Jens Ferdinand Willumsen | Symbolist / Expressionist painter

Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863-1958) was a Danish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, architect and photographer.

He became associated with the movements of Symbolism and Expressionism.

J. F. Willumsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He was the son of Hans Willumsen and Ane Kirstine.

Egon Schiele | The genius who died at 28

Painter and precociously talented draftsman; accepted into Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts in 1906 at age sixteen.

From 1907 was mentored by Gustav Klimt, who invited him to exhibit at monumental 1909 Kunstschau exhibition.

From 1910, works characterized by virtuosic use of line in penetrating portraits with expressive, contorted, sexually explicit bodies.

Wassily Kandinsky | Post-Impressionism period, 1896-1909

One of the pioneers of Abstraction in Western art, Wassily Kandinsky's (1866-1944) early work was influenced by Art Nouveau, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles.

The number of his existing paintings increased at the beginning of the 20th century; much remains of the landscapes and towns he painted, using broad swaths of colour and recognisable forms.

Such works reveal Kandinsky’s strong interest in the tradition of capturing light and the life of cities evident in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as well as his love of vibrant and expressive color.

Giannis Koutrikas, 1954 | Expressionist painter

Greek painter Γιάννης Κούτρικας is an artist of extraordinary technical potentials, giving emphasis in the monumental form and the themes of ethology and religion.

Koutrikas was born in Kalamata, in the Peloponnese.

The artist was awarded from his high-school in the USA a scholarship to attend Art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago.

He later returned to Greece where he was accepted at the University of Arts in Athens (1982-1987).

He was awarded the state sponsored scholarship (I.KY) for Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in France.

Gianni Gueggia, 1956 | Expressionist painter

Italian painter Gianni Gueggia was born in Trenzano, Brescia, Italy.

He began exhibiting his works since 1973.

He has participated in numerous national and international awards and received many favors from the critics.

Robert De Niro, Sr | Abstract Expressionist painter

Robert Henry De Niro, better known as Robert De Niro, Sr. (May 3, 1922 - May 3, 1993) was an American abstract expressionist painter and the father of actor Robert De Niro.

Robert De Niro, Sr., was born in Syracuse, New York, to an Italian American father, Henry Martin De Niro (1897–1976), whose parents emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, Molise, and an Irish American mother, Helen M. (née O'Reilly; 1899–1999).

He was the eldest of three children; he and siblings John and Joan were raised in Syracuse, New York.

Henry Asencio, 1972 | Abstract expressionism painter

American painter Henry Asencio has emerged as one of the most intriguing young artists working today.

His work blends the classical ideals of figurative painting with a unique style.

Merging introspection and visual spectacle, Asencio's personal investigations of the figure, spirituality and abstraction possess the power to transform todays ideals of elegance and sensuality.

Shawn Mackey, 1984 | Abstract expressionist painter

Shawn Mackey was born in Edmonton, Canada.

Growing up in the long cold winters of Canada, he had ample time to draw and let his creativity flourish.

Mackey’s parents, who were both teachers, would bring home boxes of scrap photocopy paper for him to draw on.

He would cover hundreds of sheets with pictures of everything from Italian sports cars, to the elaborate floor plans of luxury mansions, to a variety of superheroes and cartoon characters pulled from his own imagination.

Egon Schiele | Quotes / Poems

• "Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal".

• "Bodies have their own light which they consume to live: they burn, they are not lit from the outside".

• "I must see new things and investigate them. I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds".

• "At present, I am mainly observing the physical motion of mountains, water, trees and flowers. One is everywhere reminded of similar movements in the human body, of similar impulses of joy and suffering in plants..."

• "I was in love with everything- I wanted to look with love at the angry people so that their eyes would be forced to respond; and I wanted to bring gifts to the envious and tell them that I am worthless.".

Bernard Buffet | Expressionist painter

Bernard Buffet (1928-1999) was a French painter of Expressionism and a member of the anti-abstract art group L'homme Témoin (the Witness-Man).

Bernard Buffet represents a typical demonstration of the divorce between the French and Contemporary Art.

Popular artist by excellence, Bernard Buffet loved by the public is however detested by elitists whom hold against him his prolixity: 8,000 paintings, water colors,drawings, lithographs and engravings.

Heinrich Campendonk | Expressionist painter

Heinrich Mathias Ernst Campendonk (1889-1957) was a painter and graphic designer born in Germany who became a naturalized Dutch citizen.

Campendonk was born in Krefeld, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire.

He was the son of a textile merchant, and served a textile apprenticeship until 1905.

From 1905 to 1909, he received artistic education from Johan Thorn Prikker at the Handwerker- und Kunstgewerbeschule, a progressive school for Arts and Crafts.

