ARTISTS SERIES

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 Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 22, 1960. With a Haitian American father and a Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat's diverse cultural heritage was one of his many sources of inspiration. 

 Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco created impressive, realistic paintings. A product of the Mexican Revolution, he overcame poverty and eventually traveled to the United States and Europe to paint frescos for major institutions. A man of unparalleled vision, as well as striking contradiction, he died of heart failure at age 65. 

 Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer considered one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. Picasso is credited, along with George Braque, with the creation of Cubism.

 Artist Frida Kahlo was considered one of Mexico's greatest artists who began painting mostly self-portraits after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Kahlo later became politically active and married fellow communist artist Diego Rivera in 1929. She exhibited her paintings in Paris and Mexico before her death in 1954. 

 Andy Warhol was a successful magazine and ad illustrator who became a leading artist of the 1960s Pop art movements. He ventured into a wide variety of art forms, including performance art, filmmaking, video installations and writing and controversially blurred the lines between fine art and mainstream aesthetics. Warhol died on February 22, 1987, in New York City. 

 Francis Bacon produced some of the most iconic images of wounded and traumatized humanity in post-war art. Concentrated his energies on portraiture, often depicting habitues of the bars and clubs of London's Soho neighborhood. His subjects were always portrayed as violently distorted, almost slabs of raw meat, that are isolated souls imprisoned and tormented by existential dilemmas. 

 In 1922, David Alfaro Siqueiros painted frescoes on the walls of the National Preparatory School and began organizing and leading unions of artists and workingmen. His Communist activities led to numerous jailings and periods of exile. He produced thousands of square feet of wall paintings in which numerous social, political and industrial changes were portrayed from a left-wing perspective. 

 Born in 1925, de Szyszlo went to the Pontifical Catholic University in Peru to study art. After his studies, he traveled to Europe eager to participate in the art scene, where he studied the works of great masters in Florence and Paris. Inspired by a variety of artistic movements like Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Futurism, de Szyszlo’s work has continuous engaged audiences and captivated Pervuian art history. His appreciation of the past and the present is immediately recognizable, linking two time periods together.  

 Chilean-born artist Roberto Matta was a member of the Surrealist movement and an early mentor to several Abstract Expressionist. Matta broke with both groups to pursue a highly personal artistic vision. His mature work blended abstraction, figuration, and multi-dimensional spaces into complex, cosmic landscapes. Matta's long and prolific career was defined by a strong social conscience and an intense exploration of his internal and external worlds.