20th century Art History and Sitemap

Twentieth-century art - and what it became as modern art - began with modernism in the late nineteenth century.

Nineteenth-century movements of Post-Impressionism Les Nabis, Art Nouveau and Symbolism led to the first twentieth-century art movements of Fauvism in France and Die Brücke ("The Bridge") in Germany.

Fauvism in Paris introduced heightened non-representational colour into figurative painting.

Die Brücke strove for emotional Expressionism.

Francis De Saint-Genies | Surrealist / Symbolist painter

Francis De Lassus Saint-Genies (1925-2018) was a French artist born in Brittany at Val André.

After his studies at Julian's Academy in Paris, he dedicates himself for a long time to the portrait.

In search of the secret character of his models, he has to reach a very personal expression where the outer world, often inversed, encloses the reflection of the individual mystery.

Joseph Todorovitch, 1978 | Figurative painter

American painter Joseph Michael Todorovitch was born in San Gabriel, California.

This artist was inspired as a child by his grandmother, and has enjoyed the creative process as long as he can remember.

Realizing art is life, he aggressively began to study drawing as a high school student, and then attended Cal State University Fullerton where he received his bachelor degree in fine art.

Shahrzad Hazrati, 1957 | Figurative painter

Shahrzad Hazrati was born in Ghorveh, Iran.
Student of interior architecture at the Polytechnic University in Tehran 1975-77;
Student at fine arts Department in the Tehran University 1978-79;
Student at fine arts Department in the Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul 1988-90;
Member of the Turku Artist Association 1993 -
Artist of the Year 2002;
Member of Finish Artist Association.

Jack Vettriano | Fallen angels

Jack Vettriano (1951-2025) was born in Fife, Scotland in 1951.

After leaving school at 15, he followed his father down the mine, working as an apprentice engineer.

He later moved on to white-collar jobs in management services. Vettriano took up painting as a hobby in the 1970s when a girlfriend bought him a set of watercolours for his birthday and from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.

He learned his craft by copying Old Masters, Impressionists, Surrealists and a plethora of Scottish artists.

Elio Ferrara, 1945 | Genre painter

Elio Ferrara was born in Naples, Italy. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts and then worked as a set designer at the Teatro San Carlo and the Teatro San Ferdinando with Eduardo De Filippo, then worked with the RAI and other broadcasters.

Meanwhile he continues his work as a painter who exercises since 1960 by joining the current of the new figuration, to address later his attention to the traditions and customs of his city, describing it with figurative language, customs.

His production is known to the world, he has a good market in America, Germany, France, Brazil; is also present in many public and private collections, embassies, art galleries, collections of famous artists, politicians and well-known professionals.

Arsen Kurbanov / Арсен Курбанов, 1969

Aрсен Курбанов was born in Mahachkala, Dagestan republic of Dagestan, in the USSR. His mother and father were artists as is his brother.

In 1988 he completed coursework at the Jamal Dagestan Art College, receiving a red diploma - a symbol of scholastic excellence. Kurbanov was immediately accepted into the Repin Institute in St. Petersburg, where he studied with the late Neprintsov, graduating in 1994.

After graduating in 1994, Kurbanov exhibited his final artwork to the graduation committee and was accepted into the "Union of Russian Artists".

Evita Medina | Symbolist / Surrealist painter

Evita Medina is an artist residing in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

From a young age she felt the need to paint as the best way to express what she could not count on with words.

There is therefore not a moment, a starting point in her life in which she decided to take the brushes, somehow they were always there, traveling the same way and being the reason for her existence.

Fausto Zonaro | Orientalist / Genre painter

Fausto Zonaro🎨 (18 September 1854 - 19 July 1929) was an Italian painter🎨, best known for his Realist style paintings of life and history of the Ottoman Empire.

Born in Padua, Fausto Zonaro graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.

He exhibited his work in Italy in the late 1880s before moving to Paris.

In 1891, at his wife's request, Zonaro moved from Venice to Istanbul and settled in a house in Taksim, on the northern bank of the Golden Horn.

He quickly adapted to the Turkish way of life, speaking Turkish, wearing a fez and attending the Selamlðk.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Zonaro see:

• Fausto Zonaro | Orientalist painter🎨