"Me and Gaugin used to party down
I was hung in the Louvre, I was Renoir's pal
Vincent Van Gogh used to joke with me
Now they don't come 'round
So I wander the left bank every day
Searching for my muse in sad cafés
Peddle my oils to the galleries
But they turn me down
Everybody says I'm a master of technique
But the style and the sentiment are weak"
— "There Goes My Inspiration," Utopia, Utopia, 1982.
Here's a Facebook game I am participating in. A friend assigns me an artist. I look the artist up and post what I consider to be his best work. People who like my Facebook post get assigned an artist by me. The process continues. As you can see, my friend, Alison Keller, assigned me Wassily Kandinsky. As Alison suspected, I had never heard of Wassily Kandinsky before. Googling resulted in:
Using these links I picked "Autumn Landscape with Boats" (that he painted in 1908) as my favorite:
source: wassilykandinsky.net
I like the color choice and abstract nature - not so abstract that the shapes are unrecognizable but not a photographic approximation created in oil. Kandinsky's color choice reminds me of the work of fellow Autodesk employee John Kraft.
source: johnkraft.com
If you want to see John's art out in the wild, check out this Virtual Tour — Etcetera Show.
A systematic approach to art appreciation is alive in the lab.