Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh took the Impressionists' use of colour and tried to make it even more expressive and personal. His bold and visible brushstrokes and strong use of colour tried to convey his feelings about the scenes and images he was painting. More info...
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Pablo Picasso Picasso helped changed the course of modern art. Along with Georges Braque he invented Cubism by trying to show people and objects from several angles at once, but still in the same picture. He did this by breaking up the image into facets and allowing the subject, background and objects in the painting to merge together. More info... and a gallery of images...
Watch video survey of Picasso's paintings here ... |
Umberto Boccioni Boccioni and the Futurists made paintings and sculptures in the early years of the 20th century looking at the effect of new technologies on people and the world. They made work which tried to show how speed and machines were changing the way people lived. More info on Futurism...
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Francis Bacon Bacon used famous paintings by Velasquez, photographs and stills from films such as Battleship Potemkin as sources for his paintings. He puts his screaming and contorted figures in strange, unreal spaces. More info on his self portraits... Velazquez Popes... triptychs... 
View video at Youtube showing Bacon's nightmarish influences here ... (Warning: Contains disturbing imagery) |
Jenny Saville Jenny Saville was an instant success following leaving Glasgow School of Art with her paintings of female nudes. Her choice of view point often creates a feeling of distress. Her handling of fleshtones gives a sense of pain or disruption. More info...
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Lucien Freud Freud is one of Britain's most important figure and portrait painters. He uses a distinctive, fleshy painting technique which seems to make his nudes appear even more naked and to reveal more of his subjects' inner thoughts. Listen to 4 short interviews... one, two, three, four
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love 'em or hate 'em?
All artists look at the work of other artists and get ideas from them. Try and look at as many works of art as you can - you will find ones you like and ones you hate. Think about why you feel this way about them and look closely to see if you can get tips.
Art books and the internet are good places to start looking at art. It is much better to see the real paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints in galleries - you'll find the colours, brushstrokes and materials have much more impact in real life. Art you didn't like in reproduction sometimes looks amazing when you see it for real.
Check out images of portrait, natural environment, figure composition and still-life paintings you have been researching in class here...
