History art/museum pieces fucked you up when you saw them in person?

History art/museum pieces fucked you up when you saw them in person?

I've been to the Vatican etc. But I went to see Jan Matejko's painting Battle of Grunwald in Warsaw the other day, it was the best.

Can we just make this into a general art thread? To tell the truth, I'm stranded in the Texas Panhandle and never had the opportunity to see any great works of art firsthand.

To be fair, those famous works of art often prove themselves to be quite disappointing when seen live. Small, barely visible, hidden behind layers of protective glass.

t. European

I agree, Grunwald took up a whole wall though, it was cool as fuck

I know that feel, I live in the woods in louisiana

What is that pic of?

if I remember right the painting is by john charles dollman

Those big 19th century historical scenes are kind of cheesy and, imo, a bit lacking in depth, but damn if they don't impress. Seeing pic related in Munich when I was a teenager was a formative moment for me. Washington Crossing the Delaware is the same way

this is very true, especially for the hyped up "have to see it before you die" Italian Renaissance pieces. Mona Lisa is shit, Boticelli's spring and venus are shit, the David is shit

Is that a painting for ants?
Anyway, what fucked me up? I dont remember the name but it was a supposedly stretched flattened cartoonish human figure with spots of red in what is probably the critch area.
Its pink and looks very bizare.
I have to say that reading about art and art interpretation. Deleuze's ideas analysis of art were very interesting and eye opening to me.

Houston might have some good stuff. I know they have an excellent opera. For American Art there's the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas.

A nice analogy of the human condition through an abstract depiction of a human body cutout by some random indonesian student in an Ubud art gallery.

I went to Washington D.C. with my IRL friends about a year ago. We went all over the city. We saw the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, and a bunch of museums. Overall, it was a pretty good day, but at one point we were going to the Museum of American History and one of my friends said that we should stop at the Freer Art Museum on the way there. I agreed, not wanting to be confrontational. That turned out to be a huge mistake.

The first thing we saw inside was the "Peacock Room" which was inspired by Japanese Architecture. The room was predominately blue and green, with green walls and blue carpet. The sides were decorated with expensive-looking vases and stuff. On one side of the room, there was a painting of a youthful Japanese woman in a dress, hanging over a fireplace. On the other side, there was a mural of two peacocks dancing together. Beautiful.

We left the room and ventured further into the Museum, which was showcasing more Japanese artwork. There was a sign advertising a "REMIX" of the Peacock room downstairs. We decided to go there because we had enjoyed the first peacock room so much. The "REMIX" turned out to be a lot further away than we had imagined. We had to walk down several flights of stairs in order to get there. On the way there, the artwork in the museum became more and more surreal. It was like descending into Hell. We kept going down, but we couldn't reach the bottom. There were many signs for the "REMIX" along the way, but we just couldn't find the room itself.

Then finally, we found it. I wish we hadn't found it, but we did. As soon as we went inside, I knew that something was very, very wrong. It was exactly like the first Peacock Room, except it was covered in red light and there was ominous music playing in the background. All the vases were disheveled or smashed. The shelves were ripped. And instead of dancing, the two peacocks were ripping each other's guts out. The worst part was the Japanese woman. She was still there, but her head and face were.......gone, replaced by a horrifying insectoid shape. I was aghast. I couldn't believe it. I ran from the museum. To this day, I wonder what sort of mind could have created such a thing. What machinations of a person's mind would drive them to "REMIX" the beautiful first room into such an ungodly sight? The implications are mind-boggling.

here's a better pic my dudes

I remember seeing this as a kid, I was really transfixed by it. It's a painting by George Gittoes about the Kibeho massacre in Rwanda, he was there in the immediate aftermath at least.

Go to new orleans and look at some blue dog lmao

is ok if i post sculptures?

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I went to the Chicago art museum about a year ago. No one piece FUCKED ME UP, but the totality of what I was experiencing was dazzlign.

American Gothic and Nighthawks were hanging about 20 feet away from each other. Van Gogh's room at Arles was there, large Degas's that I recognized, and of course, le Grande Jette and that Rodin of the guy standing proudly, both of which you see in the Ferris Bueller movie. This doesn't even count the more classical sculptures, Picasso's Old Guitarist, or the hall that must have been five hundred feet long, positively cluttered with Buddhas, Ganeshes, Shivas, and all Ikons Eastern.

Actually I appreciated that that hall did feel a bit cluttered, and wasn't a "white cube". An older, non-modern way of seeing the art. I was in there for less than two hours, I could have stayed a week.

I did make a point of staring at Wood's masterpiece for a good ten minutes while I was there, particularly because my aunt lives in Iowa (the picture is set there) and has a hobbyists' obsession with the image; she collects imitations of the picture, and is knowledgeable about Wood. The main thing that came out during this long viewing (I must have cheated and looked at the card, too) is that the woman's domesticity is hinted at by the background plants over her shoulder, while the man's industry is emphasized by his pitchfork; notice also that the pitchfork rhymes with the lines in his clothing.

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You're right about the Mona Lisa, wrong about David and Botticelli