Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Napoleon Bonaparte



Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Alexander Pope



Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) is generally regarded as the greatest English poet of the eighteenth century, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Henry Miller



Henry Valentine Miller (26 December 1891 – 7 June 1980) was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of the real-life Henry Miller and yet is also fictional. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and Black Spring.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Isaac Bashevis Singer



Isaac Bashevis Singer (November 21, 1904 – July 24, 1991) was a Nobel Prize-winning Polish-born American author and one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Jackson Pollock



Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. In October 1945 he married the artist Lee Krasner. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist, but had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of his life. He died tragically at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related, single-car crash.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Hans Hoffman



Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter. He was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880 the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann. In 1932 he immigrated to the United States, where he resided until the end of his life.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Ansel Adams



Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West and primarily Yosemite National Park.

For his images, he developed the zone system, a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs. Although his large-format view cameras were difficult to use because of their size, weight, setup time, and film cost, their high resolution ensured sharpness in his images.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Henri Matisse



Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. As a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but principally as a painter, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the 20th century. Although he was initially labeled as a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s, he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Isaac Bashevis Singer



Isaac Bashevis Singer (November 21, 1904 – July 24, 1991) was a Nobel Prize-winning Polish-born American author and one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Scott Adams



Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several business commentaries, social satires and experimental philosophy books.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Igor Stravinsky



Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian-born composer, considered by many to be the most influential composer of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Christo



Christo (born as Christo Vladimirov Javacheff) and Jeanne-Claude (born as Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon) are a married couple who create environmental installation art. Their works include the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris, the 24-mile-long curtain called Running Fence in Marin and Sonoma counties in California, and most recently The Gates in New York City's Central Park.

Although their work is visually impressive and often controversial as a result of its scale, the artists have repeatedly denied that their projects contain any deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic. The purpose of their art, they contend, is simply to make the world a "more beautiful place" or to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes.

Note: The image is a woodcut print by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, an important forerunner of expressionistic art.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

George Sand



Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant (1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pseudonym George Sand, was a French novelist and feminist.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Arne Jacobsen



Arne Emil Jacobsen (11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and designer, exemplar of the 'Danish Modern' style. In addition to his architectural work he created a number of highly original chairs and other furniture. He received several international distinctions and medals.

About the project

This is a project whereby I will try to design and post a poster a day based on a quote by a famous artist. The poster will be created in hi-resolution and uploaded on the site for anyone to downloand and print.