Have you cried in front of a painting ?

maybe paintings don't really have that time element to them, that would encourage emotional 'interaction' like films, or books.

hmmm waterlillies made you cry eh? I felt wonderment.

you two must be artists i presume?

nevertheless, my ans. is no and I do not know why

Paintings can make me cry as easily as any other artform. I don't see a difference.

Paintings... this reminds me of the Ferris Bueller scene where, to an accompaniment of a reconstructed Smiths song, one of the characters closes in on one particular painting, focusing on one figure until the viewer has trouble making anything out... I've had a tendency to focus on paintings in that way ever since I saw that film... which helped me appreciate a lot of art, oddly enough.

As far as I can remember, I have never cried in front of a painting. I don't think I've even come close. In rare cases, music makes has made me cry. (Often I have to already be under a lot of stress for this to happen.)

I was just discussing with a friend the fact that I don't think I'm very good at looking at paintings. I can't seem to stand in front of them and patiently digest them. I get an overall, sort of schematic impression, and that's about it. On the other hand, I feel happy to have made the acquaintance of the work of a great number of artists. I think that when I get a feeling for a painter's overall style, that's about as far as I go. I don't necessarily get the nuances.

With music, despite the fact that I have no real musical training and don't play an instrument, I seem to be able to appreciate it on a more nuanced level. I think that overall I find it easier to pay attention to something that moves.

I mean, I wouldn't want to lead any of you innocents astray.

I want to cry just thinking about Rothko.

http://www.atf.gov/kids/graphics/art_contest/dsc_554820%25.jpg

Mostly when I cry in front of a painting, I'm holding a brush and it's not going as well as I'd like.

holy geez abbott when i read this thread title the first thing that popped into my head was rothko!

and then hunter age 3
!

yes

sistine chapel ceiling

I really want to see the Rothko Chapel in TX.

http://www.kerovisuals.com/timer/dog-poker-background-1024x768.jpg

It's 800 miles away, probably not going to happen anytime soon. Fucking Texas, why do you have to be Europe-sized? (not literally I know)

I think it would wreck me for a few days.

http://www.nerditry.com/images/jesus-elvis.jpg

The Rothko Chapel is fucking amazing. The Twombly gallery is like a block away, too, and the Menil collection. Def. worth a trip.

Technically at the Rothko Chapel, you'd be crying inside 14 paintings. Judgment call whether that's the same thing or not.

http://www.powerstudios.com.au/images/airbrushed_vehicles/hot_cars/medium/breed1_2.jpg

rothko. yes. at tate modern.

klimt's drawings - heartbreakingly gorgeous stuff.

art is about thought processes and subtle appreciation of aesthetic ideals.

not blubbering into your hanky like an emotional wreck!

Oh god how I want to see Klimt's stuff IRL.

abbot you should come to the National Gallery here in DC. There are quite a few Rothkos in the contemporary wing.

lot's of good Rothko prints/posters and stuff for sale in the gift shop too. we have one framed in our apartment, "No. 6 - Violet, Green, and Red". I love Rothko.

"Pictures & Tears" by James Elkins is a fantastic exploration of this subject.
http://books.google.com/books?id=vA9BCZ4znI4C&dq=pictures+%26+tears&pg=PP1&ots=y8RGdphjG9&sig=kD-rYNgVArVlj4sqx7pU9VVCnZQ&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fclient%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26q%3Dpictures%2B%2526%2Btears%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail

The opening chapter is on the Rothko chapel--very interesting study of various responses to it.

I imagine I'm saving tearing up for Agnes Martin. Despite her being my favourite artist/hero I have never seen anything by her in the flesh.

there's a Eugene Richards photograph from 'Americans We' of a homeless guy on a dirty mattress hugging his mangy dog to his chest like the goddamn dog is the last good, meaningful thing left on Earth. Breaking out in tears in the middle of the museum bookstore is very gauche.

I've done worse, trust me.

