OK... I finally have time to put forth my 2-cents as to which artists I consciously know to have had the largest impact on my work.
The first artists who had a major impact on me... who I might actually credit with my first serious thoughts of wanting to be an artist... were the various comic book illustrators... especially those who illustrated the superheroes of DC and Marvel as well as MAD Magazine. I might attribute my passion for drawing the human figure... for bright, saturated colors... for dramatic costumes... for the emphasis on line and flat areas of color, etc... to these artists. Years later I recognized the common elements between the superhuman gods and goddesses of artists like Michelangelo, Raphael, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Rubens and these comic superheroes.
Salvador Dali was the first artist that I bought a book on... a rather expensive one at that. Nevertheless, he had no real lasting impact on my work. The first artist after the comic book illustrators that I would credit as having a lasting impact is Micheangelo.
When I entered art school I was already obsessed with drawing the human figure. At the time... perhaps coming from the comic superheroes... I was drawing male figures far more often than female. While I undoubtedly admired the
David and the
Pieta, I was far more inspired by the paintings and the drawings. I probably learned as much from repeatedly studying and copying Michelangelo's drawings (as well as Raphael's, Leonardo's, Rubens' and others) as I did from an entire year of life drawing.
Rubens remains my favorite artist and Vermeer would not fall far behind... but being honest with myself, I found their abilities far above anything I might ever aspire to and can't really say they had a great impact on me. Botticelli, on the other hand, has remained a continual influence.
I was inspired by the movement and gestures of his figures... the linearity of his work, his embrace of decorative elements and patterns, and the manner in which he rendered form that is somewhat related to the manner of rendering with pastel.
Primavera remains my single favorite painting.
William Blake inspired me on many levels. As an unabashed bibliophile, I admire Blake as one of the greatest poets... as well as an artist who was able to master both the visual & literary arts. Again, I was inspired by his emphasis on line. I also love his quirky compositions and expressive distortions of the figure. I was especially inspired by the fact that Blake was inspired himself by sources that were unusual at the time: medieval sculpture, tomb carvings, tapestries & embroidery, etc... He was also a model for an artist who boldly chose to work in media that were dismissed as "minor" at the time as opposed to the dominant oil paint.
Degas was an equal source of inspiration in terms of media. Arguably, he was the greatest of the Impressionists along with Money and yet had little interest in landscape. His idols were Raphael and Ingres, and he aspired to become the next great narrative painter ala Rubens and Delacroix... but he recognized that his idea of narrative painting did not speak to the time. He sought to find where in Paris of the
fin de siecle he might find imagery related to the figures in motion of his favorite art... and he found this in the cabarets, the ballet, and the private bedrooms. Degas led me to think of an art that spoke to both the past and the present.
Bonnard may be the 20th Century artist who has had the biggest influence on me. His daring use of saturated color and his emphasis upon pattern and decorative elements are undoubted inspirations. But I also think of Bonnard in connection with a quote by Matisse. Matisse argued that in contrast to the German Expressionists he saw no element of his paintings as subordinate to the main subject. The "Expression" came from the painting as a whole. The background was just as important as the figure. I truly saw this in Bonnard where his figures often melt into the whole tapestry of paint and color.
continued...
