Art that you didn't expect to like.

[WingedWords]

Whatever form you choose. Something you didn't expect to enjoy, but crept up on you. Or grew on you over the years.

I've always know of Don McCullin's photojournalism, and it's pretty harrowing stuff. Like one of his most famous images of the shell-shocked GI.



A few years ago I'd been to see something else at Tate Britain and while I was there thought I should have a quick look at the major McCullin retrospective. Apart from the gripping images of conflict, poverty and destruction I discovered that in his latter years (he's in his 80s) he'd turned to landscape photography, mainly around his home in Somerset Levels. Still dark, but very beautiful. Here's one.

 

[Tricone]

Lew Wallace's Ben Hur. The book, 1959 movie, and 1959 soundtrack. Poignant story of the dichotomy of good vs evil which comes into sharp view with Masala's last words "the race goes on."

It is a story written in the latter part of a man's life. A man who was a combat commanding general for the Union in America's Civil War and who was the governor of New Mexico territory and was responsible for lying about the giving of a pardon to and thus the capture and death of one outlaw named Billy the Kid.

The story of a life lived with the gift of redemption at life's end. Good stuff.

Also, Fats Domino's song "Blue Monday." It is the first song I remember hearing as a kid. Man, the electricity that exploded out of that little suitcase record player speaker was contagious. The first taste of true love for blues music. It opened my world to all kinds of opportunities and possibilities.

 

[Manual Slim]

If you had told me when I was ten that some day I'd be listening to this and enjoying it I wouldn't have believed you.

 

[buster poser]

I try to shed my biases before I go looking at art and never expect not to like something, but I often have to sit with a piece a while before I "get it" (as it should be). Rothko's color field works and Pollock's drip paintings are pretty good examples. Hard to appreciate until you're in front of the real thing. Posters and books don't get close.

Opera may count. I haven't heard much I really liked besides the well-known stuff. Saw Cosi Fan Tutti a few years ago in person, this production, and was overcome with emotion from the first words. Sure wasn't the costumes.



ps Billy the Kid deserved to die horribly and far earlier than that "pardon," however it went down. If he was tricked into it, I think that's hilarious and just. God bless Pat Garrett.

 

[Tricone]

I try to shed my biases before I go looking at art and never expect not to like something, but I often have to sit with a piece a while before I "get it" (as it should be). Rothko's color field works and Pollock's drip paintings are pretty good examples. Hard to appreciate until you're in front of the real thing. Posters and books don't get close.

Opera may count. I haven't heard much I really liked besides the well-known stuff. Saw Cosi Fan Tutti a few years ago in person, this production, and was overcome with emotion from the first words. Sure wasn't the costumes.



ps Billy the Kid deserved to die horribly and far earlier than that "pardon," however it went down. If he was tricked into it, I think that's hilarious and just. God bless Pat Garrett.

Wallace promised a pardon for the Kid's surrender. Bonney surrendered, but Wallace double crossed on the pardon.
Poor Pat met his demise with a shot in the head on the ride home if I recall. Argument with a neighbor over something.
Like Billy, Wallace and Garrett were no angels. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

P.S.
I am not a Kid fan or a Old West fan for that matter. I just didn't expect to like Ben Hur as much as I did. The trials and events that shape us in different phases of life. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Wallace reflected parts of his own life through the different characters in Ben Hur.

 

[Mjark]

When I was Jr. High my church youth group went to see some renowned choir and I didn't want to go. It was impressive and I love choral music to this day.

 

[buster poser]

Wallace promised a pardon for the Kid's surrender. Bonney surrendered, but Wallace double crossed on the pardon.
Poor Pat met his demise with a shot in the head on the ride home if I recall. Argument with a neighbor over something.
Like Billy, Wallace and Garrett were no angels. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

P.S.
I am not a Kid fan or a Old West fan for that matter. I just didn't expect to like Ben Hur as much as I did. The trials and events that shape us in different phases of life. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Wallace reflected parts of his own life through the different characters in Ben Hur.

