Sandro Botticelli ~1445-1510 Sandro was one of the greatest early Renaissance painters. He always strove towards beauty and virtue, the qualities represented by the goddess Venus, who is the subject of many of his most famous paintings.
Gustave Courbert 1819-1877 Gustave's work was important in starting a new movement in art called Realism. He believed in showing what was really seen, including plain everyday people and the brown spots on flowers as they aged.
Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519 Leonardo is often called the Renaissance Man because of his fame and driving desire to learn about the world around him. His works show his attention to detail where even small flowers are painted accurately by his hand.
Edgar Degas 1834-1917 Like many impressionist, Edgar was influenced by Japanese prints with their bold lines and sense of flatness. He spent a great deal of time in dance studios, cafes and theaters studying the human form and creating many studies of dancers.
James Ensor 1860-1949 James was a type of Realism artist who often painted a not so beautiful picture. His work was often an ugly image meant to show the social challenges of his time. He was very interested in the Mardi Gras and carnival life and even painted himself in a flowered hat.
Helen Frankenthaler 1928-2011 Helen was an unusual abstract expressionistartist because she was influenced by landscapes. She used the paint pouring techniques of Jackson Pollock but used thinned oil paints instead of enamels. Her technique led to the start of a new type of painting called Color Field Painting.
Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 Paul started out as an impressionist but evolved into Symbolism that was based on so-called primitive art. He experimented with new color ideas and used large areas of bright color in his work.
Artemisia Gentileschi 1593-1656 Artemisia was one of the first and only women artists to be successful in the 1600s. Her Baroque paintings were dramatic and full of action and placed women at the center of her art.
Edward Hopper 1882-1967 Known for his modern cityscapes, Edwards paintings showed the inner life of his subjects by using dramatic lighting schemes in close spaces. His paintings show only part of a story but include clues for the viewer to think about what is going on.
Frida Kahlo 1907-1954 " Frida Kahlo typically uses the visual symbolism of physical pain in a long-standing attempt to better understand emotional suffering." theartstory,org. She painted Surrealist, Magic Realism and Identity Art. Frida painted her own body in a broken state to help us understand the way people behave on the outside.
Yayoi Kusama born 1929 Yayoi is a Conceptual, Pop, Minimalist, Feminist and Performance Art artist. As a child Yayoi had mental illness but used her illness to inspire her art. Today, even though she is a famous artist, she works from her home in a mental hospital. Her work now reflects a shift in Japanese culture from rigid to enjoying the funny and tacky.
Georgia O'Keeffe 1887-1986 Georgia was important in the start and development of American Modernism and is the first woman American Modernist. Her paintings of flowers, landscapes and close-ups have become part of the images of the American artistic landscape. (paraphrased from theartstory.org)
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 Pablo was a draftsman, painter, printmaker and sculptor. Throughout his life, his art was always changing. Some of his best know work is in the Cubism style, but in reality, most of his work used more than one style.
Faith Ringgold Born 1930 Faith uses her designs to give 'colored folk' and women a taste of the dream straight up because facts don't do that often, she decided to make it up (paraphrased from quote) Faith is a multi-media artist, social activist, author and art professor. Although she is well know for her quilts, she has done sculptures and paintings as well.
Vincent Van Gogh 1853-1890 Dutch draftsman and painter. Vincent's work was focused on the inner spirit of people and nature. His style was a combination of emotional expression and early Fauvism. He used gestural (free sweeping strokes) painting and color to express emotions.
German collage artist Ines Kouidis has always had a fascination with movie stars, rock- and pop stars, fashion icons, people, and their stories. Old newspapers, glossy magazines, posters, and paper of any kind are Ines’s colors, her source. Each portrait is a journey of discovery. The paper is like a witness. Even the smallest scrap of paper tells a story and like through a puzzle she creates a new appearance of the person. Art was Ines’s favorite subject in elementary school. Her very first exhibitions graced the walls of the school building. In the 90s, she improved her skills at the Free Academy of Arts in Berlin and worked with various artist groups. In 2000, she founded her studio in Berlin, where she still lives and works. “When I got in touch with using paper, I was overwhelmed by the power of each shred,” Ines says. “The idea grew to put the paper scraps into some old portraits I had drawn. The first collage I made was a portrait of my twins. This was in 2010.” Paper is like a witness. Each collage is a puzzle consisting of small scraps and individual stories. Combined they form an overall appearance, a unique staging, that might not be visible at first sight, but on closer inspection. The audience should discover the messages in the work, even if they need a magnifying glass. She researches the biography of the person, the individual life before she starts. She’s gotten to know her or him, watch their movies, read their lyrics, and listen to their music. Text paraphrased from: https://obsessedwithart.com/german-collage-artist-ines-kouidis/