You guys got a favorite artist?

[Gandalf]

I like Warhol the artist more than the art itself, but fascinating at times nonetheless. I actually like Pollock a lot, but Van Gogh is perhaps one of my favourite.

I like lots of different artists, but my main criticism of art in general is that I think art criticism is often a lot of twaddle. Critics exist to keep themselves employed and to mystify a product, but at the end of the day it's just a dude going at it with a paintbrush. It is what is is most of the time. A flower is indeed just a flower. I don't need an article telling me so much more that the artist most likely never even intended to say. Let people make up their own minds and just kill yerselves yer damn critics!

Thank you Oscar Wilde I take it you enjoyed 'A picture of Dorian Grey'? It's one of my favourite novels. I feel adamantly that writing in itself can be a much higher standard of art than any still form, along with music and film.

Yes, I have an edition of Oscar Wilde's collected works somewhere around the place. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those twisted, dark, Victorian masterpieces. Great book.

I completely agree with you about writing being able to rise above something like film, painting or songwriting. Words can paint literally anything and 100,000 words can say so much more and in so much depth than pretty much any other art form. For me a novel captures all the nuances of the human condition in a way that something like painting can only hint at.

I thought the OP was about painting, but if we are to talk about artists as in anyone who creates, then I would likely list a lot of writers. I respect all art forms, but the ability to write a timeless book is the ultimate show of dedication, hard work and personal investment.