Capricorn Artists & Painters

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist whose legacy has had an influence upon fashion, film, music, and literature. He serves as an inspiration to street artists as he started off as one, painting graffiti on buildings. After his death, at the age of 27, the value of his work has increased; in 2017, one of his paintings sold for a record $110.5 million.

Henri Matisse was a French artist. Although he was known for his skills as a painter, Matisse was also a renowned sculptor, printmaker, and draughtsman. Along with Picasso, Matisse is regarded as one of the artists who contributed immensely to the revolutionary developments in visual arts. His works also influenced other painters who would adopt a technique called intense colorism.

French artist Paul Cézanne was a prominent Post-Impressionist painter and influenced much of the early-20th-century movement known as Cubism. Some of his notable works include The Card Players, The Bathers, and Pyramid of Skulls. He experimented with water colors and had created a host of still-life paintings.

Louise Bourgeois was a French-American artist best remembered for her large-scale installation art and sculpture. Also a prolific printmaker and painter, Bourgeois explored a variety of themes, such as sexuality and death. In 1997, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 2009, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Lebanese author and poet Khalil Gibran is best remembered for his bestselling works The Prophet and Broken Wings. One of the leaders of the Mahjar movement of Arabic literature, he specialized in incorporating mythological and mystical symbols in his works and was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche and William Blake.

Eiichiro Oda is a Japanese manga artist best known as the creator of the series One Piece. The series is both the best-selling manga and the best-selling comic series of all time. He decided to become a manga artist as a child and began working as an assistant manga artist as a teenager, quickly gaining fame and fortune. 

Painter Thomas Kinkade is remembered for his realistic and idyllic themes. He gained fame by selling printed copies of his art through the Thomas Kinkade Company. He called himself the "Painter of Light” and copyrighted the phrase, too. The movie Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage was based on his life.

John Singer Sargent, an artist active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation." Prolific in his output, he created more than 2,000 watercolors and around 900 oil paintings. He also made numerous sketches and charcoal drawings. He painted with remarkable technical acumen and was internationally known for his expertise.   

Best known for his wood-engraving, Gustave Doré was a child prodigy who began his artwork at the tender age of 5. A master lithographer and caricaturist, he began his career with Journal pour Rire. He also worked on commissions from authors such as Cervantes, Milton, and Dante.

Mostly known as a cartoonist for The New Yorker, Charles Addams was known for including dark humor in his works. Also known by his pseudonym, Chas Addams, he gained fame for his cartoons about a family of ghosts, which later inspired The Addams Family series of the 1960s.

Award-winning Japanese manga artist Naoki Urasawa is best known for his thriller Monster and the sci-fi 20th Century Boys. Fans love his intricate and psychologically complicated plots. He also teaches at the Nagoya Zokei University and is a skilled rock musician who once performed as Bob Lennon.

Landscape painter Albert Bierstadt immortalized the natural attractions of the American West, such as the Rocky Mountains, in his works. One of the finest painters of the Hudson River school, he specialized in paintings that showcased bright lighting, or luminism, and created over 500 paintings throughout his career.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. He is most famous for his religious works. He also produced numerous paintings of contemporary women and children, especially of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars. He had many followers and pupils and was one of the founders of the Academia de Bellas Artes (Academy of Art). 

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, TV presenter, author, actor, and filmmaker. He gained international fame in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat. He later pursued a solo act and became one of the top comedians in Japan. He then ventured into acting and direction as well. He won the Golden Lion award in 1997.   

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a Dutch classical subject painter whose painting about luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire became very well known. Regarded a prominent Victorian painter, he was successful, admired, famous and highly paid during his lifetime. However, his popularity waned after his death and saw a resurgence only in the second half of the 20th century.

Born in Germany, Eva Hesse moved with her family to England, and then to the U.S., in a bid to escape the Nazi regime. Her death due to brain tumor at age 34 cut short her dynamic career. A sculptor and painter, she experimented with media such latex, metal, and mesh.

