Alberto Giacometti

By Jack M.

Alberto Giacometti was born October 10th, 1901 in Switzerland, near the Italian border in Val Bregaglia. He was a key player in the Existentialist movement. His art is very hard to classify and many people argued about whether it was Formalist or Existentialist. He would often destroy or set-aside models and return to them years later.

Alberto associated with many other artist and even writers. In 1927 his brother Diego joined him as his assistant. Diego worked as Alberto’s assistant until he died. Alberto was drawn to surrealist movement. Alberto displayed the first surrealist sculpture later in1927. During World War 2 he lived safely in Geneva where he met Annette Arm. Later he moved to Paris where he and Annette got married. Interestingly Alberto’s most productive period follow his marriage. Annette would help him with his feminine sculptures and would sit still for hours until he got what he wanted. His brother would do the same thing for his masculine sculptures. In 1962, he was awarded the grand prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale, and the award brought with it worldwide fame.

He later died in Switerland at the age of 65 in Switzerland.

Alison Saar

by Katie M.






Alison Saar is an African-American woman, who was born
in 1956 in California. Her mother, Betye Saar, has
European, Native American, and African-American
ancestors; her father, Richard Saar, had a German and
Scottish origin. Fragments of lore, myth, legend and
practices of these cultural backgrounds are rooted
into her artwork. In high school, Alison helped her
father with his restoration work. Doing this, she
studied artifacts from different cultures, such as:
Chinese frescoes (painting done rapidly with
watercolor on wet plaster), Egyptian mummies, and
Pre-Columbian and African art. She took more art
history courses that she did studio classes; she
graduated with a thesis on Southern African-American
Folk Art, from Otis-Parsons Institute.

Vincent van Gogh

by Ashley C.


"The Starry Night" (oil paints on canvas. 1889)

Vincent van Gogh, being born on March 30.1853, lived in Groot-Zundest, was the son of a pastor and brought up religious. He was Dutch. Vincent was known to be highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. He was known to have found color as the chief symbol of expression. Vincent had had two unhappy romances during the time of 1960 and 1880 an had a few unsuccessful jobs working as a bookstore clerk, art salesman, and also as a preacher in Borinage. Also between 1860 & 1880, is when he became a artist. In 1886, he went to Paris, where his brother Théo was. The brothers first shared Theo's apartment Rue Laval on Montmartre. He studied with other artists such as Cormon, and Monet, he also began to lighten his dark palette and started to paint light short brush strokes of the Impressionists. Nervous temper made him a very difficult companion. Painting all day combined with night-long discussions undermined his health.

On Christmas Eve 1888, physically and emotionally exhausted, van Gogh snapped under the strain; after arguing with Gauguin, he cut off the lower half of his own left ear. Vincent was pretty much crazy, some saw him as lunatic. Don't get me wrong, he was a GREAT artist, but a little on the weirdo side! He was sent to an Asylum for a few years! He produced all of his work, some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings, during the last ten years of his life. Most of his best-known work was produced in the final two years of his life, and in the two months before his death he painted 90 pictures. He is considered the greatest Dutch painter since Rembrandt.

Maya Lin

by Diana B.S.


Maya Lin is one of the most respected artists of our time. She is well known for her design at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. "I saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial not as an object placed into the earth but as a cut in the earth that has then polished, like a geode. Interest in the land and concern about how we are polluting the air and water of the planet are what make me want to travel back in geologic time-to witness the shaping of the earth before man." Lin said in one of her interviews. In her senior year at Yale University, Lin was chosen to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She made a black V shaped wall for about 58,000 names to be inscribed on it. The Veterans were outraged. They wanted a traditional white marble wall. The memorial eventually put one at the entrance of the park. While at Yale Lin was asked to take an architecture or sculpture class but not both. Lin could not pick one or the other so she chose architecture and secretly went to other sculpture classes. Lin was also chosen to construct a memorial for 9/11 at Ground Zero. "I thought about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar. The idea occurred to me there on the site. Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it. As if you cut open the rock and polished it." Lin said while building the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Lin now lives in New York with her husband Daniel Wolf, and their two young children. Maya Lin was born in 1959 in Athens, Ohio.