pop culture
Thomas Bayrle is a contemporary German conceptual artist.
William Nelson Copley was an American painter, writer, gallerist, collector, patron, publisher and art entrepreneur. His works as an artist have been classified as late Surrealist and precursory to Pop Art.
John Wesley was an American painter, known for idiosyncratic figurative works of eros and humor, rendered in a precise, hard-edged, deadpan style. Wesley's art largely remained true to artistic premises that he established in the 1960s: a comic-strip style of flat shapes, delicate black outline, a limited matte palette of saturated colors, and elegant, pared-down compositions. His characteristic subjects included cavorting nymphs, nudes, infants and animals, pastoral and historical scenes, and 1950s comic strip characters in humorously blasphemous, ambiguous scenarios of forbidden desire, rage or despair.
Jeffrey Lynn Koons is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces. He lives and works in both New York City and his hometown of York, Pennsylvania. His works have sold for substantial sums, including at least two record auction prices for a work by a living artist: US$58.4 million for Balloon Dog (Orange) in 2013 and US$91.1 million for Rabbit in 2019.
Critics are sharply divided in their views of Koons. Some view his work as pioneering and of major art-historical importance. Others dismiss his work as kitsch, crass, and based on cynical self-merchandising. Koons has stated that there are no hidden meanings and critiques in his works.
Werner Berges is a contemporary German artist and graphic artist, a representative of Pop Art.
Typical of him are bright colours and sharp outlines, the use of spot painting and the strips that give his works the character of reproductions. The heroes of his paintings are pop and film stars, advertising types of women and photo-models, whose erotic poses and captivating glances Werner Berges emphasizes with a powerful combination of colours, points, stripes and collage. At the core of his drawing is a "graphic framework" that exists independently of the overlay of colours on the canvas. The artist tries to show himself to be completely independent and impartial about what he has created and only signs his work on the back of the canvas.
Zhang Xiaogang (Chinese: 张晓刚, pinyin Zhāng Xiǎogāng) is a famous contemporary Chinese surrealist painter and sculptor. He gained his literary youth during the Cultural Revolution in China, which has had a profound influence on his work. Among his best-known works are his series of paintings entitled Ancestry, Amnesia and Memory, and Tiananmen Square. Since 1997 his works have been exhibited in New York, Paris, Tokyo, Prague and other cities.
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a prominent 19th-century French painter, a representative of the academic school of painting. His paintings are notable for their impeccable composition and exquisite colour palette.
Jean-Léon Gérôme did not accept the work of the Impressionists, whom he considered to be the ignominy of French art. This has earned him a controversial reputation as a fierce supporter of academism and a persecutor of new movements.
Philip Guston, born Phillip Goldstein, was a Canadian American artist, muralist, printmaker and draftsman. He was one of the most important exponents of abstract expressionism. He is considered a forerunner of the New Figurative Painting.
Philip Gaston was a member of the New York School, which included many representatives of abstract expressionism, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning.
Philip Guston, born Phillip Goldstein, was a Canadian American artist, muralist, printmaker and draftsman. He was one of the most important exponents of abstract expressionism. He is considered a forerunner of the New Figurative Painting.
Philip Gaston was a member of the New York School, which included many representatives of abstract expressionism, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning.
William Dunlap was an American playwright, theater director, artist, and historian.
William Dunlap was a pioneer of the young country's theater. He directed two of New York City's earliest and most famous theaters, the John Street Theater and the Theater in the Park. During his lifetime he directed over sixty plays, most of which were adaptations or translations of French and German works. But among them were some original ones based on American themes with American characters.
In 1832 Dunlap published A History of the American Theater in two volumes. In 1825, Dunlap co-founded the National Academy of Design and taught at its school. Even today, Dunlap is best known for his encyclopedic three-volume History of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Design in the United States. The book was published in 1834 and is now an invaluable source of information about artists, collecting, and artistic endeavors in the country of that historical period.