Famous Visual Artists
Guide to Famous Painters, Sculptors & Contemporary Artists in the History of Western Art
Arts Information - List of Famous Artists - List of Famous Sculptors

Artistic Technique

The traditional model for visual art remains the Renaissance: the amazing rebirth of European culture which emerged in Florence, Rome and Venice, during the fifteenth century. Painting, sculpture and, to a lesser extent printmaking, were the principal art forms revered by critics, historians and collectors, with narrative pictures called 'history painting' being placed at the top of the hierarchy of genres. The finest painters were those who demonstrated their mastery of figure drawing and figure painting, usually in the form of oil painting, while the best sculptors were judged on their ability to capture emotion, movement and nobility in their bronze or stone sculpture. Subsequent European movements in the history of art, like Baroque (famous artists being, eg. Rubens, Rembrandt), Neo-Classicism (Ingres, JL David), Romanticism (Delacroix), Realism (Courbet, Millet), Impressionism (Monet, Degas), and even Expressionism (Kandinsky, Munch), while emphasizing different subject matter, styles of art, and painting genres, nevertheless maintained the traditional respect for creative excellence, as demonstrated by the finished artwork.

Even Cubism (Picasso, Braque), the seminal 1900s abstract movement, which promoted a non-representational type of pictorial art and opened the door to a number of modern schools of painting, demanded high quality painting technique. Since the 1960s, however, Post-modernist art trends have downgraded the notion of artistic technique in favour of the 'creative message'. New types of art, such as Conceptual, Assemblage, Installation and Performance art (Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst), are redefining the artist as an 'organizer' of messages and images, rather than as a creative craftsman. Famous artists of the future are therefore likely to include a greater number of 'organizers' of video and computer art, with more global appeal. How the advocates of the Renaissance or academic art will respond to this, is unclear.

Artistic Fashion Dictates Fame

Whether a painter or sculptor achieves fame, depends entirely upon issues of fashion and taste. Jan Vermeer (1632-75), now regarded as the finest Dutch genre-painter of all time, went unrecognized during his lifetime. Not until the late 19th century was his greatness 'recognized'. Similarly, the Dutch Post-Impressionist genius Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90) produced 900 paintings during his short 10-year career but sold nothing. Now his paintings (eg. Portrait of Dr Gachet) sell for $75 million each. Indeed, the history of art is littered with great but unrecognized artists who died in poverty. If the Italian Renaissance ever falls out of fashion, artists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo - now considered the three geniuses of Western Art - will fade into obscurity.

Famous Visual Artists of the 19th/20th Century

Art critics and auctioneers tend to classify painters into three categories: Old Masters (1300-1830); 19th Century Artists; and Twentieth Century Artists. Here is a short list exemplifying the great artists from the last two categories, listed according to their principal style of art. For more artists, see Fine Art Painting and Drawing, and Calligraphy.

19th Century Painters

Romantics
William Blake (1757-1827);
The outstanding English engraver, etcher, watercolourist and illustrator;
JMW Turner (1775-1851);
The greatest English watercolourist and landscape painter.
Eugene Delacroix (1798-63);
Leader of the French Romantic art movement.

Realists
Gustave Courbet (1819-77);
Founder of French Realism art movement.
Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75);
Founder of French Barbizon School of landscape painting.

Impressionists
Claude Monet (1840-1926);
Founder of plein-air French Impressionism.
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903);
Outstanding cityscape and landscape painter.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919);
Finest exponent of 'dappled light' in Impressionist movement.
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899);
Like Monet, a pure Impressionist specializing in landscapes.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917);
The greatest figure painter of French Impressionism.
Edouard Manet (1832-83);
Father of modern painting in France.

Post-Impressionists
Georges Seurat (1859-1891);
Founder of the colour theory of Pointillism (form of Divisionism)
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906);
Leading figure in Post-Impressionism and precursor of Cubism.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890);
Founder of modern Expressionism.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901);
Genre painter, printmaker, draftsman and illustrator.
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903);
Outstanding colourist, influenced Synthetism, Cloisonism and Primitivism.

Fauvists
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Founder of Fauvism and leading colourist in modern art.

