Salvidor Dali

Salvidor Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Cataonia, Spain. Dai is considered by many to be the leading figure in the Surrealist art movement of the 1930's*. Dali based his work on Dreams. His artwork has often been described as something you would only see in a dream-like setting. Dali was always considered to be very imaginative an had an affinity for doing things to draw attention to himself. He once showed up to an art exhibit with Dead Flys gued to his face. One of his most wel known features was his ong mustache.
Although Dali worked in Surrealisim, his paintings always had a quality of Realism in them. Dali aways encouraged the Free Play of Association in his work. That meant that anything goes in his work and often would. Dali would aways use his work to rebel against Standards in Society.

*One the final you will be asked to name 2 artist that are Surrealist artist

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840 in Paris, France. Monet is considerd by many to be the front-runner of the Impressionist movement*. The predominant element in not only Monet's paintings but al the Impressionist painters during this time period was color. Many of Monets portraits were landscapes and they had a strong emphasis on different color tones you would see in a landscape. Monet always called color his "Day-Long Obsession, Joy, and Torment". Monet always worked with Lighting and Atmospheric Conditions to bring out the color in his paintings. Weather would aways be a in Monet's work when he would study and view the scenery. ONe of Monet's most well known series was his Waterlillies series which he painted in 9 sections.

*On the final you will be asked to name 2 artist that are Impressionist.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. O'Keeffe first began her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1907 she received a scholarship to the Art Students League in New York*. O'Keeffe based her work on Recognizabe, Natural Forms. While in New York O'Keeffe began painting Abstract Flowers using watercolor. Her fower portraits are some of her most well known paintings. O'Keeffe would Isolate and Enlarge her flowers when she painted them. After 1928, O'Keefe moved out to New Mexico and began painting portraits of Bones. The concept behind her bone paintings was to bring a 2nd life to death. O'Keeffe received several awards during her lifetime and is strongly considered to be the best female artist of the modern era**.

*You will be asked on the final to name 4 artists to attended the Art Students League

**You will be asked to name 2 female artist on the final

M.C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher was born on June 17, 1898 in Leuwarden, The Netherlands. Escher first began his art career studying architecture, but later changed to Graphic Design. Escher incorporated Optical Illusion in his artwork. Mathematics was a huge part of Escher's work. Escher aways incorporated mathematic ideas into his sketches and lithographs. THe idea was to always transform the images of his work based on mathematical ideas. Escher's work was not discovered until after his death in 1972. Escher was a very private man and tended to keep to himself. He was not very social and if he did leave home he tended to go to his studio and work. Escher's artwork was not accepted by the art community at first when it was discovered due to the large amount of mathematicians that were intrigued by Escher's work.

Chuck Close

Chuck Close was born on July 5, 1940 in Monroe Washington. Close received his BA inVisual Arts from the University of Washington. CLose then attended graduate school at Yale University. After he finished schoo at Yale, he studied overseas in urope before returning to the U.S. Close is known for his large scale portraits of Heads. He woud use grids to create these large scae paintings. He would grid his canvas and also grid a picture then paint each square one at a time.
In 1988 Cose had a spinal artery collapse which left him parayzed from the neck down. Cose saw this circumstance as a way to change his painting habits he had become so accustomed too. His work became much more abstract, smale, and used more color.
Before his accident the minimum that you coud purchase a Chuck Close painting was $750,000.00 dollars.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was born on August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Warhol began his career as a commercial illustrator but later moved on to painting. The type of painting medium Warhol was known for working with was silk screen. This allowed Warhol to make several copies of his work for sale. It also allowed Warhol to repeat the images in his work as well. Warhol had a huge fascination with fame and celebrities. He is often himself considered to be a celebrity before an artist.
Warhol is considered to be the central figure of the Pop Artist movement of the 1960's*. The Pop Art movement was aimed to revolve around Popular American culture during the time period. Warhol's images for his work came from comic strips, advertisements, and billboards.
Aside from being a well known artist, Warhol was also an avant-garde filmmaker, a record producer, an author. Warhol is also known for his presence in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy aristocrats.
On February 22, 1987 Warhol died during complications from gallbladder surgery. It was later discovered the the hospital staff failed to adequately monitor his condition and overloaded him with fluids after his operation causing him to suffer from a fatal case of water intoxication. Warhol to this day is generally acknowledged as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

*On the final you will be asked to name 3 artists who are/were Pop Artist

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder was born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania on July 22, 1898. Calder was born into a family of artists so it was no big surprise to himself or his family when he became one too. Originally Calder studied Mechanical Engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. After doing various odds and ends jobs, Calder moved to New York City and enrolled at the Art Students League*.
Calder is known for creating two types of sculpture in his career. The first, and most well known, is the mobile. A mobile is a sculpture that is able to move on it's own. Traditionaly mobiles are suspended in the air. The second is the stabile, which is a self-supporting, static, abstract sculpture. Calder relied on "interconnected lines and positive shapes" in order to create his sculptures. His sculptures always gave reference to organic forms.
As a young artist Calder was very intrigued by the Circus. One of his first jobs while a student in New York was working for the National Police Gazette. One of his assignments was to sketch the circus acts for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. This influence inspired Calder to create Calder's Circus or Cirque Calder. Calder create this miniature curcus using wire, string, rubber, cloth, and other found objects.
Calder would travel from town to town while in Europe showing off his miniature circus. In his lifetime Calder completed nearly 3,000 sculptures.

*On the final you will be asked to name 4 artist who attended the Art Students League