Because no one demanded it! We’re only voting in the first regional today but folks might be curious about the big picture. Here are all 64 artists and their first round match ups: M(arch) Madness 2014 Round of 64

(To cast your votes, see the post below.)

Welcome to the first round of Art History M(art)ch Madness, where the greatest Western artists face off. It’s a single-elimination tournament modeled after the NCAA basketball tourney.

Here’s how it’s going to work: Every day this week I’ll post one of four regional brackets, using the seedings I posted over the last two weeks.  I decided to scramble the historic eras to create more interesting match ups.  You’ll get to vote and decide you advances and who goes home. Use whatever criteria you want. We’ll winnow the field from 64 to 32 to 16 etc.

First up, the Florence Regional. You can see all the match ups here: Florence Region

(Apologies for any layout problems. I’m still getting the hang of this).

1, Michelangelo v.

16, Canaletto

2, Jackson Pollock v.

15, Georges De La Tour

3, Velasquez v.

14, Paolo Ucello

4, Wassily Kandinsky v.

13, Correggio

5, Rubens v.

12, Modigliani

6, Van Gogh v.

11, Zurbaran

7, Hieronymous Bosch v.

10, Nicolas Poussin

8, Robert Rauschenberg v.

9, Anthony Van Dyck

This is the fourth and final bracket of our Art History tournament. I’ve posted the other three brackets and starting next week I’ll post the match ups. Then we’ll vote and select the greatest Western artist. The Modern bracket is the hardest to winnow to 16, so to make it somewhat easier on myself I’ve cut it off around 1965 with pop art. It’s still tough. Onward!

1, Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)

In a tough bracket to seed, Picasso is the obvious No. 1. Probably the clearest No. 1 in the tournament.

2, Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956)

This might be my wife’s influence but I think Pollock belongs here.

3, Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954)

4, Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944)

First true abstract artist.

5, Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968)

Invented cubism, dadaism and conceptual art, then quit to play chess.

6, Mark Rothko (1903 – 1970)

7, Piet Mondrian (1872 – 1944)

The Mariano Rivera of painters. Did one thing, but did it very well.

8, Robert Rauschenberg (1925 – 2008)

Father of pop art

9, Ellsworth Kelly (1923- )

The first living artist in the tournament, he liberated painting from the rectangle.

10, Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976)

His mobiles are just the beginning.

11, Georgia O’Keeffe  (1887 – 1986)

Two things I didn’t know about O’Keeffe: she lived to be 99, and her middle name was Totto. Also, unfortunately, the only woman in the tournament.

12, Amadeo Modigliani (1884 – 1920)

This is the part of the bracket where it’s almost impossible to separate the last four from another dozen or so who could be here.

13, Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957)

Massive murals don’t look great as jpegs.

14, Kasimir Malevich (1879 – 1935)

15, Salvador Dali (1904 – 1989)

Dali would be the No. 1 seed if I was judging self promotion and presence on dorm room walls, but still, it’s hard to dispute his influence.

16, Henry Moore  (1898 – 1986)

On the bubble: Braque, Johns, Warhol, Bourgeois, Lichtenstein, Hopper, DeKooning, Magritte, Cornell, Freud, Bellows, Klee, Chagall, Martin, Giacometti, DeMuth

I’ve gotten some feedback about the M(art)h Madness Art History seedings, and the tournament in general. Such as: This is a really dumb idea. And, it’s a really dumb idea to try to pick the top 16 artists from any given era. I have to agree.

Let me stipulate for the record that the entire concept of an Art History tournament is ridiculous. Art is inherently subjective, and even if a consensus might exist about who’s good, drawing a line under 16 is sort of absurd. But the idea of applying the rules of sports – where we do that sort of thing all the time – to the world of art appealed to me, because I’m a fan of both. That’s how I came up with the idea.

The 16 I chose in each bracket is my idea of the canon choices, based on skill, historical significance and popularity. These are really the greatest hits of art history – the people that you would discuss in a survey course. I’m not trying to be sophisticated or obscure. I’ve left a lot personal favorites off, because I couldn’t convince myself they would be in a consensus top 16. But subjectivity does creep into it, and I freely admit I left out Renoir because I can’t stand him. This approach doesn’t allow for much eclecticism, so most choices are pretty predictable, and unfortunately, it’s overwhelmingly white and male. I don’t have a great solution for that, and it may be a flaw of the entire project.

So, take it for what it is: an attempt to have fun playing with two domains that almost never intersect. And if you have ideas about how to make it better, please let me know.

*Thanks to James Banta for the name tweak!

This is the third of the four brackets we’re using the determine the greatest artist in the history of Western art. The Renaissance and Baroque brackets were posted earlier and are below, and we’ll round it out with the Modern bracket this weekend. Then we’ll match ’em up, NCAA basketball style, and let you vote for the winners. Anyway, on to the 19th Century!

1, Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883)

There’s no obvious No. 1 seed in the 19th C., and you could make the case for half a dozen painters. I’ll go with Manet for his psychological insight, daring subject matter and influence on future generations.

2, Paul Cezanne (1839–1906)

Father of modernism?

3, Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825)

David is a good example of the difficulty of dividing these brackets by centuries, but because so much of his work came after 1800 (and because his fellow neo-classicists followed him) he feels more like a 19th century than a Baroque painter. But I could be wrong.

4, Claude Monet (1840 – 1926)

Monet could have been the top seed but loses points for lack of variety in his subject matter. He played it safe.

