Favourite piece of art you've seen

The Scream by Edward Munch in Norways national gallery in Oslo. Its pretty small in real life but theres something about it that is really dark. Then the history and influence behind it- Munch suffered a lifetime of depression and anxiety after both his mother and sister died from TB when he was a kid and then another sister was put in a mental asylum for the insane.

The painting captures a person living a kind of hell on earth inside their head, its like the subject matter is literally on the cusp of losing their mind. After a couple of minutes of staring at it up close it actually feels pretty unsettling.



Rembrandts Nightwatch in Amsterdam. Its the sheer scale of this when seen that amazes, you just feel small standing there looking at it. Then the detail in it, the use of light and darkness and the depth of field is pretty special





One of the Easter Island statues in the British Museum in London. It dominates the room it is in, when you come around the corner and see it for the first time theres a real wow moment. Then theres questions of how a completely isolated island community in the south Pacific came up with this 1,000 years ago and then went on to make another 60 of them. They weigh between 10 and 15 tonnes each and are made out of volcanic ash. Theres an absolute serious level of work gone into each one and they were making them for over 600 years.

Plus the gold plated inscription below it gives you that bonus airbrushing of British colonialist history -"Donated by Captain Powell of HMS Topaze to Queen Victoria in 1869". Eh no lads, you pillaged their islands and stole it.



My favourite of all is Michelangelos Statue of David in Florence. I was absolutely flabbergasted seeing this, its just breathtaking. Its 17 feet tall and then on a plinth of another 12 feet so it towers right above you. I find it incredibile to think that Michelangelo began this with a single block of marble weighing 5 tonnes and chipped away at it for three years to carve it. He had a 3D map in his head of what he wanted to create from it. Heres an idea of the sheer scale of it





Its impressive from a distance but then you get up close to it and it gets even better. The amount of detail in it is just astounding, every muscle, every vein in his body is carved intricately.








So whats your favourite piece of art that you've seen. Something that when you saw it in the flesh you were left dumbfounded.