often change the placing of the works to encourage different meanings and sensations to the viewer.
The colector was highly influenced by the philosopher and democracy theorist John Dewey. When The Barnes Foundation opened in 1922 it served as an educational institution where the paintings were hung without citations and displayed according to Barnes’s ideas about the relationship between paintings and objects. Furniture, pictures, ancient tools and beautifully crafted objects from different periods were mixed together. Even today, the pieces are almost unidentified, so that viewers can approach them as they wish.
In Albert Barnes own words: “Living with and studying good paintings offers greater interest, variety and satisfaction than any other pleasure known to man.”
In this article we adopt his idea, showcasing 101 artists who paved the way into this pleasure.
1. Paleolithic cave paintings in Lascaux
This anonymous art was born from a period when men as individuals didn’t exist, as they were part of a whole. Humans weren’t fully conscious of their own individuality, therefore cave paintings are an example of a collective pre-conscience.
2. Gu Kaizhi (c. 344–406)
3. Ma Yuan (c. 1160–65 – 1225)
Chinese masters were highly influenced by Buddhism. Devoted artists painted sprawling landscapes not merely for decorative purposes, but to give a basis for meditation. They painted on silk rolls, which were then stored in precious boxes, only to be unrolled in moments of contemplation, their art was admired the same ways a poem is read and reread. The Chinese were the first ones not to consider the art of painting as a servile task; instead the painter was placed at the same level as the inspired poet.
4. Affandi (1907 – May 23, 1990)
Affandi’s undulating lines in this painting are evocative of the work of Gu Kaizhi, a Chinese painter who lived in the IV century and mastered the complicated art of representing movement (shown above.)
5. Mary Cassat (May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926)
6. Niki de Saint Phalle (29 October 1930 – 21 May 2002)
De Saint Phalle created “Shooting Paintings” in the early 1960s. These pieces of art were made of polythene bags filled with paint, which were then popped to create the desired image.
7. Cimabue (c. 1240 – 1302)
8. Giotto di Bondone (1266/7 – January 8, 1337)
9. Lee Krasner (October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984)
10. Jan Van Eyck (before c. 1390 – 9 July 1441)
11. Titian (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576)
12. Mickalene Thomas (January 28, 1971)
Thomas’s production combines historical painting with contemporary popular culture by fusing together traditional genres with African American female subjects. Thomas makes a case for opening up the conventional parameters of history of art and culture. Her first solo show, called the Origin of the Universe, which is a slight homage to Coubert, was presented at the Brooklyn Museum, and it examined interior and exterior elements in relation to the female figure.
13. Caravaggio (29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610)
14. Georges Seurat (2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891)
15. Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011)
16. Leonardo da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519)
17. Pacita Abad (October 5, 1946 – December 7, 2004)
Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) is an award in the Philippines, which has always been given to men for the last 25 years until 1984, where Pacita Abad became the first woman to ever receive this prestigious prize. In her acceptance speech Abad said, “it was long overdue that Filipina women were recognized, as the Philippines is full of outstanding women,” and she also referred proudly to her mother.
18. Rembrandt (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669)
19. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770)
20. Jacques–Louis David (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825)
21. Francisco Goya (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828)
22. Casper David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840)
23. Joseph Mallord William Turner (baptised 14 May 1775 – 19 December 1851)
24. Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863)
25. Gustave Courbet (10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877)
26. Antoni Tàpies (13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012)
27. Anna Marie Robertson Moses, Grandma Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961)
28. Claude Monet (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926)
29. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919)
30. Camille Pissarro (10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903)
31. Carmen Herrera (born May 31, 1915)
32. Kitagawa Utamero (c. 1753 – 31 October 1806)
33. Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917)
34. Paul Cézanne (19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906)
35. Vincent Van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890)
36. Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973)
37. Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954)
38. Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903)
39. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901)
40. Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941)
41. Tomie Ohtake (November 21, 1913 – February 12, 2015)
42. Edvard Munch (12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944)
43. Wassily Kandinsky (16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1866 – 13 December 1944)
44. Imran Qureshi (born 31 March 1972)
45. Käthe Kollwitz (8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945)
46. Judith Leyster (c. July 28, 1609– February 10, 1660)
47. Paul Klee (18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940)
48. Piet Mondrian ( 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944)
49. Henri Rousseau (May 21, 1844 – September 2, 1910)
50. Marc Chagall (6 July [O.S. 24 June] 1887 – 28 March 1985)
While looking at art we create a unique meaning of the work because we can’t help but bring to it our own ideas and assumptions. We evaluate art based on our prior knowledge and cultural experiences. When interpreting works of art, it is important for you to be aware of the assumptions you make. Ask yourself where these beliefs come from, why you sustain them, and how they shape your interpretation.
