Famous Artists a to z

Sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi's collage work combining surrealism with elements of popular culture and technology led him to be credited as the inventor of Pop Art.

Gordon Parks was an African-American photographer, filmmaker and author, best known for his work published in LIFE magazine and for directing the hit movie Shaft.

Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator who was the highest-paid commercial artist in the United States by the 1920s.

Charles Willson Peale was an American painter best known as one of the most prolific artists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He painted more than a dozen heroic portraits of George Washington.

French daredevil Philippe Petit is best known for his 1974 high-wire walk between the twin towers in New York City.

Spanish expatriate Pablo Picasso was one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, as well as the co-creator of Cubism.

Horace Pippin was a self-taught, African-American painter whose art documented slavery and his experiences in World War I.

Camille Pissarro was a French landscape artist best known for his influence on Impressionist and Postimpressionist painting.

Famous 20th century artist Jackson Pollock revolutionized the world of modern art with his unique abstract painting techniques.

French Romantic painter Pierre-Paul Prud'hon is best known for his soft forms and gentle light in his allegorical paintings and portraits.

Howard Pyle was an American illustrator, author and teacher who produced dozens of classic illustrated volumes, including fables, fairy tales and adventure stories.

Anthony Quinn was an Oscar-winning Mexican-American actor known for his roles in Viva Zapata!, Lust for Life and Zorba the Greek.

Sir Henry Raeburn was a Scottish painter known for his full-scale portraiture from the late 18th to early 19th century.

A leading figure of Italian High Renaissance classicism, Raphael is best known for his "Madonnas," including the Sistine Madonna, and for his large figure compositions in the Palace of the Vatican in Rome.

American artist Robert Rauschenberg is best known for paving the way for pop art of the 1960's with fellow artist Jasper Johns.

Man Ray was primarily known for his photography, which spanned both the Dada and Surrealism movements.

British artist Jamie Reid designed artwork for the Sex Pistols album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, which includes the song "Anarchy in the U.K." His artistic style helped define the look of the English punk rock scene of the late 1970s.

A leading Impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was one of the most famous artists of the early twentieth century.

Faith Ringgold is an American artist and author who became famous for innovative, quilted narrations like Tar Beach that communicate her political beliefs.

Painter and muralist Diego Rivera sought to make art that reflected the lives of the working class and native peoples of Mexico.

French sculptor Auguste Rodin is known for creating several iconic works, including "The Age of Bronze," "The Thinker," "The Kiss" and "The Burghers of Calais."

Known for his fast and easy "wet-on-wet" painting technique, Bob Ross reached millions of art lovers with his popular television program The Joy of Painting.

Artist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth became the king of California custom car culture in the 1950s and '60s with his Beatnik Bandit model and characters like Rat Fink.

Henri Rousseau was a self-taught French painter who was ridiculed during his lifetime but was later given the title of artistic genius.

Théodore Rousseau was a French painter known for his landscapes and unruly depictions of nature. He was a member of the Barbizon School of artists in France.

Rubens was a Flemish Baroque painter who is best known for his religious and mythological compositions, with an emphasis on sensuality.

Betye Saar is best known for her art work that critiques American racism toward blacks.

Sebastião Salgado is an award-winning photographer known for his arresting documentation of communities across the world.

John Singer Sargent was an Italian-born American painter whose portraits of the wealthy and privileged provide an enduring image of Edwardian-age society.

Augusta Savage is remembered as an artist, activist, and arts educator, serving as an inspiration to the many that she taught, helped, and encouraged.

Austrian Expressionist painter Egon Schiele (1890–1918) was part of the Viennese Sezession movement with works like "The Self Seer" (1911) and "Embrace" (1917).

Artist, screenwriter and director Julian Schnabel was a leading figure of the art world in the 1980s, and has proven to be talented in many creative fields.

Charles Schulz was a cartoonist best known for creating the one of the world's most successful comic strips, Peanuts.

Maurice Sendak is a Caldecott award-winning children's book author and illustrator best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are.

Throughout his career, cartoonist and writer Dr. Seuss published 60 children's books, including The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. 

Photographer Sam Shaw is remembered for his iconic images of such stars as Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando. He also produced several films, including 1961's Paris Blues.

American photographer Cindy Sherman is known for her elaborately "disguised" self-portraits that focus on social role-playing and sexual stereotypes.

Shel Silverstein was a poet and musician known for children’s books such as The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends.

David Alfaro Siqueiros was a Mexican painter and muralist whose work reflected his Marxist ideology.

Alfred Sisley was a French impressionist painter, primarily of landscapes, and was a friend of Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Henry Ossawa Tanner was an American painter who frequently depicted biblical scenes and is best known for the paintings "Nicodemus Visiting Jesus," "The Banjo Lesson" and "The Thankful Poor." He was the first African-American painter to gain international fame.

Jessie Tarbox was a photographer and photojournalist. She was the first woman to be hired as a staff photographer on a U.S. newspaper.

Son of Tiffany & Co. founder Charles Tiffany, Louis Tiffany was an internationally renowned glass maker and a leader of the Art Nouveau movement.

J.M.W. Turner was a British landscape painter of the 18th and 19th centuries whose work is known for its luminous almost abstract quality.

James Van Der Zee was a renowned, Harlem-based photographer known for his posed, storied pictures capturing African-American citizenry and celebrity.

One of the earliest Flemish oil painters, artist and portraitist Jan van Eyck, painted the "Adoration of the Lamb," the altarpiece for the Church of St. Bavon.

Vincent van Gogh is considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, although he remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life.

Diego Velázquez was a renowned Spanish painter and portraitist, and an icon of Western art.

Dutch Golden-Age artist Jan Vermeer is best known for his Delft paintings including "Little Street," "View of Delft" and his late "pearl pictures" like "The Concert."

Kara Walker is an African-American artist who rose to fame for her use of large paper silhouettes to explore social issues surrounding gender, race and black history.

Illustrator Andy Warhol was one of the most prolific and popular artists of his time, using both avant-garde and highly commercial sensibilities.

French painter Antoine Watteau's work embraced the artifice of the theatre, particularly the commedia dell'arte and ballet. His works typified the Rococo style.

Bill Watterson is best known for his comic strip creation "Calvin and Hobbes," about a boy and his imaginary friend.

Weegee was a photographer noted for his gritty yet compassionate images of the aftermath of New York street crimes and disasters.

Tom Wesselmann was a 20th century American painter associated with the Pop Art movement.

Edward Weston's photography captured organic forms and texture. Portraits of his family taken in the 1940s are some of his best work.

John White was a British artist, explorer, cartographer and governor of the English settlement on Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina, U.S.).

Richard Wilson is one of Britain's earliest landscape painters and is best known for the picturesque effects and serenity in his pieces.