20 C artists - modern artists (some of em anyway!)

I am not going to try and put everybody I read about in here!  Just some of the more well known/interesting to me....

Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)
Spanish - came to Paris from Barcalona at the age of 19 at which point he had already mastered academic arts.  Said to be first modern artist with Demoiselles d'Avignon feted as first modern artwork.  Total departure from Western conventions - influenced by non-Western sculptures and visual arts e.g African, Aboriginal Australian etc.  Created Cubism with Braque.  Created first non traditional sculptures - using materials such as cardboard, found objects, bits of stuff stuck together.  Invented collage method with Braque.  Anarchic and experimental.  His thoughts on abstract art - "There is no such thing as abstract art, you must always start with something."

Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954)
Used simplified forms with flat areas of colour - part of the Fauve movement.  Called for art to express emotional responses with spontaneity and vividness.  Worked slowly and methodically making small adjustments until the relationships of colour and shape were what he felt was complete.  Observant and introvert watching his own reactions to what he was doing.

Kathe Kollwitz (1867 - 1945)
German female artist - painter, printmaker and sculptor.  'Might be called a pioneer expressionist but fiercely independent and outside any group'  Considered herself a realist - thought provoking and emphatic images.  One son killed in WW1 other in WW2 - worked on sculptures of grieving parents as a memorial to son killed in WW1 for many years, destroying first that she created.

Vassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944)
Russian - in Munich from 1896 - 1914 plus long stays in Paris and Italy (then off to US).  Highly educated gave up Uni professorship to be an artist.  He experienced music in colour - synaesthesia.  He approached abstraction cautiously and saw the possibilities when he didn't recognise one of his own works when he saw it upside down - felt it had become just colour and shape.

Franz Marc (1880 - 1916)
Killed in WW1 . Starting to approach Kandinsky's levels of abstraction prior to death.  Loved animals and his works dominated by this.  I really like Fighting Forms - his most abstract work.

Piet Mondrian (1872 - 1944)
Founder of De Stijl movement.  Knew the Cubists well but took more spiritual path.  Very abstract, based on natural objects e.g. trees.
 

Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968)
Younger brother of sculptor Duchamp Villon.  Ironic, witty, penetrating a born anarchist.  Had a dynamic futuristic vision of Cubism.  A Dadaist - his ready mades totally rejected accepted artistic rules.  Took objects and made into art just by the act of him having chosen them e.g urinal, bike wheel on a stand.

Edward Hopper (1882 - 1967) American painter - not associated with any movement.  Precisionist - close observation of his local down town neighbourhood.  Paintings of America post Depression.

Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)
Mexican.  She was welcomed into the Surrelaist movement by Breton when he saw her work but she remained defiently outside it.  Surrealism was still very sexist at the time - e.g. Breton wrote about the problem of women and got the Surrealists together to discuss female sexuality but without inviting any females.  She painted her own reality - loads of self portraits exploring her body, sexuality and cultural identity.  She lived in chronic ill health due to an accident when she was young. 

Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989)
Spanish - most well known of Surrealists.  Tried to capture the hallucinatory clarity of his dreams called them 'hand painted dream photographs'  Went beyond ideas of most Surrealists - suggesting paranoiac and active advance of the mind - said only difference between himself and a madman was he wasn't mad!  Freudian symbolism very evident in his work e.g. phallic noses, fetishistic hair.


Rene Magritte ( 1898 - 1967)
Belgian - used Freudian imagery.  Disruptive, challenged assumptions about art.  Gave his works striking titles with ambiguous of no connection to the subject.

Joan Miro (1893 - 1983)
Spanish.  Breton considered him to be 'the most surrealist of us all'  Developed ability to let his subconscious create semi abstract forms.  Started painting then let instinct take over to create image.

Artists of 18 and 19 C

Antoine Watteau (1684 - 1721) French - rococo style Outside the court circle, training as an arts craftsman.  Wide range of subjects including religious, portraits, military and mythological.  Most famous for Fetes Galantes - fanciful pics of well dressed men and women having fun out of doors.  e.g. The Dance.  Prints of his painting appeared all over Europe and he influenced loads of others inc Boucher, Gainsborough, Goya.

Francois Boucher (1703 - 1770) French rococo style Pics often set in or made for the boudoir.  Light pallette, pearly flesh tints.  Lots of bare bottoms.