Sorry wasn't taking you to task, didn't seem like you had a position on it. My folks lived in the county and just over the ridge from Lincoln proper for many years, used to drive through on my way back to the airport. I believe another version has it that the local DA would not release Bonney and that Wallace had no means of enforcing his agreement with Billy and didn't double cross him at all. Still seems just if he did, but my pop was a lawman, I always root for the whitehats.

Either way, the important bit: An amazing book (and film) and life. Wallace was one of many larger than life figures from that era of the state, just an incredible life story.

 

[Tricone]

No sir. I didn't feel like you took me to task,I just pointed to the irony. I have enjoyed our conversation.
Another side note: my great great granddad fought against General Wallace's troops at Monocacy as a member of the 4th Va., Fort Lewis Volunteers, Stonewall Brigade. Wallace saved Washington DC that day by blocking General Early and the "Army of the Valley."
I have to admit,with no disrespect to my lineage,but I am glad Wallace won the day.

 

[Fiesta Red]

Art (in varied forms) that I like/moved me/felt positively towards that I didn’t expect to:

Harry Styles song “Carolina”
In fact, most of the album that song comes from…very shocking how good that dude is. People always have to comment about his “presentation…” Pshaw! I grew up with Elton John’s craziness. As far as weirdness, Harry’s just following a path already forged.

Twenty-One Pilots
Took my daughter and her friends to see them, and walked away a fan. Super-talented guys who truly seem to care about their audience and seem to be having fun. I’ve seen them twice now (each time with daughter), and I’d go see them again—even without her.

Sade
Loved quite a few of her songs, but finally got to see her in concert—and that woman ROCKS! She is outrageously talented.

Went to the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth and saw a special presentation called “Picasso and Matisse: A Gentle Rivalry” about 15-20 years ago. I semi-liked both of their art/work/output before the exhibition…absolutely loved their work after. Saw things in their work that mirrored and influenced each other that I’d never seen before.

The chick-flicks “Chocolat” and “Hope Floats”
Watched them because my wife wanted to. Would watch them again without her.

Orwell’s “Animal Farm”
Read it the first time in the eighth grade, under duress and without understanding the history, political satire and individuals being represented by the different critters…hated it.
Read it the second time after delving into Russian/Soviet history from 1880-1950, and a brilliant, enthusiastic teacher who explained who the characters were before we dove in…Loved it.

“A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” by Betty Smith
Why would a boy from a small town in 1970’s Texas read a Roman a clef about a little girl in 1910’s Brooklyn?
Because my mother recommended it and she knew the book is brilliant.
I have read it at least ten times…each time I enjoyed it more.
Due to my age, I didn’t understand certain aspects the first time I read it (like why would Francis’s dad bet on the Dodgers, a team from Los Angeles? I learned the history later)…
But what was really (fascinating?brilliant? interesting?) was, when at 40-something years old, walking through the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn—30-plus years after reading the book for the first time, 100 years after the setting of the book—that I stopped and realized, “This is where the action of the book took place…”
Even with all the changes of a century’s worth of time, the architecture and vibe of the neighborhood still rang true—the stoops and the apartments and the crowded tree-lines streets, the shops and bodegas and rare vacant lot…
My buddy, who lives in the neighborhood, asked me what was wrong…I couldn’t explain it to him. I don’t think he would understand.

 

[Lawdawg]

Steely Dan - When I was a teenager I thought they were just another lame 70s soft rock band. In my late 20s I started to appreciate their musical sophistication and was surprised to discover that hidden beneath the smooth jazz exterior were lyrics as ironic, weird, cynical and funny as any of the punk/alternative music of my youth.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

Western Classical Music.

Then I went to a Uni with a big college of music and ... yaddah yaddah ... I found myself listening to mainly classical for a number of years.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

 

[Engine Swap]

+1 on opera (modern staging helps)

More surprising, certain forms of puppetry

 

[Masmus]

When I was younger I never liked impressionist paintings until one day when I was in my mid thirties I walked past a generic impressionist city traffic painting in an office building and was suddenly blown away. Some random painting in a random office changed how I looked at it.

