I am a big fan of impressionist paintings, there is something very peaceful and relaxing about them. Hard to narrow down to one, but here are three of my favorites: Claude Monet: San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk Spoiler Vincent Van Gogh: The Starry Night Spoiler Armand Guillaumin: Sunset at Ivry Spoiler As far as music, one of my favorite songs is "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys Spoiler
I've always loved "The Nostalgia of the Infinite", and have been meaning to get a print to hang at home. Even cooler, it inspired the artwork for the Ico cover used in the European and Japanese versions.
It's hard to narrow it down for me. I have a lot of obvious favorites (I don't care, I cried when I first saw Starry Night in real life) so I'll throw out some less represented ones: Miro is one of my favorites. Got to love a guy that can make me giggle among all the seriousness: And then turn around and make me tear up: (The French below the splotch means "This is the color of my dreams.") Picasso's blue period is simply the best. I've had some serious moments in museums with these: I like all German Expressionism, but Otto Dix does it the best. He should be more famous:
I'll have to give visual art some more thought, but I immediately thought of "Dogs" by Pink Floyd. The first time I heard this song, it hit me like a bag of bricks-it is by far the deepest music I have ever heard. I first heard it while I was working as a bartender at a hotel where most of the guests were travelling businessmen in suits. There was a bit of jealousy as I had graduated from college but was clearly not using my degree in my occupation. I thought I wanted to be a part of the business crowd I was serving. Then I listened to "Dogs" and questioned if that was what I really wanted. Are these seemingly important people happy with their lives?
I must have missed this one, because I cannot fathom it not having been posted: The Pieta, by Michelangelo. Spoiler That used to be a hunk of raw stone. The marble in the folds of the cloth is chiseled so thinly that you can see through it. And there's the dead body of Jesus, muscular, skinny, bereft of animation, and a surprisingly young Virgin Mary looking down and understanding that this is what death is. But life transcends death, and even in the mundane we can find the immortal and divine. This is the only sculpture that Michelangelo ever signed.
I'm guessing you're not a friend of Lazslo Toth's work: ...hit it 15 times with a geoligist's hammer, knocking off her arm and nose amongst other things while shouting "I AM JESUS CHRIST!!!!"...you'd think Jesus would be flattered by being honoured in waht's probably the best sculpture ever created. Now it's behind bulletproof glass.