Famous Artists a to z

Banksy is the pseudonym of a "guerrilla" street artist known for his controversial, and often politically themed, stenciled pieces.

William Blake was a 19th century writer and artist who is regarded as a seminal figure of the Romantic Age. His writings have influenced countless writers and artists through the ages, and he has been deemed both a major poet and an original thinker.

Leigh Bowery was an Australian fashion designer, club promoter and performance artist, known as the proprietor of the hedonistic London nightclub Taboo.

Christian Brando was the eldest son of Hollywood legend Marlon Brando. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing his half-sister’s boyfriend.

André Breton was a French writer, editor and critic who was a key figure in the Dada and Surrealist art movements.

Judy Chicago is an American artist, educator and writer, and a leading figure in feminist art. She received critical acclaim in the 1970s for her art project "The Dinner Party."

Le Corbusier was a Swiss-born French architect who belonged to the first generation of the so-called International school of architecture.

American illustrator and artist Robert Crumb is best known for his distinctive style and satirical tone and creating the cartoon character Fritz the Cat.

Post-Impressionist French painter Paul Cézanne is best known for his incredibly varied painting style which greatly affected 20th century abstract art.

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter and a genius in many realms of science. He is best known for two paintings: the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper."

Gala Dalí is best known as the wife, business manager and muse of Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.

Tracey Emin is a British artist who emerged in the 1980s, during the "Young British Artists" movement. She is noted for her provocative and controversial pieces, including "Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995," "My Bed" and "The Last Thing I Said To You is Don't Leave Me Here."

American cartoonist Rube Goldberg was best known for his work satirizing America's obsession with technology. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his editorial cartoon "Peace Today."

Known for his photo collages and paintings of Los Angeles swimming pools, David Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.

The geometric paintings and sculptures of abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly are influenced by the avant-garde movement, including work by Henri Matisse.

Russian painter, typographer and designer El Lissitzky was a major contributor to the modern Constructivist movement.

Dora Maar was a French artist and poet best known as Pablo Picasso's lover and muse.

Aristide Maillol was a French artist, mostly known as a sculptor of monumental statues of female nudes.

Robert Mapplethorpe, recognized as a giant of late 20th century photography, is best known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits.

Marcel Marceau was best known for his work as a mime artist in France.

Henri Matisse was a revolutionary and influential artist of the early 20th century, best known for the expressive color and form of his Fauvist style.

Recording artist and fashion designer Malcolm McLaren came to fame as manager of the Sex Pistols. Later, he recorded several albums of his own material.

Graphic designer Clarence Mok sold his design firm Studio Archetype to Sapient Corp. in 1998, marrying their technical prowess to his graphic design.

Louise Nevelson was an iconoclast artist known for her monochromatic abstract expressionist sculptures. She rose to be an internationally known artist and worked into her 80s.

Yoko Ono is a multimedia artist who became known worldwide in the 1960s when she married Beatles front man John Lennon.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Known for her fashion design and tumultuous personal life, actress, writer and artist Gloria Vanderbilt became an iconic figure in American popular culture during the 20th century.

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