Joseph Cornell was an American filmmaker and visual artist. He is best remembered as a pioneer and exponent of assemblage. Joseph Cornell is also known for his experimental films like Rose Hobart which were inspired by Surrealism.

Swiss-French artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp initially studied textile design and later began creating multimedia art called Duo-Collages, along with her husband, German-French abstract artist Jean Arp. Apart from teaching at an art and craft school, the Dadaist had also used dance, painting, and sculpture to showcase her artistic talent.

Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros co-founded the modern Mexican school of mural painting. An activist, too, he fought as part of Venustiano Carranza forces during the Mexican Revolution. The Lenin Peace Prize winner has adorned many universities, schools, and government buildings in Mexico with his murals.

Su Shi was a Chinese writer, calligrapher, poet, painter, gastronome, pharmacologist, and politician who lived during the Song dynasty. He played a major role in the political affairs of the Song dynasty. He is credited with producing some of the best-known poems, prose, and essays and is considered one of the most decorated personalities in classical Chinese literature.

Russian mystic and cult leader Vissarion is best remembered for launching the Church of the Last Testament. Born Sergey (or Sergei) Torop, he was once accused by Russian intelligence agencies of harming his followers physically and psychologically. While he believes to be the reincarnated Christ, he continues to run his Siberia-based cult.   

Nineteenth-century Japanese painter and printmaker Utagawa Kuniyoshi was one of the major figures behind the ukiyo-e style of woodwork. Born to a silk-dyer, he had started as a print designer. While he initially specialized in warrior prints, he later also worked on landscapes, such as the series Famous Sights of Edo.

Kiki Smith is a German American artist who lives and works in New York State. Smith's work focuses on themes like regeneration, sex, and birth. An influential artist, Smith's work also discusses subjects like gender and AIDS. Over the years, she has won several prestigious awards, such as the Nelson A. Rockefeller Award and Women in the Arts Award.

Born in Switzerland, Félix Vallotton later moved to Paris to study art and grew to be one of the prominent members of the Les Nabis. Renowned for his woodcuts, he mostly focused on nudes and interiors. Politically conscious, he often infused political themes in his art, such as The Demonstration.

Gao Xingjian is a Chinese-born émigré and French naturalized playwright, novelist, critic, photographer, film director, translator, and painter. He is best known for winning the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000. Gao Xingjian has also received other major awards, including the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement. 

A leader of the Expressionist group The Blue Rider, German artist August Macke had initially drawn inspiration from his amateur artist father’s paintings. His works, such as Three Girls in a Barque, focused on human subjects and mingled German and French traditions. He was killed while fighting in World War I.

Kelly Dorji is a Bhutanese actor, artist, and model known for his work in the Indian film industry. After starting his career as a model, Dorji went on to appear in popular films. Dorji is renowned for performing his own stunts in films. Kelly Dorji has also played a major role in increasing the popularity of Bhutanese films in Bhutan.

Known for his advertisement designs and abstract art, Swiss graphic designer and artist Max Bill was initially trained as a silversmith. He later also taught art in Switzerland and Germany. He not only established the Ulm School of Design, but also designed its building and its academic programs.

Brion Gysin was a Canadian painter, sound poet, writer, and performance artist. Gysin was also known as an inventor of experimental devices; he is credited with inventing the Dreamachine, a stroboscopic flicker device. Brion Gysin's ideas went on to inspire the artists of the Beat Generation and other prominent personalities like Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, and Keith Haring. 

Singer Marilyn Manson, whose name is a juxtaposition of the names of actress, Marilyn Monroe, and serial murderer, Charles Manson, is considered a controversial figure because of the anti-Christian messages in his songs. He leans towards the social Darwinist theory. Mechanical Animals is his most successful album to date. He has also dabbled in acting and has done some movies.

An illegitimate child of architect Edward Godwin and actor Ellen Terry, Edward Gordon Craig later grew up to be one of the pillars of modernist English theater. While he began his career acting at the Lyceum Theatre, he later switched to set designing. The Art of the Theatre remains his best-known written work.