5, Edgar Degas  (1834 – 1917)

Who knew all the Impressionists live so long? Anyway, Degas is another who could have been No. 1. Don’t let all the ballerinas fool you. A Cotton Office in New Orleans (above) might be the greatest work ever painted in the United States.

6, Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890)

Is Van Gogh too low? Possibly. But I deduct points for having a short career, even one as brilliant’s as Van Gogh’s.

7, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres  (1780 – 1867)

A giant.

8, Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917)

Not enough sculptors in these brackets, in general.

9, J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851)

First abstract painter? Definitely the first non-French artist in the bracket.

10, Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877)

11, Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903)

12, James Whistler (1834 – 1903)

First American in this bracket

13, Eugene Delacroix (1798 – 1863)

These last four could come be any of a dozen artists. It’s a talent-rich period.

14, Georges Seurat (1859- 1891)

French artists make up 13 of the 16 in the bracket.

15, Thomas Cole (1801 – 1848)

Founder of the Hudson River School

16, Theodore Gericault  (1791 – 1824)

Debated leaving him out because he had so few major works, but, man, he was good.

On the bubble: Constable, Sargent, Friedrich, Eakins, Pissarro, Cassatt, Remington, Homer

This is the second of the four brackets we’ll use to determine the history’s greatest artist (well, Western artist since 1400, anyway). We’ll seed them and match ’em up NCAA style. After seeding 16 renaissance artists, it’s on to the artists from the 1600s and 1700s (there’s a little slop over into both earlier and later centuries but hey, it’s art, not science). Let’s get to it:

1, Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606 – 1669)

The No. 1 seed could have gone to a number of contenders but Rembrandt gets the nod, as much for the honesty and intensity of his portraits as for his productivity and influence.

2, Caravaggio (1571 -1610)

Original bad boy of the art world. Lived fast, died young. Living longer might have gotten him a No. 1 seed.

3, Diego Velasquez (1599 – 1660)

4, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598 – 1680)

Sculptor, architect, city planner. Bernini filled up the stat sheet.

5, Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640)

A much more accomplished artist than his reputation for painting “Rubensesque” women would suggest

6, Francisco de Goya (1746 -1828)

Goya is at the tail end of Baroque, and might be more of a 19th century romantic. But I’ve got him here. His Black Paintings, like the one above, are truly disturbing.

7, El Greco (1541 – 1614)

The earliest painter in this bracket, and yet the most modern.

8, Johannes Vermeer (1632 –1675)

Vermeer falls in the seedings for painting only 34 works.

9, Anthony Van Dyck (1599 – 1641)

10, Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665)

11, Francisco de Zurbaran (1598 – 1664)

12, Gianbattista Tiepolo (1696 – 1770)

The most Rococo artist in this bracket.

13, Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 –1797)

First Brit.

14, Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652)

Fifth Spaniard in the bracket. How many will survive the first round?

15, Georges De La Tour (1593 – 1652)

De La Tour’s device of illuminating his paintings with a single light source made him a bit of a one-tick pony, but it’s a pretty cool trick.

16, Canaletto (1697 – 1768)

On the bubble: Artemisia Gentileschi, Joshua Reynolds, Bartoleme Murillo, Anibale Carracci

(* Added 18th C. in response to complaints from fussy art historians)

 

I’ve been wanting to do this for years, and with this blog, I finally can. We’re going to decide history’s greatest Western artist since 1400, using the time-tested structure of the NCAA basketball tournament brackets. The field will consist of 64 artists, broken into four historical eras: Renaissance (1400 and 1500s),  Baroque (1600 and 1700s), 19th Century and Modern. Seedings are determined by me.  I’d love to get enough people to vote on the “games” to determine the results, but we’ll see. I’ll publish the seedings, with an iconic work by each artist, this week, then we’ll start the match ups next week.

Today, we’ll start with the Renaissance bracket:

1, Michelangelo (1475-1564)

2, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

3, Raphael  (1483 – 1520)

No surprises in the first three seeds; the only debate is probably the order. I went with Michelangelo because of his versatility and longevity. If this contest was to determine history’s greatest creator, Da Vinci would probably be the No. 1 seed. If Raphael lived longer, he might have moved up. (According to Vasari, Raphael succumbed at 37 after he “continued to divert himself beyond measure with the pleasures of love” and died from too much sex.)

4, Albrecht Durer (1471 – 1528)

Durer is the first non-Italian in the bracket. Prolific and accomplished, Durer’s wood cuts were widely reproduced in his lifetime, making him an early art star.

5, Titian 1488/90 – 1576

Leader of the Venetian school, master of color and light. Titian’s birth date is unknown, which led to a public spat between British politicians David Cameron and Gordon Brown over his age at death.

6,  Sandro Botticelli 1445 – 1510

7, Hieronymous Bosch (c 1450 – 1516)

500 years later, Bosch’s work is still creepy as hell.

8,  Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 – 1569)

Maybe the greatest painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Maybe the greatest Old Master painting in North America.

9, Andrea Mantegna (1431 – 1506)

10, Jan Van Eyck (c. 1390 – c. 1441)

11, Veronese (1528 – 1588)

12, Hans Holbein the Younger (1497- 1543)

13, Antonio da Correggio (1489 – 1534)

14, Paolo Ucello (1397 – 1475)

No one paints horses (or dragons, or anything else) like Uccello.

15, Donatello (1386 –  1466)

One of only two sculptors in the bracket.

16, Masaccio (1401 – 1428)

Another artist who would have been higher had he lived longer. Sneaks in to grab the last seed.

On the bubble: Lucas Cranaach the Elder, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Giovanni Di Paolo