I haven't seen that but just the fucking description is ripping me up. I cried at a House M.D. the other night when a disabled guy is dying and he asks for his guide dog to sit by him while he dies. Oh god I cried for at least like seven minutes.

like 5 people in this thread admit to crying in front of a rothko

http://abstract-art.com/abstraction/l2_Grnfthrs_fldr/g0000_gr_inf_images/g051_rothko_vbkoy-wr.jpg

NSFW

is that like the painting version of bragging you weep when you hear Sigur Ros?

There was an exhibit of expressionist sketches at the Getty a couple of years ago, and this one Seurat KILLED me. Still think about it.

i've only cried tears of rage at really awful ones

that $73m rothko painting makes me cry. if you had stacked that money up next to a homeless guy and burnt it, at least he'd have been warm for a while. what a fraudulent waste.

I think he would probably rather spend the money than use it for warmth tbh

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mfMRTBDpgkM/ShMoaSXaDhI/AAAAAAAAG7g/kGUhSAAO_BQ/s400/rothko-1.jpg

Sniff... The humanity of lil' yellow in there

looks like a egg sandwich imo

you guys don't really get 'art' do you

crying at a Rothko seems weird to me ... they're more meditative than anything

that's just a poor rendition of the spanish flag. a plagiarist and a fraud. good work.

I cry as part of my affliction.

Do you suffer from Stendhal Syndrome?

I farted in front of Guernica in high school. True story.

i accidentally damaged a print of Matthew Barney's Cremaster 2

Hunter age three is pretty good: he's drawing LEGS and ARMS!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46323000/jpg/_46323030_banksyafter.jpg

A mural by graffiti artist Banksy, which once featured on the cover of a single by rock band Blur, has been painted over by Hackney Council. The spoof image of the Royal Family, painted on the side of a building in Stoke Newington, east London, was partially covered with black paint.

The building's owner was in tears as she begged workmen to stop. By the time she persuaded them it was almost gone.

Hackney Council said the image was painted over in error.

haha awesome

I have cried in front of Rothkos before. No shame in that imo.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61/npope3001/blassie0.jpg

I touched Turner's Rain, Steam, Speed accidentally once and the guard ran over and shouted "don't touch the photo".

That's a shame about that that Banksy, really.

I turned a corner in the Louvre once and ran into 'Youth Presented to the Liberal Arts' by Botticelli, certainly not the most tear-worthy painting ever but I was suprised to find myself spontaneously teary-eyed.

Can someone who's cried in front of a Rothko tell me why

I have for the last couple of years gotten bleary watching rescue scenes in super hero movies and other scenes like that. I think it's just hormones.

i mean, i'm done being snarky about it and want to know for reals...

good luck

Once more on this thread, I'll urge interested parties to read James Elkins' "Pictures and Tears". Seriously, do yourself a favor and read this fascinating book.

The Rothko chapter is here.

As long as I have studied paintings, and though the process of creating them has driven me to tears, I have never been moved to tears by one.

Also I had one of the most memorable and touching conversations of my life in front of this Rothko:
http://abstract-art.com/abstraction/l2_Grnfthrs_fldr/g0000_gr_inf_images
I guess what made it so remarkable was it was about the true intentions of the artist, the core humanity of the picture and the connections between strangers, conversing with two people I had never met in a language I don't even speak.

This one I mean
http://abstract-art.com/abstraction/l2_Grnfthrs_fldr/g0000_gr_inf_images/g051_rothko_vbkoy-wr.jpg

was your conversation about candy corn because mine would be about candy corn

whiney you need to have some kids specifically so when you go to museums you can tell ppl "my kid could paint that!"

i'm with whiney on this one tbh - don't get how a rothko could elicit much emotion let alone tears

http://hosoft.com/vic/fine_arts/guernica.jpg

i could see that

james turrell's "danae" at the mattress factory, tho it's not a painting and i didn't so much cry as just felt overwhelmed to the point of total inarticulacy - this picture doesn't do it justice (nor can i imagine any other one would):

http://www.field.io/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/turrell_danae.jpg

that looks like what happened when my macbook broke

i was also overwhelmed to the point of total inarticulacy

got dizzy by a richard serra sculpture, that's about it

if you go see one drunk, bad idea!

i saw a vik muniz piece that made me salivate

Yo, iatee, I'm not dissing Rothko! He's one of my hands down absolute personal favorites! No question!

