Tag: art

stunglikehell:

the-magic-beans:

Keith Haring in 1989: “Unfinished Painting”. Haring died few months after and this is his last painting. This is supposed to be a self-portrait. Haring knew he wouldn’t have enough time to finish it. This is one of the saddest but certainly the most powerful thing I’ve ever seen.

to clarify: this is a finished self portrait. haring did know that he would be unable to continue to work; this “unfinished” painting refers to that self-consciously as a visualization of how the aids crisis and government neglect robbed him of his life and future career.

i feel like this distinction is important? there are many artists who died due to hiv/aids and left unfinished work, but haring made this specifically to comment on his impending death. i feel like stating that it’s actually unfinished takes away some of his agency as an artist/activist/pwa and the political power of the work. 

ghostlywatcher:

captainstevedoritopants:

ghostlywatcher:

Details of Michelangelo’s masterpiece “David” (1501–1504)

#the best thing I ever learned about the David is that he made it as a big ‘fuck you’ #according to one of my art teachers #he was given a shit piece of marble that made it incredibly difficult to work with #and it was done on purpose #and so insteaded of throwing a bitch fit or saying he couldn’t work with the marble- #thus proving that he ‘wasn’t that great of an artist’ #he looked at the marble and said ‘no fuck you I will make this my masterpiece and it will be the greatest thing I’ve ever made’ #which of course pissed people off when he did just that #I’m telling ya’ll right now that Renaissance art history is the greatest thing #it’s all a bunch of divas acting overly dramatic and getting into passing contests over who was the better artist #and being commissioned by the church to create propaganda #and then using said propaganda art to add content that subtly undermines the church #I once wrote a ten page paper on that specifically #and let me tell you: the biggest divas were the sculptors (x)

I need this story on my blog