Basquiat emerged from the New York underground when he transferred his simplistic, figural graffiti to canvases full of dark, graphic picture-stories that served as emblems of the under-privileged. While the trend-hungry art world cashed in on Graffiti artists such as Keith Haring and Fab 5 Freddy, B

Agitated, Cartoonish, Deconstructive, Graffitists and cartoonists, Gritty, Grotesque, In-your-face, Manic, Neo-expressionism, Sexy, Urban, Wise assy

After 1960, the Constructivist and Expressionist notions that art represented either the order of the outside world or the inner essence of the artist, withered under critical scrutiny. New artists such as Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely began to concentrate on technology and urban society. His "kinetic

Agitated, Bombast, Collage, Kinetic, Kinetic art, Machinistic, Open-ended, Pop, Quirky

Credited as a founding father of Pop, Minimalism, and Conceptual art, Jasper Johns was one of the first painters to use everyday objects and commonplace images in his art, thus paving the way for artists like Warhol and Oldenburg. Beginning in the mid-'50s, Johns painted canvases that depict, or s

Collage, Eclectic, Elegant, Illusive, Neo-expressionism, Quirky, Rebel

Henri Matisse made it look easy, but don't be fooled -- those vibrant, lyrical scenes and simple, geometric portraits which look tossed off the tip of his paintbrush actually took weeks, sometimes months to create. A perfectionist, he once mused, "Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the bran

Bright, Decorative, Domestic, Fauvism, Joyful, Lyrical, Opulent, Pop, Serene