I'm just wondering if ppl are OMG FRONTING by saying that a blurry cube of paint drove them to the emotional breaking point.

Maybe it's half and half.

mapplethorpe gives me a boner

I mean i think it's such an open space that people are placing their own neurosis and fears inside a big empty blob

Like I almost cried at a merzbow show, not because Merzbow was so awesome, but because the music really opened up an empty space for me to think about how much i fucking hated myself at 22.

LOL

merzbutt

― burt_stanton and ernie (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, March 4, 2009 2:12 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

^this is how merzbow inspired me at the age of 20

would be people cry in front of rothko's if his life story wasn't so sad?

i think people who cry in front of paintings are prob people who cry at a lot of other things too so it's not such a big deal to them

yeah like people who cry in front of pantings

ok i had to read that 6 times to see the missing i

tbh i'm terrible at actually explaining why any piece of "fine art" has that effect on me, and on balance, it's a rare reaction - a handful of rothkos and that turrell piece and some serra sculptures are exceptions to the general norm. but it still happens and i guess i'm still trying to reckon with why it happens when it does

xp hah, i didn't actually know his life story the first time i saw one of his pieces in person

there's a world of difference, I think, between crying because the subject matter of the painting is so maudlin and crying because you're seeing a canonical work in person for the first time. which type of crying is more dignified/permissible is purely subjective, of course.

That's a shame about that that Banksy, really.

Yeah, except it's not though, is it? The broader aim of his work is to draw our attention to the transience, meaningless and ultimate futility of blah blah blah it's just fucking stencils, isn't it?

Well, it was a nice addition to the neighborhood. That's pretty much all I meant. But naw, I wouldn't say "it's just fucking stencils."

we had to read the rothko case in wills class and the book had reprinted two of his paintings in color. i didn't cry, rather lolled at how silly it is to print them as 3" squares in the middle of a law textbook.

http://5.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kqiiyaLIrB1qzoj6fo1_500.gif

Didn't mean to have a go, bam. I do feel, though, that protecting these things with perspex or whatever is to somehow miss the point. Not that I really know what the point is myself, but I'm not crying over a whitewashed banksy.

the real banksies in that story are the ones who painted it over against the owner's wishes imo

saw a paisley painted elephant at a banksy "show," almost cried for the elephant

it was a live elephant?

uptoeleven: Yeah, no one's crying. But when I used to pass it on the bus, sitting upstairs, I would be glad to see it. And I didn't know what it was at the time, either, because I thought banksy did rats and things, a few of which I got to see. I really thought it was just a folk-arty painting on a wall, some semi-naive thing, like I might see in the U.S.? But my reaction to it at the time and now sort of fits into your point, or his point, or whatever.

yes xpost

banksy is one of the most disgusting savages etc imo

i mean i don't know him but his art sucks and i hope he stops

but maybe you *do* know him because he is a mystery man

maybe he's reading this and he's crying because you said he sucks

ilx = a painting that makes ppl cry

;_;

I was going to jump on here and say that I cried in front of the Rothko I saw at SFMOMA a few years back but after reading upthread I would like to just say, Um. HI! And LOL PEOPLE CRYING AT PAINTINGS OMGWTF. (whistles) Srsly had no idea it was a 'thing' to cry in front of Rothko. Feel quite conflicted that i joined a trend without my knowledge.

We are taking that Rothko down for the first time in years next month.

;_;

That was the first Rothko I'd ever seen in person. You could send it to me for safekeeping? I'll hang it on my..erm...hm...ceiling?

there was an aggressive guide dog last night at SFMoMA that made me think of the evil guide dog thread, which brings me to tears of laughter.

i was in new york city on new years eve once. i was at moma which had just moved, and unfortunately it was a free day at the museum so it was packed. i was supposed to meet two of my friends there, one of whom i was in a really torturous and secret znd intense romance with. no one had cellphone signal and we never found each other. i remember seeing this

http://dearheathermarie.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/magritte-21184251640.jpg

i was emotional, but i didnt cry.

i dont really cry over visual things. i used to cry over music a lot when i was young, but i find that now i just skip over songs that give me that feeling cause id just....rather not

I just remembered that SFMOMA made me cry twice! Rothko #1, and #2 was Doris Salcedo's Atrabiliarios installation. Oddly enough, I did enjoy my visit :)

I just cried at that Magritte no shit.

