Art Inconnu
October 3, 2010 3:29 PM Subscribe
Art Inconnu [unknown art] (nsfw): Collected here are works by artists who are forgotten, under appreciated, or little known to the mainstream. The focus here is primarily painting by 19th and 20th century artists but everything is fair game. Different sets of images: Reading l Some Women Painters l Chess l The World in Miniature l Weather l Motherhood l Mixed Bag. Art Inconnu's Flickr set.
All very cool. I fail, however, to see anything NSFW.
posted by djfiander at 4:09 PM on October 3, 2010
posted by djfiander at 4:09 PM on October 3, 2010
Oh wow, the Art Inconnu blog is a MetaFilter Project created by MeFite fire&wings.
Thanks for the heads up peacay.
posted by nickyskye at 4:12 PM on October 3, 2010
Thanks for the heads up peacay.
posted by nickyskye at 4:12 PM on October 3, 2010
Excellent site; thanks, nickyskye.
Many of these people are very famous within their own country.
Lawren Harris (Canada), for example.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:20 PM on October 3, 2010
Many of these people are very famous within their own country.
Lawren Harris (Canada), for example.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:20 PM on October 3, 2010
Fantastic! But it would also be great to know where these paintings can be seen now...
posted by newmoistness at 5:59 PM on October 3, 2010
posted by newmoistness at 5:59 PM on October 3, 2010
Art Inconnu proves, of course, the iceberg theory of art: That 90 percent of the best stuff is beneath the surface, and just waiting to be discovered. We could spend the next 50 years just appreciating the art that's already around, that hasn't been appreciated yet. (Same with music, really.)
posted by Faze at 7:01 PM on October 3, 2010
posted by Faze at 7:01 PM on October 3, 2010
Quite a few of these people are far from 'unknown' -- Harris is the best example, since he's a major member of the Group of Seven, with an entire gallery to himself in the AGO. And much of the obscurity of the Eastern Europeans just has to be western ignorance.
But it's really nice to see a lovely diversity of images. Where did you find them all? It's so rare to find reproductions of relatively obscure things!
posted by jrochest at 10:29 PM on October 3, 2010
But it's really nice to see a lovely diversity of images. Where did you find them all? It's so rare to find reproductions of relatively obscure things!
posted by jrochest at 10:29 PM on October 3, 2010
Hi, thanks for the comments.
I try and consider a global audience when selecting what to post and rather than constantly uncovering obscure, forgotten gems my aim is to have something new or unseen maybe 80% of the time for the majority looking at the site. For every Harris I would hope there is a genuinely unknown painter most hadn't heard of such as Francois Barraud. The Group of Seven are not as familiar in the rest of the world as they are in Canada and the US, and when in doubt over whether a lot of people will have seen something I go ahead and post anyway. It's hard to assess any artists oeuvre when you can't enjoy a selection of their works in one place, and sometimes there is value in just putting these images together on one linkable page.
The images are from a variety of sources; auction catalogues (physical) as well as auction house websites, image archives, museum archives, other blogs etc. As to where they can be seen - many can't. They are in private collections and museum storerooms and will simply never be seen by the general public. Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of artworks.
The site was inspired by BibliOdyssey so it's nice to see Peacay commenting :)
Thanks again all.
posted by fire&wings at 8:50 AM on October 4, 2010 [2 favorites]
I try and consider a global audience when selecting what to post and rather than constantly uncovering obscure, forgotten gems my aim is to have something new or unseen maybe 80% of the time for the majority looking at the site. For every Harris I would hope there is a genuinely unknown painter most hadn't heard of such as Francois Barraud. The Group of Seven are not as familiar in the rest of the world as they are in Canada and the US, and when in doubt over whether a lot of people will have seen something I go ahead and post anyway. It's hard to assess any artists oeuvre when you can't enjoy a selection of their works in one place, and sometimes there is value in just putting these images together on one linkable page.
The images are from a variety of sources; auction catalogues (physical) as well as auction house websites, image archives, museum archives, other blogs etc. As to where they can be seen - many can't. They are in private collections and museum storerooms and will simply never be seen by the general public. Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of artworks.
The site was inspired by BibliOdyssey so it's nice to see Peacay commenting :)
Thanks again all.
posted by fire&wings at 8:50 AM on October 4, 2010 [2 favorites]
Why does this make me think of what Thomas Kinkade would do in the early 1800s?
posted by FatherDagon at 1:03 PM on October 4, 2010
posted by FatherDagon at 1:03 PM on October 4, 2010
Except he'd never paint those peasants labouring away in the foreground. That painting is sort of a nice contrast between heaven and earth.
What an excellent blog, fire&wings! Thank you so much for gathering all these fascinating images.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:18 PM on October 4, 2010
What an excellent blog, fire&wings! Thank you so much for gathering all these fascinating images.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:18 PM on October 4, 2010
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Excellent blog.
posted by peacay at 4:03 PM on October 3, 2010 [1 favorite]