 

[Kandinskyesque]

Ballet.
I don't dance, I don't like dancing and ballet was the last thing I would ever imagine going to.

I resisted going for years, even though there was the opportunity for decent tickets and the chance to impress the pre-marital Mrs K, who loved the ballet.
However, I bit the bullet and took her as part of our first married Christmas night out in '92. Part of my motivation was to avoid having to take her to a Christmas pantomime which she also loves.

To my surprise the ballet was mesmeric, aided and abetted by the orchestral swells. It's grown on me more over time.
I haven't been for a few years, it can be expensive but I imagine it will happen again this year as some normality resumes.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

Ballet.
I don't dance, I don't like dancing and ballet was the last thing I would ever imagine going to.

I resisted going for years, even though there was the opportunity for decent tickets and the chance to impress the pre-marital Mrs K, who loved the ballet.
However, I bit the bullet and took her as part of our first married Christmas night out in '92. Part of my motivation was to avoid having to take her to a Christmas pantomime which she also loves.

To my surprise the ballet was mesmeric, aided and abetted by the orchestral swells. It's grown on me more over time.
I haven't been for a few years, it can be expensive but I imagine it will happen again this year as some normality resumes.

At my last job there was a guy who would be the last fellow you would think would get into ballet, but he had previous had a contract to do some work for them, and watched them practising and was impressed by how athletic it was, and how hard they worked.

 

[WingedWords]

Ballet.
I don't dance, I don't like dancing and ballet was the last thing I would ever imagine going to.

I resisted going for years, even though there was the opportunity for decent tickets and the chance to impress the pre-marital Mrs K, who loved the ballet.
However, I bit the bullet and took her as part of our first married Christmas night out in '92. Part of my motivation was to avoid having to take her to a Christmas pantomime which she also loves.

To my surprise the ballet was mesmeric, aided and abetted by the orchestral swells. It's grown on me more over time.
I haven't been for a few years, it can be expensive but I imagine it will happen again this year as some normality resumes.

Yes, though I find classical ballet with the tights and tutus a bit hard to take and prefer more modern forms.

And yes, @BigDaddyLH their work rate (and injury rate) is pretty fearsome.

 

[11 Gauge]

I try to shed my biases before I go looking at art and never expect not to like something, but I often have to sit with a piece a while before I "get it" (as it should be). Rothko's color field works and Pollock's drip paintings are pretty good examples. Hard to appreciate until you're in front of the real thing. Posters and books don't get close.

This is so true.

Even originally being an art major with my first bachelor's degree many years ago, and even liking a lot of stuff before ever seeing it in the flesh, it's simply a transformative experience while standing right in front of it.

Probably the first one that really did it for me was Monet - they had an exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art back in the 90's, and standing in front of the pieces was simply completely different from looking at them in a book.

I also experienced something similar with Picasso pieces, despite being especially into his cubism stuff going all the way back to my final two years of high school (I was using Guernica as partial inspiration for a piece I was painting at the time). But it actually wasn't until relatively recently - like starting in '17 or '18, that I actually got to see some Picasso stuff up close, at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. I actually went back there in December of '22 and got to see them again.

As someone who used to paint somewhat regularly up through the 90's or so, I really need to be in front of any given piece, in order to feel like I'm able to step into the world of the artist.

 

[Tricone]

I have pondered this question since @WingedWords posted it. My first, off the cuff response was Wallace's "Ben Hur." It is a work that I read and found I enjoyed very much. Not the most surprising though.

After thinking about the question further, it would be free jazz. It is something I love to listen to and play. It really calms me and my focus becomes more clear when listening to it and playing it.
Painters such as Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, and Jackson Pollack's works have the same effect on me. As does looking at acoustic archtop, flat top, and metal body resonator guitars.
All surprising, but most welcomed in my life.

 

[darkwaters]

Paintings by the British Pre-Raphaelites. I shouldn’t like them. They often look like something from a Hallmark card. So oldfashioned. So of their age. So uncool. And yet I really like them. Go figure.