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Cubists and Futurists
Reacting against the "prettifying nature" of Impressionism,
Cubist artists focused on intellectual issues concerning the two-dimensional
picture-plane. Futurists focused on the 2-D representation of motion and
movement.
Lyonel
Feininger (1871-1956)
German/American caricaturist, Cubist painter and Bauhaus instructor.
Francis Picabia
(1879-1953)
Cubist, Dadaist and Surrealist painter, based in France.
Georges Braque
(1882-1963)
Co-inventor of Analytical and Synthetic Cubism.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Co-founder of Cubism; greatest sculptor/painter of the 20th century.
Percy Wyndham Lewis
(1882-1957)
Leader of Vorticism, the British Cubo-Futurist movement.
Andre Lhote (1885-1962)
Cubist painter/sculptor best known as a teacher and theorist.
Juan Gris (1887-1927)
Spanish painter, leading Cubist theorist.
Fernand Leger (1881-1955)
Fourth Cubist painter, muralist, stained glass and textile artist.
Albert Gleizes
(1881-1953)
Co-author with Metzinger of Du Cubisme, the first treatise on Cubism.
David Burlyuk (1882-1967)
Acknowledged to be the founder of Futurism in Russia.
Jean Metzinger
(1883-1956)
Theorist on Cubism; co-wrote Du Cubisme with Gleizes.
Robert Delaunay
(1885-1941)
Abstract artist, founder of Orphism (Orphic Cubism) or Simultanism.
Marcel Duchamp
(1887-1968)
Cubist painter, Dadaist sculptor ("readymades"), pioneer
conceptual artist.
Giacomo Balla (1871-1958)
Italian Futurist painter and sculptor, noted for Dynamism of a Dog
on a Leash
Carlo Carra (1881-1966)
Famous for Funeral of the Anarchist Galli" (1911) and Metaphysical
Painting.
Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916)
Italian Futurist sculptor, noted for Unique Forms of Continuity in
Space.
Stuart Davis (1892-1964)
The leading American exponent of Cubism. Highly influential in the 50s.
Constructivists
Noted for their integration of art, technology and industrial design.
Vladimir
Tatlin (1885-1953)
Painter, designer, sculptor; founder of Soviet Constructivism.
Lyubov Popova (1889-1924)
Inventor of an abstract idiom known as "painterly architectonics".
El Lissitzky (1890-1941)
Abstract painter, architect, designer, noted for Proun series, and graphic
art.
Naum Gabo (1890-1977)
Born Naum Borisovich Pevzner, best known for his Constructivism/kinetic
art.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
(1895-1946)
Hungarian Constructivist artist, designer, Bauhaus teacher; Photograms.
Realism School
(20th Century)
Figure painters specializing in true-life genre paintings and portraits.
Robert
Henri (1865-1929)
Leader of the Group of Eight and the New York Ashcan School of painting.
George Wesley Bellows
(1882-1925)
Ashcan school painter noted for urban cityscapes & A Stag at Sharkey's.
Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
American artist, noted for his narrative urban genre-paintings.
Thomas Hart Benton
(1889-1975)
Missouri-born American Regionalist painter, muralist.
Grant Wood (1892-1942)
Iowa regionalist painter, noted for his masterpiece American Gothic.
Norman Rockwell
(1894-1978)
America's great populist illustrator, noted for his nostalgic subject
paintings.
Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
One of America's top artists in the realism style, noted for Christina's
World.
Lucian Freud (b.1922)
British artist noted for his banal masterpieces of figurative art.
Social/Socialist
Realism of the Mexican School
Artists with a left-wing political agenda, whose works typically contain
a moral or social message.
Jose
Clemente Orozco (1883-1949)
Mexican fresco muralist, socialist realism style.
Diego Rivera (1886-1957)
Leader of the Mexican Murals
Revival, married to Frida Kahlo.
David Alfaro Siqueiros
(1896-1974)
Communist muralist, the most radical of the Mexican social realists.
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
American social realist painter, famous for frescoes, gouaches, lithographs.
Frida Kahlo (19071954)
Wife of Rivera, best-known for her self-portraits.
Metaphysical
Painters
The Italian Scuola di Pittura Metafisica is noted for its edgy compositions
in which not everything is as it appears.
Giorgio
De Chirico (1888-1978)
Co-founder (with Carlo Carra) of Metaphysical
Painting (Pittura Metafisica)
Giorgio Morandi
(1890-1964)
Outstanding still life artist in the minimalist tradition.
Art Deco and Precisionism
Art Deco was more of a decorative art and design movement, reflecting
the sleek geometric forms of the new consumer age, while Precisionism
was a style of architectural painting whose linear precision was used
to reflect the industrial landscape of the Machine-Age.
