Man Ray was born on August 27, 1890, in Philadelphia, and moved to New York with his family seven years later. From 1909 to 1912 he studied at the Francisco Social Center Academy of Art, New York while frequently visiting Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery “291”. He attended classes at the Ferrer Center in 1912 for drawing…
Ask anyone to name a great modern architect and a few names will come up repeatedly. One of these people is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. As one of the brilliant architects of the twentieth century, he made huge strides in the field of architecture and opened many doors for future designers. Never meaning to…
Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrenceville, Massachusetts on August 25, 1918. He was the first born child of Samuel and Jennie Bernstein, who lived in Boston, but had gone to Lawrenceville to visit some relatives. Bernstein’s parents had little knowledge of, or interest in classical music. The only records Leonard remembers hearing on his family…
Famous American silent movie actor was Douglas Fairbanks was born in Denver, Colorado on May 23, 1889. His father Charles Ulman escaped his responsibility of fatherhood by separating with his wife and leaving his two sons Douglas and Robert with their mother. However, his sons had some happy memories about their father. Their mother Ella…
Kathe Kollwitz was born in 1867 and died in 1945. She was a powerful, intense artist who produced works of great tenderness. Her two artworks ‘Woman with dead child’ and ‘Unemployment’ revel the suffering of humanity and social working class. Kathe Kollwitz was greatly influenced by the hardships of humanity, her main subjects being body…
Many of you know her as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. But there was much more trouble behind Judy Garland than just a pair of ruby slippers. At the young and innocent age of 17, she starred in her 7th film, “The Wizard of Oz”. The same year she had her hand and shoe…
Juan Gris (born Jose Victoriano Gonzalez) was brought up in Madrid 1887; in 1906 he fled to France to avoid military conscription, where he joined the circle of avant-garde poets and artists (which included Braque). His first works were post-impressionist still life but he soon eagerly followed the path towards abstraction right behind Picasso and…
Jean Basquiat was brought into this world in 1960 and grew up in New York. His mother was Afro-Puerto Rican, his father was Haitian, and both were middle-class citizens. He didn’t try to keep his background from the public and did not exhibit shame or the need to reverse negative stereotypes about African-Americans, but rather…
Jan Van Eyck was a Flemish painter born 1390 in Maaseik, Belgium and died 1441 in Bruges, Belgium. Eyck was associated with the Renaissance, Flemish School (Ars Nova) movement. Famous paintings and artwork of this artist include Arnolfini et sa femme and Vierge au chancelier Rolin. Jan van Eyck is considered to be a founder…
Jackson Pollock was a revolutionary painter and took his methods to new heights so that he could work more directly with the canvas to show pure emotion within his art work. In 1938, Jackson Pollock went to see a psychoanalysis to help him get over a drinking problem, but he couldn’t express himself well enough…
Gustave Caillebotte was the first impressionist that painted realistic, photo paintings. Caillebotte was born in 1848, he was a French painter that was really influenced by impressionism. Mostly all of Caillebotte’s work was, oil on canvas style. He painted Paris Street; Rainy Day in 1877. Caillebotte was one of the less known impressionist painter during…
During the early twentieth century, women suffered from discrimination and inferiority. An exception to this case was Georgia O’Keeffe, who captured the attention of the world with her paintings. She was the only female of her generation to be accepted as a professional artist. Art critic Henry McBride noted, “Mona Lisa got but one portrait…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in August 27, 1770, in southwest Germany, in a town called Stuttgart. His father was a civil servant in the department of finance. He had one sister and a brother. Throughout growing up and studying, he was known as “the old man” because of his strict study habits. However,…
Garry Winogrand was born in New York City in 1928; he became interested in photography in the late 1940’s when he was in the United States Air Force. When he was done his term of duty, he went on to City College in New York City to study painting. A year later he went to…
Georges Bizet, who is best known for his opera, Carmen, has remained somewhat of a mystery as far as his musical education, social life, and personal life. He is not like so many other composers and musicians of the Romantic Period who led a highly publicized life like Hector Berlioz, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, or Johannes…
“The artist’s vision is more important than tradition.” Francisco de Goya, a Spanish artist, believed that the most important thing was to draw what he saw rather than following the traditional style. Unlike any other artists of his time, Goya did not tend to imitate Renaissance arts targeting classical subject matters. Instead, he tried to…
Most scholars call him the greatest American writer of the 20th century. Some even go as far as saying that he was the greatest American writer ever. What do we really know about him? We know that he was a philandering, macho drunk with a temper, whose new kind of direct prose set him apart…
Elvis Presley was the first real rock and roll star. A white southerner who singing blues laced with country. Presley brought together music from both sides of the color line. Presley performed this music with a “natural hip swiveling sexuality” that made him a teen idol and a role model for generations of “cool” rebels.…
Maurits Cornelis Escher is widely acknowledged for his extensive use of distorted geometrical shapes, tessellations and spatial illusions creating a unique art form that artists and mathematicians admired. Through these works of art, he contributed to the world of math without having extensive training or high academic achievements, but his work was still exhibitions of…
Elia Kazan, his Turkish name “Kazanjoglous,” was born in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey to Greek parents. At the age of four he moved with his family to the United States and settled in New York City. Elia Kazan attended formal education at Williams College in Massachusetts; he later studied at prestigious Yale University’s Drama school.…