Wait. What is "crying"?

I think tearing up counts. Suppressed sob.

The Rothko's just going into storage for a bit. It's been on continuous display for years now, but shall return. x3post

I cannot recall ever crying in front of a painting, but then I have not had much access to great paintings, and consequently have not developed a habit of going to look at them.

I suspect that such an emotional response would require at least some recognizable representational content in the picture. Or else the viewer would be responding to something aside from or in addition to the painting itself. But, I could be wrong.

I burst out laughing when I saw the Mona Lisa. In a good way.

just saw this rothko quote and thought of ilx

"And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions . . . The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationship, then you miss the point."

I teared up a bit looking at the one that's on display at the Art Institute here. :\

The *Rothko* painting that is, if it wasn't apparent.

Got misty eyed when i saw the famed golden mask of Tutankhamun. It's probably the most beautiful piece of art i have ever seen in my life.

once when i was feeling really tired and emotional at school after being dumped and having to stay up all night to revise for an exam, i cried in the library at a stack of plastic chairs.
they just looked so poignant and beautiful.

i like art, but it more a feeling of "hmmm... intersting" more than anything else, sometimes i'll get a bit excitable if i think the artist has does something really innovative or insightful.

Got a bit tearful on seeing Caravaggio's 'The Beheading of John the Baptist' in Malta this summer.

The first time this ever happened to me was in a room full of LED displays of Jenny Holzer truisms.

The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.

I'm sure I have said this somewhere on ILX before, but the Rothko Chapel renders weeping totally inadequate. No one is moved to tears when surrounded in every direction by black on purple on black on brown on purple on black. How frivolous! You may as well shoot off fireworks in a shopping mall.

I didn't want to be impolite but Rothko bores the piss out of me and that quote makes me think 'disgusting savage'.

i cried in front of a Brice Marsden painting once.

<3

Rothko bores the piss out of me

Interesting. I'm not sure being excited or bored is in the same ballpark as what he was getting at, anyway. I'm not saying I know better, I'm sincerely saying that I'm not sure.

yall are such crybabies

ever cried in front of a krystal sackful? just curious if ppl view food the same as sad movies

<3 comparing him to shooting off fireworks in a shopping mall!

I'm pretty sure one night while drunk I wept into a krystal sackful

i had a Daisy Buchanan moment in front of expensive beautiful pastries at Andronico's

Has a building ever made any of you cry?

I haven't personally but that's probably because we don't have "real" cathedrals in the U.S.

Has a building ever made any of you cry?

far too often

>The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.

The first time I ever saw any Rothko paintings irl was in my late teens at the old Tate gallery. I've no recollection of having read that quote beforehand, but I do remember it as being a very emotionally powerful experience; the dim lighting and scale of the paintings made it feel like I was inside the hull of a rusting oil tanker, and I know that at one point I had to sit down and gather my thoughts (no weeping though). I don't even think I knew much about Rothko as an artist at the time, but it's interesting to see from this thread that plenty of other people here have an emotional reaction to his work, and from the quote it's clear that kind of response was common during his lifetime too. Suzy, is your boredom with him in response to seeing his work in print and poster form, or in galleries? imo his work is vastly reduced by reproduction.

There was a terrific interview with Marina Abramovic in The Observer last week (here), and one of the things that is referenced is that during her recent 700hr performance at MoMA, people who sat opposite her would often break down in tears. To me it seems like this is a similar thing to the reaction to Rothko - there's not many artists who can provoke such a direct response to their work, and it makes me wish there were more.

I don't cry at a painting, I think it is a great privilege to be able to view them in a museum and it's no disrespect to art but if I ever cried at a painting I wouldn't tell anyone certainly. I wouldn't want to give people the wrong ideas that art lovers cry easily.

