Name the Early-20th-Century Artist
Can You Identify These Early 20th-Century European Painters?
![Egon Schiele painting Madchen, Wikimedia Commons [public domain]](http://images.suite101.com/126549_egon_schiele_045.jpg "Egon Schiele painting Madchen, Wikimedia Commons [public domain]")
How well do you know this 20th-century German, Austrian, or Spanish artist who died in WWI, died in the Spanish flu outbreak, or was obsessed with scenes from his youth?
Which artist:
1. Died at Verdun in 1916?
Franz Marc
Franz Marc (1880-1916) was a German Expressionist painter. After early exposure to Japanese woodcuts and the Impressionists in Paris, he focused on abstract expressionism and explored the artistic values inherent in color. With artists Kandinsky and Klee, Marc formed the secessionist Blaue Reiter group in response to the rejection of one of Kandinsky’s paintings from an exhibition. Marc was passionately interested in the art of "primitive" peoples, children, and the mentally ill. His own work consisted primarily of animal studies, since he believed nonhuman forms of life to be the most expressive manifestation of nature. At the outbreak of World War I, Marc joined the army voluntarily. Later he was killed at Verdun in 1916.
2. Died with his wife in the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918?
Egon Schiele
Schiele (1890-1918), an Austrian artist (whose last name is pronounced something close to “Sheila”), was a noted figurative painter of the early 20th century and protégé of Gustave Klimt. Klimt generously mentored younger artists, and he took a particular interest in the gifted young Schiele, buying his drawings, setting up models for him, and introducing him to potential clients. Klimt also introduced Schiele to the Wiener Werkstätte (or “Vienna Workshop”), the arts and crafts movement that espoused design of jewelry, fabric, ceramics, pottery, and furniture characterized by simplistic shapes, sparse lines, and geometric patterns. In the autumn of 1918, the Spanish flu epidemic that claimed more than 20,000,000 lives in Europe reached Vienna. Schiele’s wife, Edith, who was six months pregnant, succumbed to the disease in October of that year. Schiele died only three days later. He was 28 years old. During the three days between their deaths, Schiele drew a few sketches of Edith; these were his last works.
3. Was obsessed with the seashore scenes of his childhood?
Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was an eccentric 20th-century Surrealist painter who well understood how the media worked and used it to its full potential. Dali was a skilled draftsman, best known for his striking, bizarre, and well-crafted images of his surrealist work. A greatly imaginative man, Dalí had a talent for bizarre antics that draw attention to him. This fame, that his critics believed drew more attention to his capers than to his artwork, certainly garnered enough attention to encourage people from all walks of life to buy his work.
Dali grew up in the small farming town of Figueres, Spain, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in Catalonia. At his family's summer home in the coastal fishing village of Cadaques, his parents built his first art studio. This picturesque spot is not far from Figueres and was the site of many family vacations during Dali's childhood. Dali's favorite places in the world, the places to which he always returned no matter where he traveled, were the village of Cadaques and nearby Port Lligat. Many of his paintings reflect his love of this area of Spain.
Though Spain was his country of birth, Catalonia was his homeland. Although officially part of Spain, this region is unlike any other part of the country, having its own language and unique culture. Thus, Dali's native tongue was Catalan; he also learned Spanish and French while he was young. The Catalonians are fiercely proud of their rich cultural heritage, and Dali was no exception. In fact, no matter where he traveled in the world, he would often wear a traditional Catalan hat. In 1930, Dali and his wife, Gala, purchased a fisherman's hut in Port Lligat. Over the course of the next four decades, they worked at transforming the modest dwelling into a sprawling, luxurious home complete with a studio for the artist, a swimming pool, and a dovecote.
Source:
Bailey, Colin J. The Art Quiz Book: 2000+ Questions on Painters and Paintings. Station Press: Scotland, 1995.
