Wu Xiaobang (吴晓邦) (1906–95)
Wu Xiaobang, known in China as “the father of Chinese new dance,” was the most important pioneer of modern dance in twentieth-century China. Exposed to…
Wu Xiaobang, known in China as “the father of Chinese new dance,” was the most important pioneer of modern dance in twentieth-century China. Exposed to…
Rebecca West was a novelist, journalist, essayist, and travel writer, and a central figure in twentieth-century literary and political culture. Her The Return of the…
In the midst of the economic and social upheaval of America’s Great Depression, a group of young modern dancers came together in 1932 to form…
The Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music (WarszawskaJesień) is one of Europe’s longest-running festivals of contemporary music. With two exceptions (1957 and 1982), the…
World-renowned poet, playwright and essayist Derek Walcott won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. He grew up in his birthplace, Castries, St Lucia, immersed…
The Workers’ Theatre Movement (WTM) was an international project, largely promoted by the Workers International Relief, to conjoin left militant radical theaters during the period…
Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, essayist, author and poet, and one of Victorian England’s chief proponents of Aestheticism. His works are often characterised by…
Born in Cape Town, Stephen Watson taught in the English Department and the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town. He was…
Otto Weininger was an Austrian philosopher and racial theorist. Born in Vienna to Jewish parents, he committed suicide five months after the publication of Sex…
Novelist, short-story writer and essayist Zoë Wicomb was born in Namaqualand, South Africa. Much of her fiction and criticism deals with the construction of racial…
Mary Wigman was among the most important dancers and choreographers in Germany during the first half of the 20th century. As a modernist, she sought…
Irish poet, playwright, editor, writer, senator, William Butler Yeats is among the most accomplished authors of the twentieth century; in 1923 he was awarded Nobel…
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Seif Wanly is a leading figure of Egyptian modern art. Together with his younger brother, Adham Wanly, he was among the…
Andrezj Wajda is a Polish film and theater director, best known for his politically engaged films exploring Polish history, and his collaboration with the actor…
Andy Warhol was a painter, filmmaker, producer, and multi-media artist. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennyslvania and worked in New York City from the 1940s…
Susanne Wenger was an Austrian artist and an instrumental figure in the history of Nigerian modernism. Born on July 4, 1915 in the city of…
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, an American sculptor, art collector, philanthropist, and patron, is usually remembered as the founder of The Whitney Museum of American Art in…
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt, born in Neckarau (now Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg), was a German scientist who pioneered the field of experimental psychology. His best-known work, Grundzüge der…
George Woodcock was a British-Canadian poet, political activist, biographer, travel writer, novelist, dramatist, translator, and literary critic. He was born in Winnipeg, but spent his…
Decha Warashoon was a member of the vanguard of Thai artists who brought Southeast Asian art to international attention. After graduating from the Fine Arts…
Ethel Wilson was a modernist prose writer who lived in Vancouver, Canada. Wilson began writing late in life; although she was only six years younger…
Sylvia Townsend Warner was the author of novels, short stories, poetry, journalistic non-fiction, and literary criticism. Her works often inhabit settings at opposite ends of…
An American potter known for luster-glaze chalices and whimsical ceramic figures, Beatrice Wood was once named the “Mama of Dada.” Born on 3 March 1893…
Fred Williams was an Australian painter and printmaker who bridged the gulf between the country’s landscape painters and contemporary art. In the 1960s he turned…
Nathanael West was an author and screenwriter whose work spanned the decade of the 1930s. He was born Nathan Weinstein on 17 October 1903 in…