Guess the Artist: The Art Quiz Game by Craig Redman and Karl Maier (photo by the author for Hyperallergic).
Guess the Artist: The Art Quiz Game is a new trivia challenge that asks players to identify an artist represented by three objects. For example, a Wall Street sign + a vacuum cleaner + a balloon = Jeff Koons. Some might be immediately obvious to art aficionados, others are a bit trickier, such as: playing cards + geometric forms + a palette knife = Paul Cézanne.
The game is out September 19 from Laurence King Publishing, and is illustrated with colorful graphics by Craig and Karl (the collaborative duo of Craig Redman and Karl Maier). Hyperallergic tested out Guess the Artist, and while it’s no stand-in for an art history slide test, it’s certainly fun, and the detailed facts about the artists on the back of the cards are as enjoyable as the game itself. For instance, did you know an extinct archosaur is named for Georgia O’Keeffe (Effigia okeeffeae), after its fossilized bones were found near Ghost Ranch? And some of J. M. W. Turner’s last words were “The Sun is God”? Or that Yves Klein studied judo (and even published a book on the martial art)?
There are 60 artists to name in Guess the Artist, and Laurence King Publishing shared 10 examples below. Make your best guesses, then find the answers at the bottom of the page!
Fun! Go test yourself and see how you do. I did okay, but I missed a couple.
I failed miserably. 0 correct guesses. With the exception of Van Gogh and Da Vinci I never even heard or read these names.
But you learned stuff! That’s part of the fun. I think Mondrian and Kahlo were the easiest.
I am afraid I have to disappoint you, but I learned nothing. I always had a lousy memory for dates and names, which people are sometimes reluctant to believe me because I have excellent memory for most other things. And one of the reasons I stopped studying arts was that History of Art bored me to death.
That’s okay, everyone doesn’t have to be an art geek. :D
I sort-of got what turned out to be the only names I recognised: Gilbert & George, Leonardo da Vinci, and Vincent van Gogh. I say “sort-of got” because, in each case, whilst I couldn’t decipher the entire clew, I guessed based on parts of the clew which reminded me of those artistes. The Gilbert & George guess was a bit lucky, as I’m nearly entirely unfamiliar with their work.