51. Rosalba Carriera (12 January 1673–15 April 1757)
52. René Magritte (21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967)
53. Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956)
54. Pierre Soulages (born 24 December 1919)
55. Nicolas de Staël (January 5, 1914 – March 16, 1955)
56. Giorgio Morandi (July 20, 1890 – June 18, 1964)
57. Carol Rama (17 April 1918 – 25 September 2015)
58. Gustave Caillebotte (19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894)
59. Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842)
60. Joaquín Torres-García (28 July 1874 – 8 August 1949)
61. Kerry James Marshall (born October 17, 1955)
62. Artemisia Gentileschi (July 8, 1593 – c. 1656)
63. Georgia O’Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986)
64. Elizabeth Murray (September 6, 1940 – August 12, 2007)
65. Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532 – 16 November 1625)
66. Lois Mailou Jones (November 3, 1905 – June 9, 1998)
67. Berthe Morisot (January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895)
68. Remedios Varo (16 December 1908 – 8 October 1963)
69. David Alfaro Siqueiros (December 29, 1896–January 6, 1974)
Instead of thinking you know everything there is to know about a work, try to consciously take the position where you don’t know anything for sure – every conception and belief must be retested and rethought.
70. Leonora Carrington (6 April 1917 – 25 May 2011)
71. David Diao (born 1943)
72. Archibald Motley (October 7, 1891–January 16, 1981)
73. Alberto Durero (May 21, 1471-April 6, 1528)
74. Salvador Dalí (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989)
75. Bharti Kher (born 1969)
76. Angelica Kauffmann (30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807)
77. Miró (20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983)
It can be misleading to believe there are universal values expressed through art. Too often these kinds of “universal truths” disguise your own specific cultural beliefs or values.
78. Raphael (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520)
79. Francis Bacon (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626)
80. Rothko (September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970)
81. Giovanni Paolo Panini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765)
82. Antonio Saura (September 22, 1930– July 22, 1998)
83. Lucian Freud (8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011)
84. Maria Sybilla Marian (2 April 1647 – 13 January 1717)
85. Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967)
86. Iman Maleki (born 1976)
87. Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād (c. 1450 – c. 1535)
Every culture creates art, and it has its own standards of representation and aesthetic conventions. These forms of artistic expression are not Western per se because they don’t follow the “rules” of Western art. So, in order to be evaluated fairly, they shouldn’t be judged using the values or standards of another culture.
88. Vicente Mansala (January 22, 1910 – August 22, 1981)
89. Candido Bidó (20 de mayo de 1936- 7 de marzo de 2011)
90. Johannes Vermeer (1632 – December 1675)
91. Fabián de la Rosa (May 5, 1869 – December 14, 1937)
92. Ibrahim El-Salahi (born 5 September 1930)
93. Julie Mehretu (born 1970 )
94. William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955)
95. Diego Velázquez (baptized on June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660)
96. Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988)
97. Raden Saleh (1811 – 23 April 1880)
98. Gerard Richter (born 9 February 1932)
99. Frank Stella (born May 12, 1936)
100. Tintoretto (late September or early October, 1518– May 31, 1594)
101. Lygia Clark (October 23, 1920–April 25, 1988)
Lygia Clark was a leading abstract artist at the forefront of the Neo-Concretist movement in Brazil, fostering the active participation of spectators through her works. She created a series of unconventional artworks and developed a series of therapeutic propositions grounded in art. In her eyes, psychoanalytical therapy was possible through the power of art.
Now get off the screen and experience the real deal. Visit them in the museums.
