The art world has recently lost a great – John Baldessari (1931 – 2020), well-known for his work with dots. And, while Baldessari’s legacy will last forever, he was not the first, and will not be the last artist to go dotty over spots. So, without further ado, here are some of our favourites!
Yayoi Kusama
https://www.instagram.com/p/B65eDqKnBuV/
How could we not start with the queen of dots? Yayoi Kusama is a dot icon. Everything she touches turns into hundreds of tiny balls, with the artist covering everything from pumpkins to infinity rooms into polkadots. Being true to her theme, Kusama even dresses in dots too!
Damien Hirst
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0lx0P1H6PJ/
Damien Hirst is famous for his spot paintings. Anyone who’s anyone seems to have one (do you?). Hirst loves a good dot so much, that he even painted his girlfriend in them. We’re not sure we’ll go that far though…
Roy Lichtenstein
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiKD9u_lzNO/
Bringing the polkadot to the world of comic-book art, Roy Lichtenstein managed to make dozens of little dots look just as vibrant as swathes of paint. His dot-filled work is quite simply iconic.
John Baldessari
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7BfVopiU_s/
Of course we weren’t going to complete this list without him. Baldessari is known for photographing his subjects and then painting a dot over their faces. Simple, but effective.
Fernando Botero
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp6s7HHnpOO/
So technically, Fernando Botero doesn’t paint dots. But, he does have a tendency for making things round and chubby – so basically turning anything he touches into a polkadot. Somehow, he even manages to make oranges look more round than they already are. And that my friends, is a dotty talent.
Takashi Murakami
https://www.instagram.com/p/B06oOaTFGGO/
Again, Murakami isn’t known for his dots, but much of his work is round, smiley and fun. Many of his paintings are made in the round too, so basically, he is painting on large-scale dots.
Chuck Close
https://www.instagram.com/p/Borbx-bnnYp/
Chuck Close’s paintings are basically representations of when you zoom in too much on your photographs on your pictures. Except, when Chuck Close does it, it looks good. Making dotty art look photo-realistic, Chuck Close, we salute you!
Georges Seurat
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0dQbBLIiVs/
Finishing with the king of dots, Georges Seurat is perhaps the most famous pointillist painter. Worth millions today, the French artist was a pioneer of the dot-format, and we suspect that all of the artists mentioned above have a lot to thank him for.
Text Lizzy Vartanian
