Henri Matisse

by Lindsey M.








Henri Matisse, the law clerk turned artist, was born in 1869 in northern France. He began taking art classes in Paris at the age of 23 when gave up on being a lawyer. Henri found his own style which consisted of bright colors and thick brush strokes when he turned 36. His painting The Joy of Life and the whole Barnes collection was covered up for no one to see fro 72 years. This collection showed in 1993. Henri was finally recognized as an artist internationally after World War I. He left Paris in 1917 and moved to the South of France and lived there until his death. In 1918 a Matisse-and-Picasso exhibition opened to a certain extent of the role of the two paintors in contemporary art. Two Russians purchased 50 of his paintings by 1923. When Henri was 56, he won the French Legion of Honor award. In 1941he had an abdominal cancer surgery which enabled him to paint. Because of his disability he started to do another form of art. He cut out pieces of paper in the same daring compositions known of his paintings. He did all of his work in bed or in chairs. He died at the age of 85, in his home in the South of France, on November 3, 1954 known as a highly reputable artist. His last paper design was for the rose window at Union Chruch of Pocantico Hills, New York.

Deborah Butterfield

by Annie W.

Deborah began making horses about 30 years ago using them as self-portraits to express feminists and anti-war concerns. She was encouraged by her mentor Manual Neri, who had to lock into the female form she preferred to use. Over-time, her gender and/or politics she had tried to put in her work started to matter less and less. Finally, she had formed a passion for the horse itself. When she is away from her Montana Ranch, she imagines the horses in precise perspective because she has a very clear memory. In Deborah's work, the awe and respect she has for these animals clearly shines through in her sculptures. Along with the awe and respect, each personality and their "role" they play in the lives of people. It is as if she has this sort of ex-ray vision of the horse yet you can still see the sleek bodies they poses. The positive and negative spaces lay off each other like the strokes of paint on a painting. And the horse she builds and the space she does it in is her canvas. As she creates the image in her mind, she is able to get all the characteristics that is necessary. As you can see she has become completely obsessed with the horses she has in her mind and the ones in her mind.

Wassily Kandinsky

by Michael H.

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter, printmaker and art theorist. One of the most famous 20th-century artists, he is credited with painting the first modern abstract works. Kandinsky was born in Moscow but spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow and chose law and economics. Although quite successful in his profession, he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat. He started painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30. In 1896 he settled in Munich and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He went back to Moscow in 1918 after the Russian Revolution. Kandinsky's work was shown in galleries across Europe, and while there was never anything in the paintings themselves that would be shocking to the public, the sheer abstract nature of his work would stir controversy. One could say Kandinsky gave birth to abstract art. Being in conflict with official theories on art, he returned to Germany in 1921. There he was a teacher at the Bauhaus from 1922 until it was closed by the Nazis in 1933. At that time he moved to France where he lived the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939. He died at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944. That is the life story of Wassily Kandinsky

Christo and Jean Claude

by Ben W.

The artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born Gemini-like at the same hour on June 13,1935, he in Gabrovo, Bulgaria as Christo Javacheff of an industrialist family and she in Casablanca, Morocco as Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon of a French Military family. Christo studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia and escaped from Prague to the west in early 1957. They met in Paris in 1958 when Christo was commissioned to do a portrait of Jeanne-Claude’s mother. Christo and Jeanne-Claude believe that labels are very important, but for bottles of wine, not for artists, and they usually don’t like to put a label on their art. The decision to use only the name “Christo” was made deliberately when they were young because it is difficult for one artist to get established and they wanted to put all the chances on their side.

Claes Oldenburg

by Lexi P.


