Biographies About
Visual Artists

From Renaissance masters to modern rebels, hear the stories of people with a gift
for seeing the ideal and imaginary—and making us believe.

The Man in the Glass House lifts the veil on Johnson's controversial and endlessly contradictory life to tell the story of a charming yet deeply flawed man. This book probes the dynamics of American culture that made him so powerful and tells the story of the built environment....

A lively and deeply researched group biography of the figures who transformed the world of art in bohemian Paris in the first decade of the twentieth century In Montmartre is a colorful history of the birth of Modernist art as it arose from one of the most astonishing collections of artistic...

Jean Renoir's career almost spans the history years of cinema - from the early silent movies, to the naturalism of the talkies, committed cinema, film noir....

In the predawn hours of a gloomy February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo and made off with one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's Scream. It was a brazen crime committed while the whole world was watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter...

Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS! The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and...

If Dali stands as one of the canonical figures of modern art, this involved holding both a seminal role in the canon of cutting-edge art but also a tendency to challenge audiences....

Modern Man is a riveting biography of Le Corbusier - a man who invented new ways of building and thinking....

There is perhaps no artist who produced more workthan Picasso, whose oeuvre contained countless paintings and drawings. Picasso's works within each medium vastly differ....

33 Artists in 3 Acts offers unprecedented access to a dazzling range of artists, from international superstars to unheralded art teachers. Sarah Thornton's beautifully paced, fly-on-the-wall narratives include visits with Ai Weiwei before and after his imprisonment and Jeff Koons as he woos new...

Following sharply in the footsteps of Edouard Manet, Claude Monet was one of the first painters identified within the Impressionist circle....

"Ed Hardy" is emblazoned on everything from t-shirts and hats to perfumes and energy drinks. From Los Angeles to Japan, his colorful cross-and-bones designs and ribbon-banners have become internationally ubiquitous. But long before the fashion world discovered his iconic designs, the man behind...

Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Ada Louise Huxtable's biography of America's greatest architect Renowned architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable's biography Frank Lloyd Wright looks at the architect and the man, from his tumultuous personal life to his long career as a master builder. Along the...

Rivalry is at the heart of some of the most famous and fruitful relationships in history. The Art of Rivalry follows eight celebrated artists, each linked to a counterpart by friendship, admiration, envy, and ambition. All eight are household names today. But to achieve what they did, each...

Secret Historian is a sensational reconstruction of one of the more extraordinary hidden lives of the 20th century....

Unlike most artists, Van Gogh developed very slowly, beginning with work as an art dealer that exposed him to many great works. He undertook this work for several years, after which he spent time as a missionary for the Dutch Reformed Church....

When Picasso became Picasso: the story of how an obscure young painter from Barcelona came to Paris and made himself into the most influential artist of the 20th century....

Following in the footsteps of Edouard Manet, Claude Monet was one of the first painters identified within the Impressionist circle....

A captivating, spirited account of the intense relationship among four artists whose strong personalities and aesthetic ideals drew them together, pulled them apart, and profoundly influenced the very shape of twentieth-century art. New York, 1921: acclaimed photographer Alfred Stieglitz...

To appreciate great works of art, we must be familiar with the lives of the geniuses who created them....

Picasso has often been called the greatest artist of this century....