I cry about buildings all the time especially when they are wasted or burned. I think waste of humanity's collective work is worth crying about. I'll cry over your painting when you do that.

That said as a teen I cried at seeing my first Van Gogh but that is because it's not often in life you see them and his brushwork is amazing.

thought you wouldnt tell anyone

I have misted up a couple of times, but engagement with artworks generally brings me to a calm and still place, not a really wrought and emotional one. Films are a big exception, which is why I'm really suspicious and distrustful of obvious tearjerkers.

The first time I ever saw any Rothko paintings irl was in my late teens at the old Tate gallery.

I saw them when I was 11. Would have been 1985/86 on a school trip. Before we went into what if I recall correctly was called 'The Rothko Room', our teacher said "When I first saw these paintings I really hated them, but now I really like them." We went in, and my reaction (and the reaction of my classmates) was "WTF?!?!? These aren't paintings!!!".

(on the same visit, I had the same "WTF lol modern art is 'bish" reaction to Equivalent VIII AKA 'that pile of bricks', but I thought Matisse's Snail was awesome - I even bought a postcard of it)

ever cried in front of a krystal sackful? just curious if ppl view food the same as sad movies

― (♥_♥) (roxymuzak), Saturday, 9 October 2010 21:21 (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

almost cried once after eating 4 pork chops in one sitting, tbf it could actually be some kind of chemical reaction from all the meat being eaten but wow, the feeling WAS almost religious.

rothko did nothing for me, otoh. sorry.

i hadn't seen it in galleries though. i'll check it out next time to see.

greatest day i ever had would be when i learn to cry to rothko.

i farted in front of guernica in 12th grade

did you give a shit

solitary posts effortlessly yada yada yada

Why would Rothko inspire hate (apart from traditional "hate"). The edges are soft and the paintings non-aggressive at the very least.

i went to a very, very amazing farmer's market yesterday and almost cried with joy a little bit at all the farking amazing types of peppers & mushrooms. true story!

also the crispy pork bun in tim ho wan in hong kong. the taste of that sauce was.. god.. one of the best moments of this year.

don't listen to me though i also almost cried when I finally arrived at a KFC buffet for the first (and so far only) time in my life.

you spent the rest of your life searching for another one?

i'm campaigning for it to be moved to chelsea

✧✧✧@k✧✧.e✧✧

ha

cause if we don't find the next KFC buffet
i tell you we must die

ken do you have any tips on getting a spot at tim ho wan

Ken, I figured you would have hit a KFC buffet five or six times on your US trip this year!

last time i just turned up, picked up a ticket and then went shopping for an hour and came back!

xpost

WmC - of all the cities I went to only knoxville had KFC buffet available (i did research!) none in NYC, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas (there were other buffets to make up for this), LA or San Francisco. It was sad.

^friend did the same thing xpost

I feel like there are all these amazing restaurants here that I don't go to because I don't want to play the ticket queue waiting game

blah

maybe next time you want new trainers? the place is in middle of mong kok so it was pretty easy to kill an hour. (in fact, I went to ladies market to look for t-shirts with funny slogans..)

I cried watching a sunset once. I'm just a crier.

I just got a book of Rothko paintings at a thrift store, I felt lucky!

Has a building ever made any of you cry?

I visited here recently and did *not* cry but I was totally emotionally drained. It was a fucked-up feeling, I just felt wiped out the rest of the day. It was 400 years of something that I totally don't understand in 110º F heat, everything (doors, halls, etc) smaller, total amateur/horror vacuii paintings covering every wall, and a dead wooden priest whose head you were supposed to lift. And then a really corny gift shop. It was like getting an emotional concussion.

I'm just a crier.

When no one is around, so am I. I don't know what appearances I'm trying to keep up otherwise. Habit, I guess.

It really makes me cranky that Whiney upthread was so dismissive of others' experiences and then asked everyone he'd just knocked hardcore to explain their behavior. Seriously, wtf. If you've never been moved to tears by visual beauty...I don't know if it can really be explained. "Lady, if you have to ask..." (FWIW ILX is the #1 google hit for that quote!)

