Competition in Art

I've been intrigued by the competition between Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse for a long time. There are several articles on the subject, a film and some exhibits that have taken place, exposing the relationship between the two artists. This article is interesting, because it states that one is forced to choose sides. In reality, I don't know that I could.  I don't think I'm alone in this either. There are pieces by Picasso that resonate deeply with me, but there are works by Matisse that do the same. I suppose if I were forced to pick one over the other, I would be on team Picasso, as I tend to be more drawn to the fiery and intense over the cool and calm. Sometimes "capricious and unpredictable"aren't necessarily bad things. Fortunately, there's no need to take sides, and one can appreciate both Picasso's impassioned works and the more serene pieces done by Matisse.

Matisse

Picasso

Matisse

Picasso

Matisse

Picasso

Note that these pairs of artists and various things are different from rivalries, which would probably include Salieri instead of Haydn and the Dead Kennedys in place of the Clash, though in some cases rivals are also competitors. The list below actually splits artists and items into two categories: Apollonian, which is defined by reason, precision and control; and the Dionysian, which is defined by emotion, recklessness and abandon. Picasso would fall into the latter category, of course.

Apollonian                  Dionysian

Matisse                       Picasso
Jane Austen Charlotte Brontë Eliot Yeats Freud Jung Superman Batman Left brain Right brain New York City Los Angeles Pope Swift Puccini Verdi Johns Rauschenberg Bush Reagan Ego Id Stravinsky Schoenberg Windows Macintosh Hillary Bill Wordsworth Shelley David Remnick Tina Brown England France Madison Jefferson Mort Zuckerman Donald Trump Hetero Homo Army Navy Heaven Hell Shaw Wilde White wine Red wine Aristotle Plato Slate Salon Bonds Stocks Leviticus Genesis Felix Oscar North Korea South Korea Classical Romantic Cocaine Heroin Mies Le Corbusier The Clash The Sex Pistols Irving Kristol Norman Podhoretz Protestantism Catholicism Kant Rousseau Mozart Haydn Empire State Building Chrysler Building Magritte Dalí Mickey Mouse Donald Duck
If I were to put some of our artists in these two categories, I would say Sergey Cherep and Lyudmila Agrich would fall into the Dionysian category, while Jessica Garrett and Erin Dertner would be considered Apollonian. Dionysian Sergey Cherep Lyudmila Agrich Apollonian Jessica Garrett
Erin Dertner