{"id":590888,"date":"2026-04-18T02:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T02:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590888\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T02:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T02:20:16","slug":"artists-on-their-favorite-artworks-at-the-met-the-louvre-the-prado-and-other-museums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590888\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists on Their Favorite Artworks at the Met, the Louvre, the Prado and Other Museums"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to
Be Cultured<\/a> Menu Art <\/p>\n

Buffalo<\/p>\n

Buffalo AKG Art Museum<\/p>\n

\u2018Convergence\u2019 (1952) by Jackson Pollock<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such a distinctly American painting [below],\u201d says the artist Stanley Whitney<\/a>, 79. \u201cPainters in America were trying to reinvent painting at the time, and you can\u2019t reinvent painting more than Pollock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Buffalo AKG Art Museum<\/p>\n

New York<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/p>\n

Toluk (women\u2019s valuable, late 19th-early 20th century) by a Belauan artist, Republic of Palau, Caroline Islands<\/p>\n

\u201cThis toluk,\u201d says the painter Jordan Casteel<\/a>, 37, \u201cmade by a Belauan artist from polished and carved sea-turtle shells, is essentially money, part of a women-centered system of value used for owning, inheriting and exchange. I love thinking about women\u2019s authority being central here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Harvesters\u2019 (1565)\u00a0by Pieter Bruegel<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend James Gibbs recommended I go to the Met just to enjoy this one painting,\u201d says the performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson<\/a>, 50. \u201cIt\u2019s a trick of his. Just walk straight through all the glory, look at this work and go back in time. I stood there in front of the corn and the people taking a rest many hundreds of years ago and dreamed for half an hour. I really, really recommend this method.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paintings by \u00c9douard Manet (1832-83)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absurd to pick one thing, or even five, from the Met\u2019s vast and diverse holdings, but whatever else I\u2019m there for, I always swing by the second-floor European painting galleries to check in with the collection of works by \u00c9douard Manet,\u201d says the painter David Salle<\/a>, 73. \u201cThese paintings are modern consciousness itself \u2014 societal, political, sexual, aesthetic, theatrical, presentational \u2014 compressed into a brushstroke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Sleepers\u2019 (1943) by Horace Pippin<\/p>\n

\u201cThe restrained and intimate nature of [the American painter] Pippin\u2019s works [below] is always so comforting,\u201d says Casteel. \u201cWith only three or four colors and a careful selection of brushstrokes, he brings me into the room to witness the warmth and care of the scene. I almost want to whisper [so as] not to wake them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Image \u00a9 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, N.Y.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Museum of Art<\/p>\n

\u2018The Large Bathers\u2019 (1900-06) by Paul Ce\u0301zanne<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could have any painting in the world, it would be this one [below],\u201d says Whitney. \u201cIt reminds me of a Bud Powell record where he was playing an out-of-tune piano in Paris \u2014 everything is wrong, and everything is right. That\u2019s how I feel about this painting: \u2018If loving you is wrong, I don\u2019t want to be right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Museum of Art<\/p>\n

London<\/p>\n

The National Gallery<\/p>\n

\u2018The Triumphs of Caesar\u2019 (mid-1480s-1506) by Andrea Mantegna<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are enormous pictures, and overwhelming on every level,\u201d says Salle. \u201cThey depict Caesar\u2019s victorious armies returning to Rome laden with every imaginable spoil of war. The drawing, execution, color, control of lighting effects \u2014 the pictures are astonishingly present; it\u2019s hard to believe they were painted at the end of the 15th century. And their scathing, unsparing depiction of the world of unfettered conquest, empire and plunder could hardly be more relevant today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Bacchus and Ariadne\u2019 (1520-23) by Titian<\/p>\n

\u201cThis [below] is a very important work for me,\u201d says Whitney. \u201cI wish I\u2019d seen it when I was 18. It has so much information about painting \u2014 color, movement and structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

On loan from His Majesty the King, Royal Collection Trust\/\u00a9 2023 His Majesty King Charles III<\/p>\n

London<\/p>\n

Tate Modern<\/p>\n

\u2018The Supper\u2019 (1991) by Belkis Ay\u00f3n<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Cuban artist] Ay\u00f3n\u2019s printmaking is, without doubt, firmly ingrained in the DNA of my drawings,\u201d says the painter Toyin Ojih Odutola<\/a>, 40. \u201c\u2009\u2018The Supper\u2019 [below] is considered one of her most definitive works, marking her shift from color to black and white.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo: \u00a9 Belkis Ay\u00f3n Estate, Havana. Photo: Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez<\/p>\n

