After graduating from Amherst College in 1983, Elliott Arkin got his start in New York as window designer for Tiffany’s and a special-effectsmodel-builder for films and commercials. These experiences continue to inform his work, which operates in the spaces between high art and popular culture. H

Absurd, Baroque, Classical, Clever, Figurative, Layered, Parody, Pre-modern sculpture, Psychological, Sardonic, Self-reflection, Witty

Bonnard was intimate with all the women he painted: he knew them, as it were, by hand. In his soft, blurred splotches of bright color lies the closeness of the caress, the insights the fingers have divined. Indeed, Bonnard did not ask his models to sit for long, if at all; from a brief sketch he fill

Bright, Domestic, Erotic, Post-impressionism, Sensual, Serene, The nabis, Tranquil

Caspar David Friedrich (September 5, 1774 – May 7, 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important of the movement. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night

Atmospheric, Dark, Dramatic, Ethereal, Grand, Moody, Romantic art, Spiritual

Gustave Courbet was a French painter of figurative compositions, landscapes, seascapes, and still-lifes. He courted controversy by addressing social issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar: the rural bourgeoisie and peasantry, and the working conditions of the poor. H

Figurative, Realist art, Representational