Tamara
de Lempicka (c.1895-1980)
Glamorous celebrity portraitist, trained under Andre Lhote.
Charles Demuth
(1883-1935)
Avant-garde painter noted for industrial landscapes, and also poster-portraits.
Charles Sheeler
(1883-1965)
Painter/ photographer whose works paid homage to American machinery/plant.
Surrealists
These visual artists, many of whom had been members of Dada, aimed
to generate an entirely new set of imagery by liberating the creative
power of the unconscious mind.
Andre
Breton (1896-1966)
Founder, spokesman and theorist of the Surrealism movement.
Paul Nash (1889-1946)
British surrealist, War Artist, illustrator, landscape painter.
Man Ray (1890-1976)
Dada and Surrealist artist; photographer, painter, sculptor.
Max Ernst (1891-1976)
Multi-media collage artist, painter, sculptor, inventor of frottage.
Joan Miro (1893-1983)
Spanish painter: ceramicist, etcher, lithographer, mosaicist, glass artist.
Andre Masson (1896-1987)
Noted for his automatic drawing.
Paul Delvaux (1897-1994)
Belgian surrealist painter, noted for paintings of dream-like female nudes.
Rene Magritte (1898-1967)
Belgian classical artist, Surrealist painter.
Salvador Dali (1904-89)
Most famous member of Surrealism movement of the 1930s.
Yves Tanguy (1900-55)
French-born, self-taught abstract Surrealist painter.
Alex Colville (1920-2013)
Canadian Magic Realist painter noted for The Swimming Race.
Abstract
Artists
These visual artists exemplify geometric abstraction. Unfortunately,
instead of discovering new pathways, most of these purists ended up repeating
motifs.
Piet
Mondrian (1872-1944)
Member of De Stijl design group, noted for geometric minimalist paintings.
Theo van Doesburg
(1883-1931)
Abstract painter, designer, art theorist; founder of De Stijl design
movement.
Josef Albers (1888-1976)
Bauhaus instructor, best known for Homage to the Square paintings.
Victor Vasarely
(1906-1997)
Poster artist, painter; Hungarian founder of Op-Art; pioneer of Kinetic
Art.
Bridget Riley (b.1931)
Leader of British Op-Art movement, a form of geometric abstract painting.
Sean Scully (b.1945)
Irish-American artist renowned for his monumental geometric shapes.
Modern
Sculptors
These visual artists discovered new rules of line and depth, new
shapes, new materials and new ways of interacting with space.
Aristide
Maillol (1861-1944)
Best known for his large-scale female nude sculpture, The Mediterranean.
Ernst Barlach (1870-1938)
German Expressionist wood carver, ceramic and stone sculptor.
James Earle Fraser
(1876-1953)
Classical realist American sculptor noted for The End of the Trail
(1915)
Constantin Brancusi
(1876-1957)
Romanian artist, arguably the first sculptor of the modern era.
Anna Hyatt Huntington
(1876-1973)
American realist sculptor best known for her equestrian/animal statues.
Jacob Epstein (18801959)
Controversial British-American artist inspired by primitivism and ancient
forms.
Jean Arp (1886-1966)
Dada artist, abstract sculptor, married to Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Alexander Archipenko
(1887-1964)
Highly influential Russian-American Cubist sculptor.
Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967)
Russian artist best known for his bronze sculpture Destroyed City.
Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973)
Lithuanian-born Russian-Jewish Cubist sculptor.
Ben Nicholson (1894-1982)
Abstract sculptor/painter, noted for his low-relief sculptures "white
reliefs."
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Inventor of kinetic sculpture (mobiles and stabiles).
Henry Moore (1898-1986)
Best known for his reclining nudes & organic forms in wood, bronze
& stone.
Louise Nevelson (1899-1988)
Assemblage artist, known for her abstract "sculptured walls".
Alberto Giacometti
(1901-1966)
Known for his elongated, emaciated figurative sculptures.
Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)
Painter/sculptor best known for his vinyl-painted polystyrene sculpture.
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)
Perhaps the greatest British abstract sculptor, Member of St Ives School.
David Smith (1906-1965)
Highly influential American sculptor of the post-war period.
Meret Oppenheim (1913-85)
Famous for her Surrealist sculpture, Furry Breakfast.
Abstract
Expressionists
These visual artists, divided loosely between exponents of "action-painting"
and "colour field", sought to escape the outside world and focus
on their relationship with the viewer. The first major American art movement.
Hans
Hofmann (1880-1966)
Gestural expressionist, colourist, pioneered 'drip-painting'; famous art
teacher.
Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
Noted for his calligraphic paintings, influenced by Oriental cultures.
Mark Rothko (1903-70)
Co-inventor of Colour Field painting; noted for monumental colourist
paintings.