20th Century Painters

Expressionists
Wassily Kandinsky (1844-1944);
Russian painter and art theorist, founder of Der Blaue Reiter art movement.
Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
Norwegian Expressionist painter, famous for The Scream.
Paul Klee (1879-1940);
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938);
Member of the Die-Brucke art group, a precursor of German Expressionism
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)
Most powerful exponent of 20th century Expressionism in Paris.
Otto Dix (1891-1969);
Alexei von Jawlensky (1864-1941);
Egon Schiele (1890-1918);
Short-lived but outrageously talented figure-painter.
Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980);
Max Beckmann (1884-1950);
Member of New Objectivity group (Neue Sachlichkeit). Powerful self-portraits.

Cubists
Georges Braque (1882-1963);
Co-founder of Analytical and Synthetic Cubism.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973);
Co-founder of Cubism, leading expressionist-style artist of 20th century.
Juan Gris (1887-1927);
Leading theorist of Cubism. Third member of Cubist movement.
Fernand Léger (1881-1955);

Avant-Garde
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968);
Father of Object Art, from which Conceptual Art emerged.

Surrealists
Salvador Dali (1904-89);
Spanish artist and the most famous exponent of Surrealism.
Rene Magritte (1898-1967);

Abstract Artists
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944);
Member of De Stijl movement, noted for geometric abstract paintings.

Abstract Expressionists
Jackson Pollock (1912-56);
Founder of 'action-painting', variant of Abstract Expressionism in USA.
Willem De Kooning (1904-97);
One of the most influential figures in American Abstract Expressionism.
Mark Rothko (1903-70)
Founder of Colour Field abstract painting.

Pop Artists
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97);
Andy Warhol (1928-87);
Founder of Pop-Art movement, noted for screenprints & popular imagery.

Contemporary
Fernando Botero.
Columbian artist, leading South American painter noted for obese figures.

Famous Sculptors

Here are a few supreme exponents of sculpture. All sculpted in a range of materials, including wood, bronze, marble and other types of stone.

Donatello (1386-1466);
Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531);
Michelangelo (1475-1564);
Giambologna (1529-1608);
Giovanni Bernini (1598-1680)
Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828);
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917);
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973);
Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957);
Henry Moore (1898-1986).

Other Famous Modern Visual Artists

Printmaking

Among great modern exponents of fine art prints include the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis MC Escher (1898-1972), as well as Willem de Kooning (1904-97) and Robert Rauschenberg (b.1925), who all infused the medium with great vitality. For details, see Fine Art Printmaking and Graphic Art.

Stained Glass Art

Sadly, the creators of the stained glass masterpieces in Chartres and other Gothic cathedrals remain anonymous, however their skills were kept alive in Ireland by such Irish artists as Harry Clarke (1889-1931), Sarah Purser (1848-43) and Evie Hone (1894-1955). For details, see: Stained Glass Art.

Animation

Among the great twentieth century animators are J. Stuart Blackton, George McManus, Max Fleischer, and Walt Disney. For details, see: Animation Art.

Assemblage, Installation, Conceptual and Performance Art

These contemporary art forms are difficult to assess. Leading figures include: Allan Kaprow (b.1927), and Joseph Beuys (1921-86) the former Professor of Monumental Sculpture at the Dusseldorf Academy, whose dedication earned him a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum (New York). For details of other celebrated contemporary artists involved in modern conceptual art, see: Assemblage, Collage and Installation; Performance and Happenings.

Fine Art Photgraphy

Foremost among exponents of photographic art is the American Ansel Adams, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, noted for his black-and-white photographs of the American West. For details, see: Photographic Art.

Video Art

The leading video artist of the twentieth century is probably Bill Viola (b.1951), known for his technical and creative mastery of the genre. For details, see: Video Art.

Ceramics

Two of the foremost ceramicists are the English artist Bernard Howell Leach (1887-1979), and the Frenchman Camille Le Tallec (1908-91). For details, see: Ceramic Art.

Land/Environmental Art

The leading artist of the earthworks movement was the tragically shortlived Robert Smithson (1938-73), noted for his earth sculpture Spiral Jetty (1970), situated by the Great Salt Lake in Utah. For details, see: Land Art.

• For information about classical and contemporary art in Ireland, see: Visual Arts Cork: Guide to Irish Art.

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