What work of visual art moved you surprisingly when you saw it?

Arnold Bocklin’s painting “Isle of the Dead” .

Lovely question. I m going to take a different slant on this as I went blank when I tried to think of art that had moved me.

What does move me is the art that is framed by the windows of some homes. To me, a view is everything. I often stare at photographs of homes with views. Imagine that? An artwork that changes mood and color. That changes with the seasons. How beautiful

Views

I love glass art, especially stained glass

Bust of a Young Jew by Rembrandt, which touched me every time I saw it over the years at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

If you stood 10 feet or so away of you saw a riveting speck of light in his left eye, what appeared to be from the sun. But when you get right up close, which the museum allowed you to do, you saw that it was a tiny, very tiny daub of yellow-white oil paint. Amazing!

Seeing paintings from the Hudson River School in person. These are gigantic, wall-sized landscapes, and it really makes you feel like you’re going west yourself, and seeing these big unspoiled landscapes for the first time.

@Haleth wow! that is gorgeous!

Rothko. His work is underwhelming in print. The depth of his work in person caught me off guard.

I think I might have a particular weakness for visual texture. I always miss the turn-off to this one store because I’m always transfixed by this old painted wall. I’ve walked and driven by it thousands of times. Yet it still draws me in.

Architecture…it doesn’t even have to be a great work of art. Common every day spaces move me.

@Nimis Thank you. Nicely put.

I was walking through the Carlsberg Glyptotek one afternoon and came across this and for the first time I understood how a woman could be overwhelmed to the point of nightmares and instability at the responsibilities and demands of motherhood. I thought of my mother, a good woman and the finest mother who gave birth to 2 girls and 5 boys, who we must have overwhelmed frequently (But I don’t remember her ever letting on). This sculpture is horrifying. She is being consumed, eaten alive, but she appears serene. I never noticed the serenity until now. Hmm.

A Little Free Advice to the Young Husband: Never bring the woman who you intend to be the mother of your children to this garden.

As I mentioned on another recent Q, Rothko, because his art reminds me so much of my grandfather’s art. Looking at is like comfort food for me, like being with people who are always happy to see you and love you.

I like Baroque art a lot also. The use of light and the colors, but I would not say there is a particular piece.

This mask of Born-to-be-head-of-the-world in the NYC Natural History Museum. I didn’t intend to spend the whole day in the Cultures of the Pacific Northwest room, but it was too fascinating to walk away from – and I must’ve spent half an hour just staring at this mask. Something about its two layers and his name and imagining the dancers wearing the mask made me feel…I dunno, hopeful. Like, greatness is inevitable, and solemn, and terrifying. When I got home I looked up his story. It is quite interesting and very much in the spirit of what I had sensed in the museum.

Edit: Here’s another, clearer photo with the outer layer opened up. And here is the story of Born-to-be-head-of-the-world (from http://www.umista.org/kwakwakawakw/tribes.php):

In the beginning there was a family of ancestors. The name of one man was First-Beaver, and he had a younger brother named Paddle-to. First-Beaver was very strong and twisted thick yew trees. He rubbed his body with hemlock branches. But Paddle-to was lazy and foolish. The father of First Beaver felt badly because Paddle-to slept all the time. One day, the father kicked Paddle-to and said, “Oh you fool! Don’t think too much of always sleeping. Look at your Elder brother. He is always rubbing his body with hemlock branches to make himself attractive to spirit powers.”

Disgraced, Paddle-to decided to commit suicide. As soon as night came, he went to the woods and sat beside a lake. The waters of the lake rose and fell and then they were high a small devil-fish (octopus) swam around Paddle-to. The waters then rose so high they came to Paddle-to’s neck, and the devil-fish grabbed him and grew large by sucking his blood. Paddle-to was carried off under water by the devil-fish, who took him to the under-water house of the one who is called Wealthy because he controls all of the creatures of the water. Wealthy treated Paddle-to well and taught him secrets of supernatural power. He introduced Paddle-to to all of the creatures of the water by taking him on an underwater trip as far as Bella Coola. Wealthy also made Paddle-to a gift of all the dancing paraphernalia used by his descendants today.

Then, Wealthy sent Paddle-to home, but first said, “You shall no longer be called Paddle-to; from now on you will be called Born-to-be-the-head-of-the-world.” Upon finding his family, the one who had been Paddle-to changed into a whale and an eagle came and sat on the fin of the whale. Born-to-be-the-head-of-the-world’s father said, “Look, this eagle seated on a whale shall be our crest.” Finally, Born-to-be-the-head-of-the-world changed himself into a sea otter and swam into a long bay. His family followed him, and leaving the water he became a man again. Pointing to the shore, which is Heǥa̱m’s (Drury Inlet), he said, “I wish this to be a village site.” The ancestors of the Gwawaʼenux̱w then went to work.

sorry for all the edits – the iPad is stupid at this, and I couldn’t get the link to point directly to the story