The pioneer of American Pop art began using mass-media images in his work in the mid-1950s. His use of appropriated newspaper and magazine images and found objects is central to his aesthetic theory: "Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. I try to act in that gap between the two

Chance, Composed, Improvised, Kaleidoscopic, Open-ended

The work of Jacob Lawrence brings African American history to the walls of museums and galleries when many American schools neglect to bring it into the classroom. Early in life, he became a student of African American history and depicted its richness in his colorful narratives: the "Toussaint L'Ouv

African american fiction, Composed, Eclectic, Geometric, Harlem renaissance art, Mythic, Polychromatic

It took a direct immersion in the politics of the Mexican Revolution to give Diego Rivera's art the cause and the audience it needed. Commissioned by the new government to execute huge public murals, Rivera created a new socialist iconography from a mixture of Renaissance, academic, Cubist, and indig

Bright, Composed, Muralists, Political, Round, Social realism, Social revolution

In 1963, the Puerto Rican painter Francisco Rodon began his series of works on Argentinian writer Jorges Luis Borges, who said, "It's the best portrait ever painted of me." Lest Rodon become too flattered, Borges added, "It's the only one so far." Rodon began to make art at age nine, when he sketc

Composed, Death, Geometric, Moody, Portraiture, Visceral