Mexico City<\/p>\n

Museo de Arte Moderno de M\u00e9xico<\/p>\n

\u2018Canto Triste por Biafra\u2019 (1969) by Gilberto Aceves Navarro<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three panels at the center form a cacophonous landscape of every conceivable violent mark in muddy black, orange, white and red,\u201d says Ojih Odutola. \u201cThey\u2019re sandwiched by two bright, canary yellow sides. Both margins depict the clearest figures in the painting, each holding a gun aimed at the destruction. [The painting (below) is about the Nigerian civil war, which lasted from 1967 to 1970.] I\u2019m not going to tell you what to feel or how long to stay. For me, it was a solid 40 minutes. I chose to sit in gratitude with this sad song \u2014 one human stretching their arms from one continent, one country, one conflict in history to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gilberto Aceves Navarro, Museo de Arte in Mexico\/SOMAAP, Mexico City \u00a9 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York<\/p>\n

Paris<\/p>\n

The Louvre<\/p>\n

Paintings by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s some of the most incredible painting \u2014 the detail, the storytelling, the narrative within the painting [below],\u201d says the multidisciplinary artist Walid Raad, 58. \u201cYou get sucked into a universe. It\u2019s hard to walk in and have so many of them [on display] because it\u2019s like looking at 30 to 40 galaxies. You have to explore each one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicolas Poussin\u2019s \u201cEli\u00e9zer et R\u00e9becca\u201d (1648). \u00a9 Grand Palais RMN (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre)\/Tony Querrec<\/p>\n

Lyon, France<\/p>\n

Lugdunum-Mus\u00e9e et Th\u00e9\u00e2tres Romains, France<\/p>\n

Roman dodecahedra (first-third century A.D.)<\/p>\n

\u201cArchaeologists can\u2019t seem to agree on the purpose of these ancient objects [below]: 12 [sides], punctured with circular openings of varying sizes,\u201d says Ojih Odutola. \u201cWhat was their function? The more you wonder, the more you want to hold one in your palm \u2014 to feel its balance \u2014 while imagining what ancestral impulse compelled its making.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil<\/p>\n

S\u00e3o Paulo Museum of Art<\/p>\n

\u2018Apparition of the Child Jesus to Saint Anthony of Padua\u2019 (1627-30) by Francisco de Zurbar\u00e1n<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the highlights of Francisco de Zurbar\u00e1n\u2019s paintings [below] for me is the humility of the figures he depicts,\u201d says the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, 57. \u201cThey possess a touching realism and a deep spirituality, which, as in many of Caravaggio\u2019s works, can verge on a certain eroticism. I\u2019m struck by his remarkable attention to the weight and texture of cloth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Museu de Arte de S\u00e3o Paulo. Photo: Jo\u00e3o Musa<\/p>\n

Amsterdam<\/p>\n

Rijksmuseum<\/p>\n

\u2018Syndics of the Drapers\u2019 Guild\u2019 (1662) by Rembrandt van Rijn<\/p>\n

\u201cI became aware of this image [below] through a cigar brand called Dutch Masters,\u201d says the painter and conceptual artist Rashid Johnson<\/a>, 48. \u201cWhen I was like 15, I\u2019d buy Dutch Masters cigars and we\u2019d use them to roll blunts. So I was familiar with this image \u2014 not thinking of it in any way as historically significant. Coming across that painting in the Rijksmuseum, the high-low of it is just fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madrid<\/p>\n

The Prado<\/p>\n

\u2018Black Paintings\u2019 (1820-23) by Francisco de Goya<\/p>\n

\u201cThe room of works by Francisco de Goya is probably my favorite painting room anywhere in the world,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cI\u2019m obsessed with two in particular: \u2018Duel With Clubs\u2019 and \u2018Saturn Devouring His Son\u2019 [below]. Goya creates a set of transgressions that show something in his spirit that is complicated and almost hard to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado<\/p>\n

\u2018Las Meninas\u2019 (1656) by Diego Vela\u0301zquez<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2009\u2018Las Meninas\u2019 is an endlessly renewable miracle,\u201d says Salle. \u201cOn one of my visits, another viewer, apparently overwhelmed, fainted, landing in a heap on the floor. I\u2019m surprised it doesn\u2019t happen more often.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Third of May 1808\u2019 (1814) by Francisco de Goya<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a great protest painting,\u201d says Whitney. \u201cIt has so much humanity. It\u2019s still a powerful statement, and it was painted in 1814.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jos, Nigeria<\/p>\n

Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture<\/p>\n

Earthenware buildings (1970s-80s)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe history of earthenware architecture is plentiful throughout West Africa,\u201d says Ojih Odutola. \u201cAs we roamed about these reconstructions of ancient monuments [below], my uncle Ade explained how they were our ancestors\u2019 skyscrapers \u2014 and still held their technological ingenuity. If you find yourself within and among these structures, sharpen your senses. Treasure their divinity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture<\/p>\n

Odawara, Japan<\/p>\n

Enoura Observatory<\/p>\n

\u2018The Tree of Life\u2019 (2017) by Hiroshi Sugimoto<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a hillside overlooking Sagami Bay, [the photographer and architect] Sugimoto designed the Enoura Observatory [below] around astronomical alignments, including galleries that frame the sun at solstices,\u201d says the conceptual artist Anicka Yi, 54. \u201cDuring my 2025 visit, the \u2018Tree of Life\u2019 marble relief, atop a narrow passageway leading to the Winter Solstice Light-Worship Tunnel, had a potent impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marble relief \u00a9 Odawara Art Foundation<\/p>\n