Claes Oldenburg, a sculpter originaly from Sweden, is know to make large models of everyday items, such as the clothespin, or spoon. He is also known for having made over 250 prints, and being part of the Pop Art Movement. He told a reporter that, "You could say making a print is like preparing a pizza.You start with a white sheet of paper--that is, the 'dough'--to which you add layers of images: cheese, mushrooms, sausage bits, tomato paste, immersed in overprinted inks. In the end, the 'pizza' is 'editioned'--that is, sliced and distributed for consumption." He was born the son of a diplomat in Stockholm, Sweden on January the 28th of 1929, and had to move to many places in his childhood including New York, Norway, and Chicago. During his further exploration of the art of sculpting, he worked as an apprentice reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. One of his first creations was a large tube of lipstick, that would deflate, unless someone pumped air into it. He later redesigned this sculpture, Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks, out of aluminum, making it more sturdy. If you were a pedestrian walking down the Thompson Street in the winter of 1960, you might have been drawn to the basement of the Judson Church House by a sign and a mural. This basemnt had been changed into a studio and place to live for local artists. If you, being a pedestrian and all, were curious enough to go down the stairs, you would find an exibition named Ray Gun. In the first room you set your eyes upon, you would see Claes Oldenburg's work called, The Street. The Street consited of cardboard, black paint, newspaper, and trash. He called this piece of art a 3D mural, and if you looked hard enough, could see 9 humans and 4 cars. During the time he made The Street and other pieces of artwork, he worked as an assistant in the Cooper Union Museum's library. He later on, made more 3D murals, consisting of hamburgers, clothing, and pastries. After working on a few projects, including a 41 foot tall sculpture, with Coosje van Bruggen, they were married. Later in his life, many of Claes ideas for large pieces of art were thought of as impossible, but most were made possible and excepted in public places. Over all, Claes Oldenburg was a very successful artist and a great man.

Yves Tanguy

by Michael P.


Yves Tanguy was a surrealist painter. He was born in Paris, France on January 5, 1900. He was the son of a retired navy captain. His parents were both of Breton origin. After his father's death in 1908, his mother moved back to her native Locronan, Finistère. He ended up spending much of his youth living with various relatives. In 1918, Yves Tanguy briefly joined the merchant navy before being drafted into the Army, where he met Jacques Prévert. At the end of his military service in 1922, he returned to Paris, where he worked many peculiar jobs. By chance, he stumbled upon a painting by Giorgio de Chirico. He was so deeply impressed he resolved to become a painter himself in spite of his complete lack of training. Tanguy had a habit of being completely absorbed by the current painting he was working on. This way of creating artwork might have came about due to his very small studio which could only comfortably have enough room for one wet piece. Through his friend Jacques Prévert, in around 1924 Tanguy was introduced into the circle of surrealist artists around André Breton. Tanguy quickly began to develop his own unique painting style, giving his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1927, and marrying his first wife later that same year. In January 1955, Tanguy suffered a fatal stroke at Woodbury, Connecticut.

Louise Nevelson

by Lindy S.

Louise Nevelson was a Jewish sculptor who had been born in Kiev, Russia on September 23, 1899. When her father left for America, she was so devastated that she did not talk for six whole months. When she was a child, she had started creating sculptures from the leftover timbers from her father’s work. As a child she also decided she was going to be a sculpture artist. She and her family soon moved to America with the money sent by her father. They lived in Rockland, Maine. They were one of very few Jewish families in the area. Her father soon became a very successful builder, realtor, lumberyard owner, so they moved into a beautiful house, and had soon liked new life in America. She was married after high school, but she and her husband split up after a couple of years. She was in Munich, Germany for six months until the Nazis closed her art school. Her only son, Myron, later became a famous sculptor. Louise had a public trademark of a showy style of clothes, and by fake eyelashes she used to wear. Once she had begun to sell many more of her sculptures, she was going to donate a sculpture to a museum in Paris, until the French government let out a terrorist. This reminded her of the Holocaust, so she did not end up donating her sculpture. The sculpture had been a memorial to the Jews that were killed during the Holocaust. There is a memorial garden that was made for her in New York. That was where she ended up living, and where she died on April 17, 1988.