Layers of Meaning

Top 100 of 20th Century Art

Matthew White has undertaken an atlas of the Twentieth Century. As part of his effort, he has created "The 100 Most Important Art Works of the Twentieth Century"

White explains his methodology, "To determine the 100 most important art works of the Century, I simply counted up the number of times a particular work of art was reproduced in the following history books. For example, the fact that Grant Wood's American Gothic illustrates three art history books, while Edward Hopper's Nighthawks illustrates five books is a pretty good indication that the experts consider Nighthawks to be the more important of the two. I also gave a work a few bonus points if it was displayed more prominently than its peers, such as on the cover, or in color among mostly grey scale illustrations."

I don't think that my old statistics prof would accept this as scientific, but the results are worth pondering, and probably as valid as any 'top hits' listing. My knee-jerk complaint would be about the books that White chose to consult. Most of them were written by men. I'm hoping this would explain that paucity of women artists. I found Georgia O'Keefe (#51) and Judy Chicago (#87).

On the other hand, White redeems himself and his list with some humorously glib asides like: "Giorgio de Chirico, Song of Love (Surrealist: 1914): mask of Alexander the Great and rubber glove. I'm afraid to ask what this has to do with love."

image: The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago, 1979