Naoshima, Japan<\/p>\n

Benesse House Museum<\/p>\n

\u2018One Hundred Live and Die\u2019 (1984) by Bruce Nauman<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work [below] has everything \u2014 life, death, banality, fear, hope, evil, joy \u2014 separately and then, quite suddenly, all together, filling the gallery with a shock blast of light,\u201d says the sculptor Do Ho Suh<\/a>, 63.<\/p>\n

Bruce Nauman\/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Benesse House. Photo: Omote Nobutada<\/p>\n

Seoul<\/p>\n

National Museum of Korea<\/p>\n

\u2018The Pensive Bodhisattva\u2019 (late sixth-early seventh century)<\/p>\n

\u201cThese sculptures [below] are so utterly beautiful in their quiet clarity,\u201d says Suh. \u201cThey remind me that life is both very complex and very simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collection of the National Museum of Korea<\/p>\n

Doha, Qatar<\/p>\n

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art<\/p>\n

Paintings by Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925-2004)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an Iraqi artist who was hosted in Doha [Qatar] by a member of the royal family during the first gulf war,\u201d says Raad. \u201cHe would literally cut the canvas and paint these cuts. It meant to go beyond the surface to this non-retinal, spiritual dimension. The wall, the texture of the paint, the shadow \u2014 all are within the world of the painting itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florence, Italy<\/p>\n

The Uffizi<\/p>\n

The paintings of Sandro Botticelli (circa 1445-1510)<\/p>\n

\u201cI once went to Florence and visited a nun \u2014 a friend of my mother\u2019s,\u201d says Kjartansson. \u201cThe nun heard we were going to the Uffizi. She talked of going through all the beautiful paintings of the Virgin and Child. But then she told of the shock of going into the disgusting halls where the corrupt and sinful paintings of Botticelli [below] hang. This perspective totally changed my vision of Botticelli. It made me understand the conditions these paintings were created under, and the power and atomic sensuality of them. They\u2019ve become such a cozy clich\u00e9 on stationery and handkerchiefs that I didn\u2019t understand them until the sister opened my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandro Botticelli\u2019s \u201cThe Birth of Venus\u201d (1484). Digital image \u00a9 Uffizi\/Licensed by Scala\/Art Resource, N.Y.<\/p>\n

These interviews have been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n

More in Art <\/p>\n

American Land Art<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Holt\/Smithson Foundation and Dia Art Foundation\/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, courtesy of Holt\/Smithson Foundation. Photo: Nancy Holt<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Is It Surreal?<\/p>\n

Roberto Montenegro, \u201cThe Double\u201d (1938). Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Masks<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Innovations in Painting<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Postwar Art<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Conceptual Art Explained<\/p>\n

Robert Barry\u2019s \u201cInert Gas Series: Helium\u201d (1969). Courtesy of Robert Barry and Galerie Greta Meert<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Essential Pottery<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Painting Movements<\/p>\n

Collection of the National Palace Museum<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Intangible Art<\/p>\n

Pierre Huyghe, \u201cUntilled (Liegender Frauenakt)\u201d (2012). \u00a9 2026 Pierre Huyghe\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, courtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo: AGO<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is Performance Art?<\/p>\n

Marina Abramovi\u0107 performing \u201cThe Artist Is Present\u201d at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010. Digital image \u00a9 The Museum of Modern Art\/Licensed by SCALA\/Art Resource, N.Y.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Notorious Controversies<\/p>\n

Robert Mapplethorpe, \u201cJoe, NYC, 1978\u201d \u00a9 Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, used with permission<\/p>\n

<\/a> See the rest of the issue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How to Be Cultured Menu Art Buffalo Buffalo AKG Art Museum \u2018Convergence\u2019 (1952) by Jackson Pollock \u201cThis is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[257967,1029,228,226,227,257974,257968,229,257975,88,130880,257977,257973,1732,26,44170,257978,257976,6049,100925,257969,119800,257970,99944,257971,68232,257926,257972],"class_list":{"0":"post-590888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arab-museum-of-modern-art","9":"tag-art","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-artsanddesign","13":"tag-benesse-house-museum","14":"tag-buffalo-akg-art-museum","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-enoura-observatory","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-louvre-museum","19":"tag-lugdunum-musee-et-theatres-romains","20":"tag-mathaf-arab-museum-of-modern-art","21":"tag-metropolitan-museum-of-art","22":"tag-mexico","23":"tag-museum-of-modern-art","24":"tag-museum-of-modern-art-mexico-city","25":"tag-museum-of-traditional-nigerian-architecture","26":"tag-museums","27":"tag-national-gallery-london","28":"tag-national-museum-of-korea","29":"tag-philadelphia-museum-of-art","30":"tag-prado-museum","31":"tag-rijksmuseum","32":"tag-sao-paulo-museum-of-art","33":"tag-tate-modern","34":"tag-tculture2026","35":"tag-uffizi-gallery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}