Eléonore Sieulle | Expressionist painter

Eléonore Sieulle: "I focus on expressiveness and emotional feeling and I rely on the momentum of my hand.

Through the speed of execution, I try to establish the immediacy of a movement and make apparent the primitive power of instinct.

Through drawing, I want to draw what is invisible to the naked eye. Drawing is the right to tumult.

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff | Expressionist painter

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker.

He was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke.

Life and work

Schmidt-Rottluff was born in Rottluff, nowadays a district of Chemnitz, on 1 December 1884.

He attended the humanistische gymnasium (classics-oriented secondary school) in Chemnitz, where he befriended Erich Heckel.

He enrolled in architecture at the Sächsische Technische Hochschule in Dresden in 1905, following in Heckel's footsteps, but gave up after one term.

Jack Butler Yeats RHA | Expressionist painter

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 - 28 March 1957) was an Irish artist and Olympic medalist. W. B. Yeats was his brother.

Butler's early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906.

His early pictures are simple lyrical depictions of landscapes and figures, predominantly from the west of Ireland - especially of his boyhood home of Sligo.

Yeats's work contains elements of Romanticism.

He later would adopt the style of Expressionism.

Elga Sesemann | Expressionist painter

Elga Sesemann (March 28, 1922 - January 21, 2007) was a Finnish post-war neo-romantic painter.

She was an expressionist whose themes often included melancholy, depression, anxiety and loneliness.

Sesemann was born in Viipuri (Vyborg) on the Karelian Isthmus.

Sesemann's family is of German origin and grew up speaking German and Russian.

Ellen Thesleff | Expressionist painter

Ellen Thesleff (5 October 1869 - 12 January 1954) was an expressionist Finnish painter, regarded as one of the leading Finnish modernist painters.

Thesleff was born in Helsinki, the eldest daughter of five siblings and her father was an amateur painter.

She took private lessons and then, in 1887, studied for two years at the Finnish Art Society Drawing School (now known as the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts) with Gunnar Berndtson.

Anselm Kiefer, 1945 | Neo-expressionist painter / sculptor

"Art is difficult, it is not entertainment!" - Anselm Kiefer, German painter and sculptor.

Biography from: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anselm Kiefer was born in Donaueschingen, Baden-Württembürg, Germany, and raised near the east bank of the Rhine in the region of the Black Forest.

Kiefer was named after the nineteenth-century classical painter Anselm Feuerbach and planned from childhood to become an artist.

After studies at the university in Freiburg and the academy in Karlsruhe, he studied informally in the early 1970s with the artist Joseph Beuys on occasional visits to Düsseldorf.

Anselm Kiefer | Die fruchtbare Halbmond / La Mezzaluna fertile | Sammlung Essl Museum

Lovis Corinth | Impressionist / Expressionist painter

Lovis Corinth (1858-1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism.

Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Secession group, later succeeding Max Liebermann as the group's president.

His early work was naturalistic in approach.

Corinth was initially antagonistic towards the expressionist movement, but after a stroke in 1911 his style loosened and took on many expressionistic qualities.

His use of color became more vibrant, and he created portraits and landscapes of extraordinary vitality and power.

Corinth's subject matter also included nudes and biblical scenes.

Alice Neel | Abstract Expressionist painter

From: MoMa - The Museum of Modern Art

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Alice Neel's (1900-1984) portraits hinge on trust. A figurative painter throughout the 20th century, she created work known for its deliberate distortion, bold outlines, expressive brushwork, and imaginative use of color.

Neel gained her subjects’ trust by inviting them into her home and telling them stories.

"She lulled you", recounted artist and friend Benny Andrews, whom she painted along with his wife, the photographer Mary Ellen Andrews, in 1972.

Her sitters knew that while her paintings may not always be flattering, she would paint what lay beneath the surface and she would not judge.

Gabriele Münter | Expressionist painter

Gabriele Münter (19 February 1877 – 19 May 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century.

She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding member of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter.

Early life

Münter was born to upper middle-class parents in Berlin on 19 February 1877.

Her family supported her desires to become an artist. Her father died in 1886. She began to draw as a child.

As she was growing up, she had a private tutor. In 1897, at the age of twenty, Münter received artistic training in the Düsseldorf studio of artist Ernst Bosch and later at the Damenschule (Women's School) with artist Willy Spatz.

By the time she was 21 years old, both of her parents had died and she was living at home with no occupation.

In 1898, she decided to take a trip to America with her sister to visit extended family. They stayed in America for more than two years, mainly in the states of Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri; six sketchbooks survive from Münter's period in America, depicting images of people, plants and landscapes.