As unrecognized fine arts afficionados, progheads are men of various interests and scholarly cultural habits.

So, I would like to see who your preferred painters/visual artists are, modern or classic, alive or deceased, progressive or conservative, abstract or completely conscious.

Some of mine would be Caravaggio, Raffaello, Leonardo, Hans Memling, Munch, Francis Bacon, Bosch, Picasso, Diego Velázquez, Dalí, Damien Hirst, Bill Viola, Warhol, Leonora Carrington, Yves Tanguy, Kandinsky, Edward Hopper, J. M. William Turner, Rembrandt, van Eyck, Peiter Bruegel the Elder, Magritte, Duchamp, Joan Miro, de Chirico, Beksinski, Max Ernst, Christo, Albrecht Durer, and many more.

A guy named Barry Godber, absolutely iconic image!

And editing to add Maxfield Parrish, and a couple of more modern people, Daniel Merriam and Kris Kuksi.

An example of Merriam's art:  

Grumpyprogfan wrote: My favorite would be a professional paint job on my exterior at a reasonable price.

Interesting

Psychedelic Paul wrote: Roger Dean

Just Dean? Not a single other person?

I like me some Klee, though not traditionally a painter.

dr wu23 wrote: I like surrealism mostly....Dali, Magritte, Carrington, Varo,Tanguy, Delvaux .... etc.

There's something very special about it, some sort of otherworldly sensation that no other movement inflicts that well.

Yes, I like the fantasy art of Josephine Wall too, but I didn't think many people here would have heard of her because she doesn't have any album covers to her name.

Jerry Thompson

He did a bang up job on my living room.

But seriously, There are so many, most of who have been named above.

But I have a childhood friend who lives in Vancouver now is an art graduate.

Here are two of his pieces hanging in my media room.

I like too many of them ... but Dali and Klimt are two of my favorites.

But I am also a great lover of Roger Dean, and specially Hipgnosis ... who doesn't get credited enough for some outstanding album covers, though many of us don't think that those fit as a painting ... but it is a "modern painting" in that it uses multi media instead of conventional paints.

But I can tell you one thing ... my favorite book of all is ... JANSEN'S HISTORY OF ART ... and I wish they would bring it up to modern stuff and the multi media stuff ... because things like Hignosis in many ways belong in their book based on so many things they said about the art, before.

Picasso, Braque, Van Gogh, Munch are among them.

From Denmark, it will have to be Asger Jorn:

The Norwegian painter Christian Krogh (Edvard Munch's teacher) is another favourite:

My favourite painters should be Georges M'Bourou, Carla Wijdemans, and Tom Cartmill, who have done the best pictures I see every day as I have bought them - never bought anything paying four digit numbers or more though, so these seem to be small fish in the wider world of art. But then they are amazingly good, also if I look at what other stuff they did (on can find some great stuff of theirs googling).

I do like some household names such as Miro, van Gogh, or Kandinsky... rarely something hit me more than seeing the original Picasso's Guernica in Madrid. Seeing reproductions on paper earlier hadn't impressed me a lot I've got to say. In full size it is not only innovative but incredibly sad and emotional.

Edvard Munch and Yves Tanguy are magical.

But really I'd like to mention some contemporary artists here, pure coincidence they're all German... When asked for my one favourite I'd probably name Gerhard Richter, but Anselm Kiefer is pretty much at the same level, and so is Monika Baer.

You see I go for 20th and 21st century mostly abstract stuff - this has always appealed to me more directly than skillfull representations of real persons and scenery, and be they religious or fantasy.

See Gerhard Richter - Meditation below.

Anselm Kiefer

Monika Baer

Oh, and Mark Bradford

One of my favourite artists is A. Paul Weber. Here two of his most famous works: "Das Gerücht" ("The Rumour") and "Rückgrat raus!" ("Out with the Backbone!").

Then, from the days of my childhood I used to like the works of the style called Socialist Realism (Sotsrealism, in short). This is when you omit the bad pretending that there are no serial killers, prostitutes and overall unhappy people under the Communist regime... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_realism" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_realism  

That style has one obvious virtue, anyway - it was epic and optimistic simultaneously. 

Woon Deadn wrote: I think I love practically every human being who can really paint, not just construct a few shapes, irregular and regular then to sell it for billions. Anybody who can paint a person, nature, sea, forest in say it WYSIWYG form (that is, what you see in real life is what you get in the picture, not just a set of black diagonal lines standing for windy forest) is my favourite painter.

As you can see from my examples, my approach is pretty much the opposite. I love the painters who show me something that my eyes can't see and my (or anyone's) camera can't catch.

The actual painting is 4 plus metres high (size doesn't matter, just for you getting the scale of the piece)

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992)

Edward Hopper's "Automat" (1927)

Among many others I simply love this portrait by Modigliani

Vermeer rules !

Michael Divine

Randal Roberts

Mario Martinez (Mars-1)

Hakan Hisim (not painter, but digital artist)

Josephine Wall

Hi,

I like this stuff, but find it slightly monotonous in that it tries to hammer the "point" home with too many ideas and thoughts (per backgrounds for example) that kind neuter the whole idea of the art form into something that is too much and in the end ... does not say as much as we think ... not like Mona Lisa ... which only has ONE THING going for her ... her eyes!

Digital art is a great thing and some folks have done some wonderful work, specially in the world of sci-fantasy, but sadly, the whole thing was never allowed to develop and improve because they were just another form of cultural hello to attract folks to this or that ... and as such, the value of the art itself falls down fast, for me. A lot of this was visible during the "new age" days ... with its cheap music and cheap art on the covers of the cd's and cassettes.

Hipgnosis, in its more eccentric, makes for a really good art show ... the red balls in the desert ... very simple ... the children climbing out a mountain ... we didn't get that, btw ... all had a lot more intensity and "point" than we give it credit for ... and of course, 30 years later none of the fan boys and girls even know who it was, or which album? They never heard it ... 

But you don't need a 1,000 symbols to say something ... the cover of CAPABILITY BROWN's Voice album UNFOLDED tells you everything you need to know ... and the irony in it? In the album is folk rock with outstanding and beautiful vocals ... but it tells you how much people are listening when Paranoid is their "favorite" because they won't listen to anything else ... even when the art and the cover tells you all about the music!

The best art of all in history did that ...

Speaking of that ... the guy that did a lot of art related to various progressive groups (his name fails me totally!!!) ... was sensationally better than a lot of this stuff ... and his stuff was to the point ... and he had a "poster" for many bands, and they were fantastic! I think that on the PA front page there is a small piece of his work on the PA title/logo. (gosh, I gotta look again!)

I see you have quite a delicate view on art! 

I am a bit more the "if it has saturated colors and breathes infinity, its good" kindof guy. 

Hi,

Hmmmm ... oriental, long hair, beautiful eyes, a great model for my next novel, etc, etc, etc ... I like the "muse" side of it a lot more!

I mean ... I might like the physical side of things, but then I'll be accused of plagiarizing Guy Guden in claiming statutory rape when looking at .... isn't she beautiful?