The Museum of Contemporary Art recently asked on twitter, “Who are your top 5 favorite artists of all time, and why?” Great question. Immediate thoughts came to mine was Joseph Beuys, Edward Hopper, Paul Cezanne, Jackson Pollock. Pretty standard art history picks. Ok, what if I broke out a little bit more and picked the likes of Christo, Jorg Immendorf, Starn Twins, Laslzo Moholy-Nagy. Still pretty standard historical stuff.
Honestly, they don’t inspire nearly as much as current artists do. Really. The art produced now is so much more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I love going to museums and seeing this classic work. But when it comes to creativity, these older artists aren’t simply in comparison to what artists are producing now.
Here’s five artists off the top of my head that are producing work that inspires me.
Jay Carlson
Creative projects inspire me to do fun things
Jake Bronstein
Love his “50 cents per idea” project. Has many other great ideas.
Todd Webb
Optimistic cartoons always inspire me to do a comic strip
Chris McVeigh
Wonderful photos of LEGO minifigs
chrismcveigh.com @ActionFigured
Erik Maldre
Conceptual art, 2d and 3d doodle master
unlikelymoose.com @unlikelymoose
In the coming months I hope to write longer reviews about each of these artists, but for now here’s a quick teaser for my top five favorite artists of all time.
Who are your five favorite artists of all time? Please leave your list in the comments below. Thanks!
I made it to your top 5! Thanks, Matt! I’ll have to think about my top 5.