Frank Auerbach

Frank Auerbach is a German born painter, who is currently alive. He was born in Germany in 1939, but because he was Jewish, his parents sent him to England to escape the Nazi Party. His parents later died in concentration camps. In England, Auerbach's artistic talent was quickly recognized. He attended art school in London and later, the Royal College of Art. At 17 he met an actress, who would later become his model and lover. With her, he developed his intensive painting technique of reworking his paintings over hundreds of sittings. She was later quoted as describing this process as "quite an ordeal". His first solo exhibition was in 1956, which brought him much acclaim and recognition. Still a student, Auerbach took over a studio in Camden. However, the following two years he only produced about 10 drawings and no paintings. Auerbach explained his reason in an interview, "I somehow felt that what had been private had become public, I had put myself into a uniform: there I was, this chap who had done these thick paintings in earth colors." He later became a teacher at Camberwell School of arts, where he met his wife. Unfortunately, they would later break up, due to his continuing relationship with his first model and lover. Auerbach's paintings are classified as a category within Neo-Expressionism, figurative and landscape pieces. He has primarily painted the same three people for the majority of his life: his wife, a professional model, and his lover. His landscape pieces depict images close to his home, painting buildings and factories instead of traditional hills and farmland. His painting use an extremely thick layer of paint that is worked and reworked over hundreds of sittings. This technique gives each piece a sculptural effect. Today, Auerbach is regarded as a major retrospective artist. Following are a few of his pieces:

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock was an American Abstract Expressionist painter during the 20th century. He is most accredited for his contributions to the abstract expressionist movement. Pollock began painting after getting expelled from his high school. Later, he was expelled from art school and moved to New York in order to continue studying painting. Through out his life, Pollock was characterized as having a volatile personality. Today, some hypothesize that he had bipolar disorder. Pollock continued painting, developing a rhythmic style of painting. Upon getting married, Pollock also bought an old barn that he used as his studio. Here, Pollock developed his indistinguishable style of painting. Using liquid based paint, hardened brushes, and basting syringes, Pollock would nail a piece of unstretched canvas to the floor. This unconventional technique he claimed, made him feel more at ease and allowed him to become part of the painting, walking around the piece, surrounded by the piece, or painting the piece from each of its four corners. Pollock became engrossed in his paintings and while receiving fame and notoriety, he was characterized as being a reclusive artist. Although Pollock fought alcoholism his entire, he was eventually consumed by his habit. At the age of 45 Pollock died in an alcohol related driving  accident. Following are a few of Pollock's pieces:

Later in his career, Pollock stopped naming his painting. Instead he numbered them. He believed that by simple numbering each painting the viewer was left unaffected by a name and was left to see the picture for what it was, a pure painting. 

J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner was an English painter during the Romantic Period, who specialized in water color, print making and landscape painting. He is accredited for his influential perspective on landscape paintings, as well as being regarded as a predecessor to Impressionism. At a young age, Turner showed interest in painting, shortly after, he attended art school. Within his first year he showed tremendous talent, exhibiting his first piece at the Royal Academy of Arts School. His talent was recognized at a fairly young age, which allowed Turner to have financial stability and create his art freely. Turner employed his creativity, painting pieces that centered around natural catastrophes, storms, fires, ship wrecks, and heavy atmosphere (fog, rain, intense sunlight). In general, he was known for his mastery in capturing the volatile mood and raw intensity of nature. A myth stated that Turner had himself tied to the mast of a ship during a storm to experience the "drama" and elements of the storm. Later in his life Turner began to capture more atmosphere, at times, figures in his paintings are hard to distinguish. This phase of work most likely influenced Impressionism. Following are a few of Turners works:

Turner perfected color and light, which allowed him to uniquely capture the atmosphere. His style was profound, he influenced later artists to capture the atmosphere and raw intensity of nature and light. Turner's painting style later in his life is mirror of Impressionism.

