Aaron Abraham Shikler | Portrait /Figurative painter

Aaron Abraham Shikler | Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, 1970

By William Grimesnov: - Aaron Abraham Shikler (1922-2015), an artist whose portraits of America’s economic, political and social elite included a brooding John F. Kennedy, a sorrowful Jacqueline Kennedy and a buoyant Ronald Reagan in jeans and work shirt, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

The death was confirmed by his daughter, Cathy Shikler van Ingen.

Mrs. Kennedy became an admirer of Mr. Shikler after seeing the paintings he had done of the children of the actor Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy Lawford, one of the president’s sisters. In 1967 she asked him to do pastel portraits of her children, Caroline and John, and a group portrait of all three. A commission to do official White House portraits of her and (a posthumous one) of her husband followed.

Marius Zabinski, 1956 | Cubist painter

Marius Zabinski began his career as a painter very early, immediately after completing four years of study at l'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Warsaw, Poland. His pictorial technique already revealed a remarkable eclecticism of styles. He is one of the rare kinds of artist in that from the beginning he was able to make a living from his paintings, unlike many others who become successful enough to do this only much later on in their careers.

Franck Ayroles, 1975 | Abstract /Mixed media painter

Franck Ayroles is a professional painter engaged with Maison des Artistes and is a member of the organization ADAGP. Franck Ayroles was born in Saint-Nazaire.

He worked as a chief decorator and made a film with the comedian Philippe Le Maire after his studies in advertising and film.

Thereafter, he decided to become entirely focused in his artwork.

Painting has since childhood always been the big passion in his life.

During the 80s, Franck Ayroles joined and won many competitions organized by TF1 in the TV program "Bonjour la France" hosted by Jean Claude Bourret.

Armando Barrios | Cubist / Abstract painter

Venezuelan Artist Armando Barrios (1920-1999) was born in Caracas in 1920. He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Caracas in 1932. During Rómulo Gallegos management as education minister in the government of Eleazar Lopez Contreras, the institution was reformed in 1936 and changed its name to the School of Visual Arts and Applied Arts of Caracas. Antonio Edmundo Monsanto and other leading painters of the generation of the Fine Arts were called to direct and integrate their teaching staff.

Pietro Magni | The Reading Girl/ La Lettrice, 1856

Pietro Magni's marble statue The Reading Girl brought the Milanese sculptor international fame and recognition.

It was exhibited numerous times at international exhibitions throughout Europe and America, each time to great public and critical acclaim. Stylistically it owes much to the artistic tradition of verismo or "realism" that characterized Italian art during the middle years of the nineteenth century, but it also recalls earlier aspects of Italian romanticism.

William Wetmore Story | Delilah, 1877

Delilah (/dɪˈlaɪlə/; Hebrew: דלילה Dəlilah, meaning "[She who] weakened") is a character in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall.

Her figure, one of several dangerous temptresses in the Hebrew Bible, has become emblematic: "Samson loved Delilah, she betrayed him, and, what is worse, she did it for money", Madlyn Kahr begins her study of the Delilah motif in European painting.

Luca Morelli, 1968 | Figurative Realist painter

Luca Morelli is an Italian painter, known for working in the Figurative style. Morelli was born in Rome. He graduated in 1990 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Lives and works in Rome.

William Wetmore Story | The Libyan Sibyl, 1867

"The Libyan Sibyl", which American sculptor William Wetmore Story (1819-1895) described as “my anti-slavery sermon in stone”, was inspired by events leading up to the Civil War.

Oracle in hand, the Libyan Sibyl, eldest of the legendary prophetesses of antiquity, foresees the terrible fate of the African people.

This premonition is suggested by the heroic figure’s state of brooding cogitation.

Ancient Rome / La Civiltà romana

Ancient Rome, the state centred on the city of Rome. This article discusses the period from the founding of the city and the regal period, which began in 753 bc, through the events leading to the founding of the republic in 509 bc, the establishment of the empire in 27 bc, and the final eclipse of the Empire of the West in the 5th century ad. For later events of the Empire of the East, see Byzantine Empire.

William Wetmore Story | Medea, 1865

In the ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, Medea was the sorceress who assisted Jason in obtaining the Golden Fleece and later became his wife.

When he abandoned her, Medea murdered their two children and planned the death of his new love, Creusa.

To nineteenth-century theater audiences, Medea was a sympathetic character forced to choose between relinquishing her children and protecting them by destroying them herself. Story similarly deemphasized Medea’s revenge, leaving to the viewer’s imagination the scene of infanticide to come. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Wetmore Story | Cleopatra, 1858

Neoclassical sculptors often drew upon mythology, ancient history, the Bible, and classical and contemporary literature for their subject matter. The full-size marbles of Massachusetts native William Wetmore Story exemplify this trend, and Cleopatra, his most famous work, was one of dozens of subjects such as Medea, Delilah, Electra, and Saul that were produced in his Rome studio.

Mark Yale Harris | Abstract Figurative sculptor

Mark Yale Harris realized his true passion in the Southwest. Stone carving became his life’s work, as Santa Fe became his home in the late 1990s. He dedicated himself to creating in 1996, and with much to learn, the artist chose a mentor whom he had long admired to assist with honing his burgeoning artistic skills, sculptor Bill Prokopiof (Aleut, 1944-1999). In the spirit of the nation’s most recognized Native American artist, Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache, 1915-1994), Prokopiof and sculptor Doug Hyde (Nez Perce) took Harris under their wings and generously shared their immense knowledge, talent, and vision. Inspired by the geographical region and grounded in the wisdom of his teachers, he began feverishly creating sculpture.

Leonora Carrington | Surrealist painter and sculptor | Sculpture

Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a painter, writer, sculptor, alchemist, visionary, and was the darling of the 1930s Surrealism movement.

She never tried to be a Surrealist, but her paintings of fantastical creatures and living furniture happened to encapsulate the essence of the movement.

Victor Brauner | Surrealist painter

Victor Brauner (1903-1966) was a Romanian Jewish sculptor and painter of surrealistic images.

Brauner was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years.

It is there that young Victor attended elementary school.

When his family returned to Romania in 1914, he continued his studies at the Evangelical school in Brăila.

His interests revolved around zoology during that period.

Petr Dick /Пётр Дик | Figurative pastel painter

The famous artist Petr Gergardovich Dick /Пётр Гергардович Дик (1939-2002) descendant of immigrants from Northern Germany, was born in Altai. Dick graduated Sverdlov Art School named after I.D. Shadr and Moscow Higher Art Industrial School. Since 1960’s he lived in Vladimir. Peter Dick worked in original style - pastel and charcoal on sandpaper. Characteristic features of his creative activity are strong and delicate color combinations, expressive antiquity of laying figures.