Jean-Simeon Chardin (1699 - 1779) French moral style not fancy shmancy rococo.  Subdued colours, methodically painted.  Simple and wholesome pics of domestic servants - painter of the bourgeois.  Moral elements to his paintings.

Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732 - 1806) French late rococo.  Undertones of eroticism.  Famous for The Swing and four large works The Progress of Love commissioned by Louis 15th

William Hogarth (1697 - 1764) British.  Painted on a theme of secular morality.  E.G. satirical paintings of Marriage of convenience.  Said leads to unhappiness and immorality.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727 - 1788) British.  Started off as landscape painter but not v successful.  Moved on to portraits and became well renowned - became royal artist.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1768) British.  First president of Royal Academy. Obsessed by status.  Wanted to emulate grand Italian style but knew not a market for historical paintings so decided to elevate art of portrait painting.  Posed aristocratic men as Greek statue poses and women dressed and posed as if in mythological paintings.

Angelica Kauffman (1741 - 1807) Born in Switzerland, lived in Italy, settled in Britain in 1766.  Friend of Sir Joshua and one of only 2 female founding members of RA.  Comissioned to paint ceiling of RA lecture hall - Design, Composition, Colour and Genius/Invention.

Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825) French - revolutionary.  Devoted his art to new republic.  Commemorated martyrs of the revolution.

Francisco de Goya (1746 - 1828) Leading painter in Spain in late 18th C.  Employed by the royal court - specialised in religious pics and portraits.  Moved on to some political images - scenes of war (realistic and horrific)

Jean Augustine Dominique Ingres (1780 - 1867) French Pupil of David.  fleshy, erotic, sensual ladies.  Lots of odalisques (female slaves or concubines in a harem) Very precise painting - brightly coloured.  Hockney book shows evidence of his using optical devices in sketches.  Seems to have believed a woman's place is in a harem according to text book - event he clothed ones!  He was a big fan of Raphael - all about the line, big opponent of the colourist Delacroix. 

Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863) French Opponent of Ingres - more into colour.  Was favoured be the state and got more and more important commissions than Ingres did.  His style had a dynamic energy and rich colour.  He painted perhaps most famous visual image of the revolution in The 28th July:Liberty leading the People.

William Blake (1757 - 1827) English mystic, poet,painter.  Accepted Enlightenment ideas of tolerance, social justice, welcomed revolution.  He believed "the God given faculty of imagination should control the fallible human understanding." (text book p 652)  His writing and art need to be looked at together.

John Constable (1776 - 1837) bought up in East Anglia.  Painter of nature - what he saw around him.  Painted scenes not thought worthy of painting before but made them beautiful.

Joseph Mallard William Turner (1775 - 1851) British landscape artist.  Often misunderstood by contempories, quoted as saying"I did not paint it to be understood".  Natural observer - less reflective, more impulsive.  Started career with accurate watercolour landscapes and accepted as member of academy early in career but then moved on to oil and used methods not used by conservative critics.

Gustave Courbet (1819 - 1877) Rebellious and revolutionary.  Reacted against the frivolous art of the day - A realist.  Thought the everyday was just as important as other subjects.  Painted modern landscapes, modern people, modern things.  Un-idealised women in his nudes.  Rejected academic art.  Big influence on Monet and Impressionists

Eourdard Manet (1832 - 1883)  French Realist - often hailed as first modern artist.  Sincere - trying to be himself. Two sides rebellious and conformist, Socialist and respected member of Bourgeois. Influences by and studied masters and Japanese prints and tested their techniques in his work (found some to be incorrect)  Painted from life as much as poss.  

 

Gaopard Felix Tournachon known as Nadar (1820 - 1910) one of first famous photographers.  Adventurous with what the camera could do.  Began career as caricaturist.  Said technique of using camera can be learned in a day but can't teach how to grasp the personality of the sitter.

Oscar Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) one of most famous French impressionists.  Often painted many view of the same subject in different light conditions and diff times of the day.  E.g. haystacks, cathedrals, water lilies etc.  His pics may look flat but scientific theory of the time says we don't actually see in 3D but that our knowledge of what we are looking at makes it appear 3D

Berthe Morisot (1841 - 1895) French woman artist.  Married Manet's brother. Friend and mutual influence on Manet.  Exhibited regularly with the Impressionists from 1874 but from 1880s began to use more solidity of form and subjects with more personal significance. 

Pierre-August Renoir (1841 - 1919) French painter big player in Impressionist movement.  Celebrated beauty and especially female sensuality.  Continued working after developing arthritis in later life - used a moving roll of canvas to paint large pictures with his limited mobility,  needed an assistant to put the brush in his hand and sculpted by cooperating with a young artist who followed instructions to work the clay.  

Edgar-Hilaire Degas (1834 - 1917) French artist who exhibited with the impressionists but not a landscape painter and produced work mainly from studio.  Deeply involved in representation of urban life.  Did lots of drawings as well as paintings and also sculpted. (only one sculpture exhibited in lifetime)  famous for sculptures/drawings of ballerinas.  

 

Georges Seurat (1859 - 1891) Invented new technique of chromo-luminarism (AKA divisionism or pointillism). Pointillism - short brush strokes/dots uniformly separated, not directional.  Each a pure colour, not mixed in palette but fuse optically when viewed from correct distance.  Made on the spot sketches then produced large, slow, methodical works in the studio.  His bathers is massive for the time - 6 1/2 foot by 10 foot.  Combination of impressionism, naturalism with academic gravity and formality. 

 

Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903) Independently wealthy and gave up career as a stockbroker to paint.  Friends with van Gogh.  Left Europe and travelled to South Seas - Tahiti.  Themes of savage/civilised. Used synthetic methods of constructing a picture taking influences from Japanese prints, Rebrrandt paintings, Egyptian patterns and Classical friezes.  

 

Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853 - 1890) Dutch - didn't start painting til 28 years old.  Painted 800 pictures plus drawings and loads of letters to his brother Theo before committing suicide at age of 37.  In last 70 days of his life he completed 70 paintings!!!  No recognition in life time - the tortured artist.  

Edvard Munch (1863- 1944)  Norwegian symbolist studied in Paris.  Paintings and lithographs express states of mind - unbalanced, bordering on pathological.  The Scream comes from theme series of paintings on the sufferings of love - subjective images of emotions of attraction, union, disenchantment, despair.

Auguste Rodin (1840 - 1917) Sculpture who objected to being called a symbolist.  Worked from nature, very realistic.  But is argued that his sculptures are more than copies of naturalistic poses they portray a state of mind and feelings.  

Paul Cezanne (1839 - 1906) Independently wealthy - did not need to sell work. Exhibited with Impressionists but went beyond this saying need to reflect upon what is seen and painted too.  Left Paris and worked in isolation and alone in home town.  Did lots of still lifes - some critics say he has got things wrong and they are wonky but others believe this is on purpose to emphasis certain aspects. 

 

Mary Cassatt (1843 - 1926) American woman artist.  Lived most of adult life in France.  Had to study privately as woman not admitted to the school of fine arts.  Exhibited with impressionists.  Subject matter - lots of images of public and private lives of woman.  Emphasis on intimate bonds between mothers and children. 

Artists - up to and including 17C

I am going to produce my own list of artists with little bits about them to help reinforce my knowledge and to work out where people are chronologically and style wise.

Obviously not going to include everyone and everything read about but will try to put lots of major people in...

Giotti di Bondone (c1267 - 1337) Italian - First 'famous' artist.  One of first to sign work and be written about by name.  Lots of frescos.  

Jan Van Eyck - (c1395 - 1441) Dutch.  One of first to use oil painting techniques.  Very finely realistic paintings.

Hieronymus Bosch (Jeroen van Aken) (1450 - 1516) Dutch.  Very different from the other stuff about - imagination and made up stuff to illustrate religious themes.  Very dark and a bit scary!

 


Leonardo de Vinci (1452 - 1519) Italian.  Wanted to know everything.  Lack of formal education led to trying it all out for himself.  Drawings for loads of inventions that weren't invented until 100s of years later.  Most famous for Last Supper and Mona Lisa.  Loads of unfinished paintings, writing, unpublished books etc.  

Albecht Durer (1471 - 1528) German - Hugely prolific.  Loads of self portraits.  Travelled to Italy and used techniques.  Religious, follower of Lutherian protestant reformation.  Became more religious as got older.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475 - 1564)  Italian. Sculpter first and foremost.  Said to be moody, disagreeable and proud.  Loved to paint and sculpt young male nudes - put them in eveything controversially - lots were covered up but now restored back to nakedness!  Sistine chapel - didn't really want to do it and had no experience of fresco but did it all almost single-handedly.  He wanted to make a real distinction between what he did and craft "not a painter or a sculptor who sets up shop, NOT a manual labourer"

Raphael - (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino) (1483 - 1520) Italian. Lots of Mary and childs.  Nice character, agreeable.  Died young.  First artist to be buried in Pantheon.  Myth in own lifetime.