Gustav Klimt

Gustave Klimt was an Austrian painter during the Vienna Secession Movement, a movement inspired by the idea of creating art that wasn't inspired by his historical influences or constrained by academic institutions. Aside from paint landscapes and female figures, Klimt also made sculptors, sketched, and painted murals. His pieces with female figures most usually had an erotic undertone. Born unto a gold engraver, Klimt lived in poverty as a child. In his teens Klimt received a scholarship to attend art school, where he studied architectural painting for 7 years. Upon graduating, Klimt took up mural painting with his brother and friend, beginning his professional career. Shortly after his brother and father died and Klimt was left to take on the financial responsibility of their families. Klimt would later become one of the founding members of the Vienna Secession, a movement inspired for unconventional artists. Klimt was commissioned to paint three pieces on the ceiling of the Great Hall in the University of Vienna. Upon painting, he was criticized for his erotic and sexual themes, his pieces were considered to be "pornographic". The three painting were later destroyed by SS in 1945. After the public outcry and his "radical" pieces Klimt would never accept another commission to paint publicly. Klimt's next artistic transformation was classified as the "golden phase". During this personal movement, Klimt used gold leaf in many of his pictures. These works were marked with positive public approval. Like many artists, much if Klimt's fame came posthumously. Following are a few of Klimt's pieces:

Although Klimt was one of the founders of the Vienna Secession movement, his pieces reflect a range of historical influences- Byzantine, Classical Greek, Egyptian, and Minoan. Through extracting inspirations from each of these influences, Klimt developed a unique and profound style, affecting future art and artists forever.

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was Norwegian born painter and print maker. He is attributed as being a predecessor to the expressionist art movement, using his painting as a medium of communication. Although made both prints and paintings, his most known piece was a painting, "The Scream". At first, Munch studied science (engineering and physics), but he eventually dropped out of school to pursue a career as a painter. Munch developed a unique style, in which he used color to convey emotion. Munch also used symbolism in his paintings, "The Frieze of life was" was series of paintings that Munch developed. The themed series consisted of painting which explored death, life, melancholy, love, and fear, "The Scream" was a piece from this series. Upon exhibiting his works, Munch received attention and financial support; however, Munch later fell into psychological problems and a drinking binge. In the end, was sent to a sanatorium for approximately one year. Entering WWII, Munch's work was classified as degenerate art, and was confiscated by the Nazi Regime. Munch lived with nearly his entire collection of artwork hidden in his home and secluded from the Nazi's. Following are a few of Munch's pieces:

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dali was a prominent artist from Spain during the 20th century. He is best known for his surrealist paintings, which depict bizarre and visually striking scenes. Along with his surrealist drawings and paintings, Dali also developed a repertoire in film, sculpture and photography. At a young age Dali was characterized as having an expansive imagination, which often led him to partake in grandiose and eccentric behaviors. Critics would later joke that his behavior attracted more attention than his art work at times. Regardless, Dali constructed works both in his youth and later in his life that reflected mastery. In his final year of art school Dali was expelled because he claimed that none of the faculty members were competent enough to asses him. Largely influenced by Picasso and Cubism, Dali continued to draw using a mix of classical and modernist techniques. Shortly after his departure from art school, Dali grew his notorious and flamboyant mustache. Dali received much attention for his works, which led to an invitation to speak at the London International Surrealist Exhibition. His speech was entitled "Authentic Paranoid Ghosts" and was accompanied with Dali dressed in a deep sea diving suit, lead by a pair of Russian wolf hounds. He claimed that the suit represented the overall idea of his speech, in which he was attempting dive deep into the subconscious of the mind. Unlike Vincent van Gogh, who lived in poverty in order to create his works of art, Dali had an affinity for money. He was coined with nickname "Avida Dollars" (eager for dollars).  Following are a few of his paintings and drawings:

Regardless of Dali's eccentric tendencies and grandiose behavior, he contributed an ingenious and creative repertoire to the world of art.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish drawer, painter, and sculptor during the 20th century. He was co-accredited for founding the Cubist movement, which spanned between the years of 1907-1910. Although much of his recognition is attributed to the co-founding of this movement, his early life can be broken into three other sources of inspiration and ingenuity. In 1900, Picasso moved to Paris were he befriended an anarchist and created a political magazine to touch upon poverty issues. Picasso drew cartoons for the short lived magazine. During this time period Picasso lived in a state of poverty, so many of his early and most realistic paintings were burned for warmth. Picasso eventually progressed into the "Blue Period", which consisted of painting that used blue and green to capture a somber emotion. After this period Picasso transformed into "Rose Period" were he used orange and pink colors to capture a more uplifting feel. Critiques argue that Picasso was then largely inspired by African Art, which accelerated him into the Cubist movement. Cubism describes the technique of breaking down an image into shapes. After breaking the image down, each shape is analyzed from different angles and then reassembled. Following are a few of Picasso's works:

Young Picasso

Blue Period

Rose Period

African-American Period

 

Cubism Period

Later Life

Throughout his life, Picasso transformed as an artist. He used his creativity and ingenuity to create an art movement, Cubism, which has helped to inspire modern artists. As Picasso said, "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth".