Who is your favorite painter? Mine is Rene Magritte. I like surrealism, and his paintings tend to have a more “warm and fuzzy” feeling as opposed to Dali, who’s paintings seem a bit scarier.
We went a little off-topic in the off-topic as usual, and I’m curious. I bet at least @milanfahrnholz and @ideal have opinions on this. 
Magritte is definitely cool. We went to a Dali exhibition in Liège a couple of years ago.
I like Monet.
Recently I´ve developed a great interest in Symbolism, which was in particular a french art movement of the late 19th century that used element of mythology and scenes from the bible to convey deep psychological feelings. It is in a way related to the neo-classicism of the time (when the art of old greece, rome and egypt was popular again for a while in archtecture) Art Noveau and kind predates surrealism and expressionsm while using styles of late romanticism at the same time.
So it looks like art from renniasance times while it was actually done in the late 19th century and you will find the god pan and the muses as much as Salomee and St Anthony.
However it also had an effect on artists in russia, germany and switzerland.
A favourite is Isle Of The Dead by swiss painter Arnold Böcklin.
Another all time favourite of mine is the irish painter Francis Bacon who had a great influence on David Lynch, HR Giger and the design of the Silent Hill Games.
I like that one… it would also make an amazing background for an adventure game.
Btw, half a decade ago we went to the Magritte Museum and the Magritte House. 
It would really surprise me actually if that hasn´t happened already. It´s been used in movies (I Walked With A Zombie, Alien Covenant) a lot as well for a long time.
Come to think of it, I wouldn´t be surprised if the perspective of the LeChuck Fortress wasn´t at least inspired by it.
“Cover version” by HR Giger:
I’m guessing that’s in Belgium?
The first time I went to the MOMA I saw some of his paintings. Also, at the Dali museum in St.Petersburg, FL they have some of Magritte’s sketches.
I had this poster up in my dorm room:
It wasn’t my intention, but my roommate said it freaked him out a little. Like it was always watching him… meanwhile he had a giant 
flag covering his wall.
That would freak ME out! Well, I guess a confederate flag would be worse…
Yes, he lived and worked in Brussels. The Magritte museum is really nice. His house is interesting too, and very quiet too. Most tourists don’t seem to care about it.
I’ll have to put that on my list of places to visit when my kids are all grown up.
It wasn’t so bad… we knew each other since the 4th grade (not sure what the equivalent is in Germany). I think he meant it more in the style of Easy Rider than as some sort of nationalist/military thing. 
I would say it´s…4th grade. 
(if that refers to the fourth year of primary school)
Oh I guess it´s okay then. As long as he never tried hugging it (not posting a picture, since you well know what I´m refering to).
Well, you know what they say. The best thing about Brussels is the train to Antwerp. 
I like good paintings, often they are expressionistic, abstract and modern. I like some paintings from Klee, Kirchner, Schlemmer, Feininger … the Bauhaus era in Germany was brilliant and there are some good new(er) artists too. Sadly, often beautiful meaningful radical and free ways of thinking don’t last long due to dumbness and fascism and due to those being in power (stimulating the former aspects in order to keep their systems running). Visual arts are strongly connected to their times.
Regarding architecture you can see some nice projects in the USA (where people like Gropius emigrated to) or Australia. I haven’t seen something truly new in Germany within the last years, which is no surprise as the country (and the EU) is systematically being destroyed by the USA and capitalism, reducing its intellectual potential and risking its (financial) future and peace.
@travel-thread
Nice catch with the Monet. I think he tries to fool his audience by intention by making them wonder if it might be a reflection (and caring about details (like the tilt of her neck and body, the earring, the haircut, the bracelet at her right arm in the proper angle/positon … the shrinked lights on the left [like if they were reflected by bended glass]) then her view might make sense if you want to imagine her being tired listening to guests … but at the same time, looking at the counter, the flower of the ‘reflected’ woman is missing, you would partly see the fruits and bottles of the woman in the front on the right side reflected as well. This way it adds a puzzle layer to the painting.
I disagree about that it’s generally easy to understand art. It depends on the painting (if we stay with paintings). Some paintings are very much built on rules and theory about form, line, colour and knowledge about the history of paintings that you miss quite some fun if you don’t know about it too (although a painting can talk to you on all the channels we share as humans already), same is true f.e. for abstract paintings which might be beautiful and interesting on a first view but you only get the meaning (and so, all the fun) if you also know something about them.
I also disagree about an elitism of the visual arts. You need to look up what the term art means. Art can be found in many disciplines and it’s an art to program, to do math, to cook a meal, to manage a conversation, to have sex. It comes down to, how good you master a certain discipline. And hard work can be found in many jobs which don’t involve a lot of creativity and no one really wants do. Look at the faces of people doing such jobs and how old they look like, then you know what (physically) hard work means.
Crooks’ video (you’ll certainly find a better one) also generates some beautiful soft gradients and shadows, combined with the music, it generates a very peaceful mood. It’s hard not to fall asleep.
Too bad this thread never really caught on. And it´s not even because of youknowwho
However, I got a big print of Dead Island to hang on my wall now which I will show you guys tomorrow! 
Well, I don’t have a “favorite” painter/artist. I like different paintings from different artists. Here on my walls I have some paintings and photos from some “independent”, resp. lesser known artists. So at least I can’t contribute much to this thread.
As in you bought them from or got them gifted from the artists themselves? That´s cool!
I bought the paintings (one watercolor painting and one unique etching) in a gallery in my hometown. The pictures weren’t expensive like a Picasso 
but I like them really much. I can’t post some pictures of the paintings here because you could deduce my hometown. The photos were gifts from the artist (I just had to frame them).
Hmmm, I wonder if this is a self-portrait of someone…
He he, very close! 
/edit: Not kidding.
