08.11.1971–?
Research · Sources · Context
Artists
Biographies, facts and images with open sources and verified rights.
Found: 1775
28.11.1954–?
Marko Rupnik
The Slovenian priest, theologian and mosaic artist Marko Ivan Rupnik studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and from 1995 headed the Atelier of Spiritual Art at Centro Aletti. His workshop’s mosaics cover the walls of churches in Lourdes, Fátima, Washington and Madrid. From 2022 he was the subject of a Church investigation, and in 2023 he was expelled from the Jesuit order.25.03.1865–30.10.1953
Wu Zhihui
In 1903 Wu Zhihui published an article in the Shanghai newspaper Subao that insulted Empress Dowager Cixi, and fled through Hong Kong to London. He later became one of the first Chinese theorists of anarchism, chaired the commission that created the Zhuyin phonetic system, and in 1943 refused the post of head of state, giving three reasons.1900–2001
Chen Lifu
Chen Lifu (1900–2001) trained as a mining engineer and came into politics almost by accident: he went to Guangzhou to help Chiang Kai-shek “for a short time” and stayed. From 1938 to 1944 he was China’s minister of education, and with his brother he led the CC Clique, a faction of the Kuomintang. Later he lived in the United States, ran a chicken farm, worked in Taiwan from 1968 and lived to a hundred.15.11.1923–10.07.1995
Văn Cao
Văn Cao wrote his first song, “Buồn tàn thu”, at sixteen, and in 1944, on assignment from the Viet Minh, composed the “Army Marching Song”, later the national anthem of Vietnam. He also wrote poetry and prose and painted in oil, showing his pictures at Hanoi exhibitions in 1943 and 1944. After 1956 his songs were almost never performed in Vietnam for nearly thirty years.11.05.1902–27.07.1942
Karl Pärsimägi
Karl Pärsimägi (1902–1942) grew up on a farm in the Võru region, fought in the Estonian War of Independence at sixteen or seventeen, and then went against his father’s wishes to study painting in Tartu. In the late 1930s he worked in Paris, where he was nicknamed the “Estonian Matisse”. He refused to return home; in 1941 the Gestapo arrested him, and in 1942 he was executed at Auschwitz.0250–0300
Epigonus
Epigonus, son of Charios, was the chief among the court sculptors of the Attalid dynasty at Pergamum in the late third century BCE. His bronzes have not survived, but bases bearing his signature have been found on the acropolis of Pergamum. The Roman marble copy of the “Dying Gaul” in the Capitoline Museums is thought to go back to his work for the monument celebrating Attalus I’s victory over the Galatians.08.11.1895–13.07.1965
Photis Kontoglou
Photis Kontoglou grew up in Aivali beside a monastery, studied in Athens and Paris, and after fleeing Asia Minor in 1922 discovered Byzantine icon painting on Mount Athos. He painted frescoes in churches in Athens and the provinces, restored the murals at Mystras, wrote prose and translated. His pupils included Yannis Tsarouchis and Nikos Engonopoulos.15.02.1876–13.11.1965
Sophia Laskaridou
Sophia Laskaridou was the first woman admitted to the Athens School of Fine Arts: in 1901 she appealed for help to King George I himself, and she was accepted in 1903. She painted impressionist landscapes, studied in Munich and Paris, and for thirty-one years taught drawing at a school founded by her mother. In Kallithea, in her family’s house, there is now a municipal gallery named after her.26.02.1920–15.11.2015
Gisèle Prassinos
Gisèle Prassinos (1920–2015) began writing “automatic texts” at fourteen, and André Breton and Paul Éluard quickly took notice. Her first book, “The Arthritic Grasshopper”, appeared in 1935 with a preface by Éluard. Later she wrote novels, short stories and poems for children, translated Kazantzakis, drew, and made appliqués from coloured felt.22.03.1885–19.06.1908
Josip Račić
Josip Račić (1885–1908) learned lithography in Zagreb, then studied in Munich at Anton Ažbe's school and at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he joined a group of Croatian painters known as the Munich Circle. Almost everything that survives was painted in a few student years: portraits of 1907 and Paris watercolours of 1908. He was twenty-three when he died in Paris.30.06.1945–?