Adolph Gottlieb
(1903-74)
Famous but schematic abstract expressionist painter influenced by Surrealism.
Arshile Gorky (1904-48)
Influential Armenian-American surrealist/abstract expressionist painter.
Clyfford Still
(1904-1980)
American artist, co-inventor with Rothko/Newman of Colour Field
painting.
Willem De Kooning
(1904-97)
One of the key figures in American Abstract Expressionist art.
Barnett Newman
(1905-70)
Leading figure in Colour Field Painting and Post-Painterly Abstraction.
Maria Helena
Vieira da Silva (1908-92)
Portuguese-French abstract expressionist painter, member of Art Informel.
Franz Kline (1910-1962)
New York School gesturalist, known for calligraphic black-and-white pictures.
Jackson Pollock
(1912-56)
Inventor of 'action-painting', a type of Abstract Expressionism.
Ad Reinhardt (1913-67)
Minimalist painter most famous for his "Black Paintings".
Philip Guston (1913-80)
Abstract Impressionist who switched to Neo-Expressionist representationalism.
Nicolas de Stael
(1914-1955)
Russian-French painter; colourist, exponent of Lyrical Abstraction.
Robert Motherwell
(1915-91)
Painter, collage artist, printmaker, noted for Elegy to the Spanish
Republic.
Pierre Soulages
(b.1919)
Abstract painter Associated with Tachisme Style of Art Informel.
Patrick Heron (1920-99)
English colourist painter associated with Lyrical Abstraction.
Georges Mathieu
(1921-2012)
Pioneer of Lyrical Abstraction style of Art Informel and Tachisme.
Jean Paul Riopelle
(1923-2002)
Canadian abstract painter, exponent of Lyrical Abstraction and Art Informel.
Sam Francis (1923-1994)
Influenced by Tachisme, Lyrical Abstraction and Japanese calligraphic
art.
Ellsworth Kelly
(b.1923)
Influenced Minimalism, Systemic Painting, Hard-edge Painting, Shaped Canvas.
Kenneth Noland
(b.1924)
Pupil of Josef Albers; member of Hard Edge Painting; noted for Target
images.
Helen Frankenthaler
(b.1928)
Dated Greenberg; married Robert Motherwell; founded colour stain painting.
Robert Morris (b.1931)
Minimalist artists, noted for architectural drawings and Firestorm
series.
Frank Stella (b.1936)
Minimalism pioneer, Post-Painterly Abstraction painter, shaped-canvas
style.
Pop Artists
These visual artists made light-hearted fun of the forms revered
and worshipped by the Consumer Society of the 1960s. Suddenly art could
be made of anything.
Roy
Lichtenstein (1923-97)
Painter in comic-strip style; noted for benday dot paintings, like Wham!
Robert Rauschenberg
(1925-2008)
Noted for his "Combines", collages, assemblages and conceptual
art.
Andy Warhol (1928-87)
Most successful Pop-Artist; noted for screenprints, popular portraits.
Robert Indiana
(b.1928)
Pop artist best known for his word paintings, such as "LOVE".
Claes Oldenburg (b.1929)
Swedish sculptor, noted for his Pop art images of everyday objects.
Jasper Johns (b.1930)
Highly successful American painter, sculptor, printmaker, pioneer of Pop
art. Influenced by the avant-garde composer John
Cage (1912-92).
James Rosenquist
(b.1933)
Billboard painter and Pop artist noted for huge paintings like F-111.
Jim Dine (b.1935)
Pop artist best known for his assemblages and paintings with found objects.
Ed Ruscha (b.1937)
Pop and conceptual artist, noted for paintings, art photography and drawings.
David Hockney (b.1937)
English artist, noted for portraits, swimming-pool paintings, photo-collages.
Modern Art
Photographers
Eugene
Atget (1857-1927)
Famous for his architectural photographs of the disappearing buildings
of Paris.
Alfred Stieglitz
(1864-1946)
American photograhic artist, modern art dealer, Georgia O'Keeffe's husband.
One of the greatest photographers ever.
Edward Steichen
(1879-1973)
Co-founder of Photo-Secession and "291" gallery of lens-based
art, New York.
one of the first fashion
photographers of the 20th century.
Edward Weston (1886-1958)
Noted for still life photographs.
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)
Documentary photographer of the Great Depression.
Ansel Adams (1902-84)
Landscape photographer, noted for his photography of Yosemite National
Park.
Leni Riefenstahl
(1902-2003)
Best known for her Nazi propagandist camera art.
Walker Evans (1903-75)
American camera artist famous for documentary pictures of Great Depression.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
(1908-2004)
Greatest ever street photographer.
Robert Capa (1913-54)
Photojournalist and war photographer.
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