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (1490 - 1576) Venetian. At the time used different compostions - groundbreaking.  Did large religious peices but also smaller for private collectors.  Lots of erotic curvy ladies.  Really developed oil on canvas - as in Venice couldn't work on frescos very well due to damp climate. 

El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) (1541 - 1614) Born in Crete but moved to Italy in 20s.  Markedly different style from others at the time.  Looks very 'modern' 

Sofonisba Anguissola (1552 - 1614)
Eldest daughter of 7 - 6 girls and 1 boy. Noble family.  Encouraged to perfect talents and continue painting.  Pretty successful.  Informally trained by Michelangelo.  Couldn't train as much as men as not able to study anotomy or life drawing.  Didn't marry til 38.

Lavinia Fontana (1552 - 1614)
Daughter of an artist continued family business.  Started doing small religious paintings on copper.  Married and had 11 children.  Main breadwinner - husband helped her out in business.

Arremisia Gentileschi (1563 1652)

Female artist.  Followed style of Carrivagio - specialised in scenes with dominant women - so0me pretty gory.

Carravagio (Michelangelo Merisi) (1571 - 1610

Bohemian, rebellious.  Naturalism - style of unidealised boldly illuminated people on dark mysterious backgrounds.  Portrayed holy figures as real people e.g. Virgin Mary as a neighbourhood house wife. 

Annibale Carraci (1560 - 1609)

together with brother and uncle had style of idealised naturalism!  Drew and drew and drew and planned and drafted.  First cariacture - invented the word

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1589 - 1680)

primarily a sculptor but like Michelangelo also a painter, poet, architect, philosopher.  Different personality than Michelangelo as witty, extrovert, freindly, family man, good natured, untroubled.  Present day Rome has more of his stuff in than any other individual.  Properly fancy pants twiddly widdly Baroque

Claude Lorraine (1600 - 1682)

French but lived in Rome.  Classical landscapes.  Made it so landscape painting a high art in Western society.  His landscape paintings copied for actual landscape design.

Diego de Velazquez (1599 - 1660)

Spanish.  In 1623 went to court of King Phillip IV and then produced pretty much just for him.  most famous pic the maids of honor (las meninas).  Unusual as scale of formal full length portraits but casual snapshot of a moment. 

Peter Paul Rubens  (1577-1640) active and high ranking diplomat as well as painter.  Most highly esteemed artist in Europe during own lifetime.  Very rich.  

Had "new and very personal ideal of female beauty, full-breasted, broad-waisted, more womanly than girly." Rubenesque (Page 573) His studio was likened to a factory for its production line qualities - huge amounts of work coming out of it, lots mostly painted by his assistants with final touches added by him. Did some religious stuff for Jesuit churches.  Did over 30 massive canvases for Maria de Medici mother of Louis XIV.  Sweeping compositions.  

 

Anthony Van Dyck (1599 - 1641) Assistant and follower of Rubens.  Became very famous as portrait painter for King Charles first - painted loads of pics of him looking very noble and kingly.  

Frans Hals (c1581/5 - 1666) thought of as founder of Dutch school of painting.  Specialized in portraits.  Loose style, quick brushstrokes, flicks of paint.  Fell out of favor in his 60s but defiantly continued with own style instead of changing to suit people.  Ended life very poor.

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669) Very responsive to works of other artists, mostly Renaissance Italians but also v unusually for the time looked at what non Western artists were up to.  Prosperity declined in later years. More self-portraits than any one ever before.  Did lots of etchings too.  Thought of himself as a religious painter - interpretations of sacred subjects.  

Jan Van Goyen (1596 - 1656) Prolific landscape artists - over 1200 paintings survive.  Dutch landscapes have lots and lots of sky - about 2/3 sky.  Bit like Norfolk paintings to show all our sky against our flatness.

Rachel Ruysch (1664 - 1750) First woman to achieve an international reputation as a major artist.  Mostly still lifes of flowers.  Father was a botanist.  Continued painting throughout her life right up til she died at age of 80.  Married a painter and had 10 children.

Judith Lester (1609-1660) Female artist.  Mostly genre and portrait paintings.  Married another artist but didn't produce much after her children came along.  Historians think probably a student of Frans Hals but also documentation shows that she sued him for stealing away one of her apprentices.