Sean Scully
Sean Scully was born in Dublin, grew up in a working-class part of South London and began as a typesetter in a printing shop. In 1975 he moved to New York and brought colour and the visible hand-made stroke back into abstract painting: his stripes and blocks, assembled into multi-panel canvases, are best known from the “Wall of Light” and “Catherine” series. He was twice nominated for the Turner Prize.1675–1739
Charles Jervas
Charles Jervas studied under Godfrey Kneller, spent more than ten years in Paris and Rome, and in London became the portraitist of Swift and Pope. In 1723 he took Kneller’s place at the court of George I and kept it under George II. His translation of “Don Quixote” appeared in 1742, three years after his death, and under the wrong surname.06.05.1968–27.10.2014
Shin Hae-chul
Shin Hae-chul won the MBC student song contest in 1988 with “To You”, a song he wrote himself, and in 1992 formed the rock band N.EX.T. His second solo album, “Myself” (1991), is called the first Korean album made with MIDI. For more than ten years he hosted late-night radio programmes, and listeners nicknamed him the “Demon Lord”.1964–present
Lee Bul
Lee Bul began in the late 1980s with performances in soft costumes, and in 1997 she showed sequin-covered fish at the Museum of Modern Art in New York: the work had to be removed because of its smell. Cyborg sculptures, the karaoke capsules of “Live Forever” and utopian architectural models followed. In 2024 four of her sculptures were shown on the façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.04.11.1901–30.04.1989
Yi Bangja
Princess Masako of Nashimoto was born into the Japanese imperial family, married the Korean crown prince Yi Un at eighteen, and after the war was left without title or citizenship. The family returned to Korea only in November 1963. There Yi Bangja founded schools and a home for disabled children and raised money for them by selling enamelwork, calligraphy and paintings.10.06.1938–20.11.2023
Rob Krier
Rob Krier (1938–2023) grew up in Luxembourg, studied architecture in Munich and in 1975 published the book “Urban Space in Theory and Practice”, which made him known beyond his own country. He taught at the Vienna University of Technology for twenty-two years, built housing districts in Berlin, Vienna, Potsdam and the Netherlands, and decorated them with his own bronze figures.12.12.1894–02.01.1941
Joseph Kutter
The Luxembourg painter Joseph Kutter studied in Strasbourg and Munich and worked in Bavaria until 1924, then returned home, where his pictures met a cold reception. Recognition came in Belgium and France: he exhibited in Paris, Brussels and Antwerp. For Luxembourg’s pavilion at the 1937 Paris exposition he painted two large views of towns.15.06.1869–21.04.1939
Rihards Zariņš
Rihards Zariņš (1869–1939) spent twenty years designing Russian banknotes and stamps at the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers in St Petersburg, then moved to Riga in 1919 and founded a school of graphic art there. He designed the 100- and 500-rouble credit notes, the first stamps of Soviet Russia, a design for the Latvian coat of arms and about 75 bookplates.1956–present
Lalla Essaydi
Lalla Essaydi was born in Marrakesh in 1956, studied in Paris and completed her art education as an adult, in Boston. Her photographs show women in white whose bodies and surrounding walls are covered with Arabic calligraphy written in henna. Her main series are “Converging Territories”, “Les Femmes du Maroc” and “Harem”. Her work is held in museums in the United States and Europe.04.05.1951–?
José Manuel Rodrigues
The photographer and artist José Manuel Rodrigues was born in Lisbon in 1951 and left Portugal in 1968 to avoid the colonial war. He spent twenty-four years in the Netherlands, where he studied photography and ran the Perspektief gallery, and has worked in Évora since 1993. In 1999 he received the Pessoa Prize for his whole body of work.09.08.1923–26.11.2006
Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos
In 1947 Mário Cesariny went to Paris, visited André Breton and came back to Lisbon to found a group of surrealists. He wrote poems and painted, devised the techniques of “soprofiguras” and “aquamoto”, and spent many years under police surveillance. His books of poetry were reissued in the 1980s, and recognition came late.23.02.1896–13.07.1960
Jozef Cíger-Hronský
Jozef Cíger-Hronský (1896–1960) wanted to be a painter in his youth, but at his parents’ insistence trained as a teacher. He wrote the novel “Jozef Mak” and the tales of the Brave Little Hare, edited the children’s magazine “Slniečko” from 1928 to 1945 and headed the Matica slovenská. From 1948 he lived in Argentina, where he worked as a draughtsman in a textile factory.28.04.1863–10.03.1947