An aristocrat who stood aloof from the sweaty fray of art movements, Degas emerged from his ecole des Beaux-Arts training with a predilection for Italian old masters and for classicizing French forerunners like Ingres. He painted portraits of upper-class families with hints of Realism showing through

Composed, Figurative painting, Intimate, Post-impressionism, Serene

Every now and then there comes along a person with "a sensibility higher than our own who can depict an apple to stand for both that particular apple and all apples" -- at least that's how one expert put it. The applemaster referred to was Paul Cezanne, one of the most famous of the French Impres

Distorted, Event, Figurative painting, Geometric, Perceptual, Post-impressionism, Sincere, Tranquil

Like an avenging angel invading the capital of high culture, Pablo Picasso came to Paris to confront the establishment and write himself across the face of modernity. He viewed art as a way of recreating himself, and invented -- only to later shed -- any number of artistic styles. The young Picas

Cubism, Distorted, Figurative painting, Geometric, Kinetic, Mythic, Perverse, Political, Polychromatic, Primal

Manny Farber, though still much-revered as a film critic, eschewed film in favor of painting. Farber began writing film reviews for The New Republic in 1942. He continued his film career through the 1970s, writing most notably for publications such as Film Comment. As his book "Negative Space" (1970)

Agitated, Dense, In-your-face, Quirky, Smart