Artists on Artists

Van Gogh used Rain Shower on Ohashi Bridge, by Ando Hiroshige, one of the many Japanese woodcut and print artists whose work he collected, as the subject of an exercise in reproduction. A wonderful website created by Lee A. Makela provides biographic information about Hiroshige, as well as a series of exercises in visual literacy surrounding examples of his work.

Visual Literacy: Ando Hiroshige
http://www.csuohio.edu/history/exercise/vlehome.html

Artists: Edvard Munch

The long, dark nights of Northern Europe are reflected in the brooding, melancholic works of Edvard Munch. Today, the proliferation of The Scream in the form of squeeze toys, refrigerator magnets and screen savers has greatly neutralized the impact of his work. But for many of his patrons and contemporaries, there is an existential quality in his work that ideally characterizes the angst-ridden Zeitgeist of the times. To learn more about Munch, check out the websites listed below:

Odin: Evdard Munch
http://odin.dep.no/ud/nornytt/uda-417.html
A great, brief biography of the artist.

The Frieze of Life
http://www.webmagick.co.uk/munch/index.html
This excellent website organizes image and text-based information on Munch into major themes--love, death, jealousy and anxiety.  

Artists: Robert Rauschenberg

This hard-to-characterize boundary-breaker has worked with America's best-known avant-garde artists, musicians and choreographers, and is a very important cultural figure in post-WWII America. A fine article in the Christian Science Monitor describes his contributions and influences in greater detail:

Rauschenberg's Signature on the Century
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1997/11/28/feat/arts.1.html

Artists: Andy Warhol

It has been said that all roads lead to Warhol when it comes to exploiting the power of commodified culture. Warhol made an art out of commercializing his work, as well as using artifacts of commercialization in his art. There are many noteworthy websites devoted to his work, and three of the best are listed below:

Andy Warhol Museum
http://www.clpgh.org/warhol/
The museum tour at this site provides a brief overview of Warhol's impact in the many media in which he worked. Very useful and concise.

WWWPop Art Index
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~toms/PopArt/contents.html.iso-8859-1
To find out more about Warhol, his contemporaries, and those who followed in his footsteps, check out this site.