Imagine holding the end of a live wire in each hand. Now imagine one end is shaped like a turtle and the other end is, let's say, Pavarotti's beard. Now bring them together. Feel that electricity? That's called art -- or at least it's a metaphor for the Surrealist art of Max Ernst. Ernst explain

Dada, Hallucinatory, Polychromatic, Psychedelic, Saturated, Surreal, Surrealist art, Surrealist literature, Tense

If Postmodernism raises low art to the level of high art, it also allows folks who control the media to cash in on subcultural trends: Rap, grunge, vogueing, whatever. Andy Warhol made a joke of it, but Keith Haring turned the tables. When this Graffiti artist lifted his brush to the walls of subways

Cartoonish, Graffitists and cartoonists, Homoerotic, In-your-face, Kinetic, Playful, Political, Pop, Profane, Queer art

Perhaps the most famous of all outsider artists, Joseph Cornell is best known for the shadow box collages he assembled in the basement of the Queens home he shared with his mother and brother. His assemblages usually include dolls, thimbles, engravings, magazine pictures, and pretty much anything he

Collage, Contemplative, Intimate, Layered, Serene, Surreal, Surrealist art

A provocateur par excellence, Joseph Beuys never ceased to emphasize the act of art or to conceive of art itself as an action. His entire oeuvre aims at dissolving the distinction between art and life, at recognizing creativity in every milieu, whether it be in the way an artist paints a canvas or a

Elegant, Fluxus, Media art, Mythic, Open-ended, Political, Process art, Repetition, Spare, Visceral