Famous Artist #22

Georges Seurat

Born 1859 and Died 1891 (31 years old

French post-impressionist artist, known for his  chromoluminarism as well as pointillism.

He first studied art at École Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin. 1878 he moved towards the École des Beaux-Arts where he was taught by Henri Lehmann, where he learned conventional academic training, drawing from casts of antique sculpture and copying drawings by old masters.

Brest Military Academy, he returned to Paris where he shared a studio with his friend Aman-Jean.he worked at mastering the art of monochrome drawing.

His first show at the Salon, of 1883.

He also studied Eugène Delacroix carefully, making notes on his use of color.

1883 working on his first major painting—a large canvas titled Bathers at Asnières. 1884 began work on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which took 2 years.

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Famous Artist #21

Hans-Peter Feldmann

Born 1941 (79 years old)

German conceptual artist, approach to art-making is one of collecting, ordering and re-presenting.

He went to  University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz in Austria in the 60’s.

1968 production of his first small handmade books.

1979 decided to walk away from the art world, He destroyed and gave away the work he had in his possession.

till 1989 when he had a show agin.

His work is from repurposing found things like amateur snapshots, prints and many other found works.

He made groups of photos like women’s clothing and shoes, sea scapes. He also made small books of these images as well.

2010 work a Hugo Boss prize a recognizing significant achievement in contemporary art.

2011 solo exhibition at the Guggenheim.

Taking famous white statues and making them color.

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Famous Artist #20

Jasper Johns

Born 1930 and is 89 years old

American painter, sculptor and print maker whose in abstract expressionist, neo-dada and pop art style. He is known for his American related topics.

He did one and a half years at Univerity of South Carolina and then went to Parsons School of Design. He was stationed to Japan during the Korean war.

1954 went back to NY and met Rauschenberg and they both lived in the same building as Merce Cunningham and John Cage, They all explored the contemporary art scene and came up with ideas.

1958 gallerist Leo Castelli discovered his work in Rauschenberg’s studio. He had his first solo show at Leo’s gallery.

His most known work is the Flags after having a dream of the American flag. A lot of people would call it pop art but it can be considered Neo-Dadaist. He did a lot of work with flags, maps, targets, numbers and letters.

He makes his sculptures in wax first and then bronze and then keeps working on the surface. They were of every day objects for the most part.

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Famous Photographer #25

Edward S. Curtis

Born 1968 and Died 1952 (84 years old


American photographer who documented the American West and the Native Americans.

When he was 17 he worked under a photographer. During that time he bought a camera and also worked with Rasmus Rothi in a studio where he paid $150 for 50% of the studio in Washington state. He then left and worked with another photographer Thimas Guptill.

1895 he met and photographed Princess Angeline also known as the Chief Sealths daughter, This was his first portrait of a Native American.

1898 he had 3 photos selected for an exhibit by the National Photographic Society. He received a gold medal at the show.

He was appointed the Harriman Alaska Expedition photographer of 1899.

1906 JP Morgan gave him $75,000 ( todays money thats over 2 million) to produce a series of 1500 photos of Native Americans. The money would be paid out over 5 years and it was only for use of support not for writing, editing or producing the work. He hired help such as a writer to keep record or people and things, General assistance with logistics and fieldwork and an anthropologist that was employed by the Smithsonian Institute. Wax cylinder recordings of over 80 tripes which was over 10,000 and over 40,000 photographs were taken.

Around 1922 he moved to LA and opened a photo studio. He assisted Cecil B Demille with the film The 10 Commandments.

1924 he sold his rights to a motion picture “in the land of the head hunters” to the American Museum of Natural History. He was paid $1500 for print and the original camera negative which cost him over $20,000 to make.

Near the end of his life he had it hard, He was arrested for not paying alimony, he did not see his kids for over 13 years, He sold his rights to the JP Morgan project. The Morgan estate sold the rights and everything published and non-published works to  Charles E. Lauriat Company for $1000 plus a % of royalties.

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Famous Artist #19

John Baldessari

Born 1931 and Died 2020 (88 years old

American conceptual known for his dotted faces.He has also done printmaking, film, installation, sculpture, photography, painting.

He went and also taught art at San Diego State College.He taught at a variety of places for 30+ years. He became the head of the art program at UCSD in 1968. In 1970 he moved to Santa Monica where he was a teacher at CalArts where he met many artists.

1966 he was using photos and text on canvas. His early work was empty canvases derived from contemporary art theory statements.

One of his most famous works is in 1970 he decided to cremate his early work (1953-1966) some of the ashes from the paintings were put in cookies and an urn in the shape of a book.

He would also take mostly film stills out of context by adding text with the images. He would also take photography books from amateurs and use them as well. He would also use photos of him self in his work. Another one of the juxtaposing works would be like a glass and he would put “a glass is a glass”.

He would use him self in a lot of his work. He had a interest in language.

The dots on faces came from those adhesive stickers and putting them on faces. This series of work came to be in the mid80’s and on.

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