shakahislop
Well-known member
come on tell me who are the best ones, the ones pushing things forward, the ones that mean the most to you, the ones that we should all check out. music art film books, everything
The Best Artists Working Today In All Mediums
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shakahislop
Well-known member
i'm looking for the absolute pinnacle of human artistic achievement. but they have to still be doing stuff now. they can't be dead or have done all their best stuff in the 1980s
vershy versh
Well-known member
There are contemporary people I like, but none of them seem as good as their influences or mean that much to me, e.g. I thought Good Time by the Safdies was great but I don't think they're on the level of people like Friedkin, Carpenter and Cassavetes they're drawing inspiration from.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
I think there's a good chance they can develop to become better than those guys. Good Time and Uncut Gems have a somewhat unique vibe, in my mind at least. Skeezy, desperate, anxiety-ridden
Murphy
cat malogen
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
Also maybe Jordan Peele is worth considering here. I haven't seen Nope yet, but he's been called today's Hitchcock. Having seen over 30 Hitchcock films by now, I'd take that claim with a grain of salt, but Peele could well become similarly great in his own right.
vershy versh
Well-known member
I feel you have to temper your standards in order to call anyone contemporary 'great' at the moment. They can be great in comparison to their peers, but they don't stack up next to their influences.
Tom McCarthy's a contemporary novelist I like, but he's always citing people like Joyce . . . How am I supposed to even consider him as the " ... absolute pinnacle of human artistic achievement ... " when he's putting himself in competition with people like that?
Tom McCarthy's a contemporary novelist I like, but he's always citing people like Joyce . . . How am I supposed to even consider him as the " ... absolute pinnacle of human artistic achievement ... " when he's putting himself in competition with people like that?
vershy versh
Well-known member
It's tempting to say contemporary artists haven't been given time to reach greatness, but history's littered with stunning debuts and people who had it from the off and that seems to have vanished nowadays. I can't think of anyone who's appeared like a bolt of lightning, there just seem to be people producing decent work for their time, e.g. Safdies.
Another temptation's to say "Well, you're just getting older and more cynical," but that doesn't account for the discovery of older stuff that's new to you and still able to bowl you over. I didn't get round to reading Beckett until relatively recently and Molloy was immediately one of the best things I'd ever read, likewise watching Schrader's debut, Blue Collar.
Another temptation's to say "Well, you're just getting older and more cynical," but that doesn't account for the discovery of older stuff that's new to you and still able to bowl you over. I didn't get round to reading Beckett until relatively recently and Molloy was immediately one of the best things I'd ever read, likewise watching Schrader's debut, Blue Collar.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
I just watched Blue Collar! It was great.
vershy versh
Well-known member
It's perhaps better to look to newer media than to demand someone blow the doors off the novel nowadays. I wouldn't balk at Kojima being described as one of our greatest artists based on what he's done with video games.
That being said, art's more collaborative than ever now we're firmly in the digital. That last Red Dead game was an unbelievable piece of work, but it wasn't the work of some solitary auteur. It was a collective thing.
That being said, art's more collaborative than ever now we're firmly in the digital. That last Red Dead game was an unbelievable piece of work, but it wasn't the work of some solitary auteur. It was a collective thing.
vershy versh
Well-known member
Roger Deakins, the cinematographer, is pretty old now but he's still producing some amazing stuff and very much in demand. You can recognise his lighting from a mile off.
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
Also Lubezki, whose cinematography is really what I love about Malick's recent films.
en.wikipedia.org
Emmanuel Lubezki - Wikipedia
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
Artists aren't living the lives it takes to be great anymore. It's all watered down, re-channeled and siphoned off into the cultural sludge. Too self aware/referential.
We haven't lost the ability though, we just need to figure a way to break out of The Spell.
We haven't lost the ability though, we just need to figure a way to break out of The Spell.
vershy versh
Well-known member
I recently came across someone talking about an idea they called "the refracted frontier",
vershy versh
Well-known member
There's no reason someone couldn't just lock themselves away, surround themselves with unfulfilled possibilities and work from there. Shut out whichever developments you think were a mistake and a plot a new trajectory.
They might run into trouble if they ever got round to publishing or releasing whatever they were working on, but I assume someone willing to go that far would ultimately be working for themselves anyway.
They might run into trouble if they ever got round to publishing or releasing whatever they were working on, but I assume someone willing to go that far would ultimately be working for themselves anyway.
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
Disconnecting from the relentless datastreams would be a good first step. I already avoid social media as much as poss. But between here, a couple other forums and YouTube I can still easily waste whole days. I know I'm way more productive/creative and a damn sight more mentally healthy when I don't have the net to sequester to whenever there's a lull. I've not had it hard wired into my house for years because of this. But unfortunately the smart phone makes it v hard to avoid. I've tried turning it off, passwords, blocking apps etc. The only thing that really works is when my monthly contract runs out and they shut the net off completely. Like right now I'm using throttled net because no data and patiently waiting half a minute for a single dissensus page to load. When they shut it off completely I might go out once a day for an hour or so to use some wifi, but then the rest of the time it's way easier to get into the creative zone.
Damn net..
How do you mean? What kind of trouble?
I like the quote. The idea of inspiration being stored away like energy just waiting to be tapped into. Some people have easier access, but no one ever had permanent access at all times, which is kind of cool that it's so evasive. Gotta find your ways to invoke the muse.
vershy versh
Well-known member
Dismissed as nostalgia, pastiche or simply an exercise.
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
Yeah, it's a risk. But imo, at this point, with the well as dry as it is I'd take some proper made shit that sounded like it was from the 80s as long as it felt right. As in, done with the right intentions and coming from the right place. Subjective terms, but I know it when I hear it. A choon is a choon at the end of the day and if you're cruising in the car or dancing in a club, it either works or it doesn't, and for most of the audience they don't really care too much about that stuff. I say just follow your gut and bring the fuccin ruckus.