I have misted up a couple of times, but engagement with artworks generally brings me to a calm and still place, not a really wrought and emotional one. Films are a big exception, which is why I'm really suspicious and distrustful of obvious tearjerkers.

― In "Bob" There Is No East or West (WmC)

I missed this earlier. I like it.

I farted in front of Guernica in high school. True story.

― love in this ♣ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, September 26, 2009 3:53 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

i farted in front of guernica in 12th grade

― like the G6 summit (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, October 11, 2010 9:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

wondering if whiney is all WHOAOAOAOAO OMG PPL R MOVED BY ART HAHA MEME MEME SNARF on this one

i don't really know why but I went to the Frick this weekend on Saturday afternoon to see the show of Ribera and Goya drawings and then I wandered into one of those wainscoted palatial upstairs rooms and saw the Holbein portrait of Thomas More by the fireplace and I got all misty looking at it. It's an image I have seen reproduced so many times and I don't necessarily revere More but the sheer persistence and endurance of the face within the portrait really moved me and I teared up a bit. Maybe I am just getting older . . .

what if you fart, then cry?

i definitely weep over art about once a week but i also got a pre-existing condition. i also weep over nature about once a week. i'm a real "double rainbow" kind of guy.

and when i weep over art i weep over really weird shit. last "art" i wept over was my janson's, looking at a photo of joseph beuys coyote piece w/ accompanying bio: "that the attempt was inherently doomed to failure does not in any way reduce the sincerity of this act of conscience"

though i see suzy beat me to it upthread

when I stepped into a gallery set up for Hiroshi Sugimoto's Sea of Buddhas - it was a separate room in a museum, dark and cool, just a perfectly serene place
plus the aforementioned Eugene Richards photograph

I was pretty much moved to tears at a Kandinsky exhibition at the V&A a few years ago, mainly by his pen & ink sketches.

what if you fart, then cry?

Then you're making me laugh a lot.

I cried at Whiney's farts in front of Guernica both in high school and in 12th grade. True story.

Has a building ever made any of you cry?

no, but i was once genuinely frightened by the prague tv-tower when i was walking through the city by myself at night. to the point where i sped up my walking to get away from it, which is silly, because buildings, they don't move

Well, until they do. And when that happens, best not to be nearby.

You did the right thing.

What about a crywank in front of a Jeff Koons?

you tell us

Putting the 'anal' into Banality...

you wank anally?

annually?

"oh god i can't wait til 11 Oct 2011"

anal retentively?

"i always use my left hand only and only the index, middle and fourth finger"

annularly?

orly

I knew a French woman called Aurilly.

o know an irish guy called o'reilly

Can you tell him to finish off my extension?
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/tours/materialslibrary/images/carlandre_equivalent.jpg
I know there's a brick shortage, but this isn't enough.

u racist that's not cool

Sorry but white bricks were all that the builder's merchant had...

:'(
http://hyperallergic.com/58144/rothko-defaced-at-tate-modern/

man see u

C/D: Mark Rothko

i was looking for whiney's post over there

http://splitsider.com/2010/12/eight-times-the-simpsons-have-made-me-cry/

I thought that was going to be about paintings somehow.

I got to see the famous golden death mask of King Tut and it was an incredibly moving experience. Sort of the shock of seeing something that I had seen thousands of times before in books suddenly physically in front of me. If you look close enough you can see tool marks, which humanizes it, and then you step back and look at the whole thing again and holy crap it is just a perfect artifact. Possibly the most beautiful image I have ever seen. It was on display in the Cairo Museum and there were several rooms with just stuff from his tomb, and near the mask were several sarcophagi, and people were just walking around it all. At a certain point it felt like I was attending a wake, like for someone who had just passed, which just made the whole experience even heavier.

I spend alot of time thinking about paintings, making them, looking at them. I spend alot of time thinking about the ways in which emotional reactions drive my decision-making process when making a painting. In many ways it's the whole point of painting for me. I can recall coming to tears at the point of total breakdown during the making (or unmaking at that time) of a painting, yet I have never cried in front of a painting, but wept instantly during the first 10 minutes of 'Up'. Emotions are wierd.