Surrealism Overview
Soupault’s publication of Manifeste du Surréalism in 1924. Rising in the wake of the First World War, Surrealism revolted against a world that had become…
Soupault’s publication of Manifeste du Surréalism in 1924. Rising in the wake of the First World War, Surrealism revolted against a world that had become…
In Latin American intellectual history, modernism is a term that can be usefully and accurately applied to at least two distinct intellectual movements: a clearly…
Jiŕí Trnka (pronounced “Yershy Trinka”) was the foremost Czech puppet animator and a major influence on all subsequent Eastern European puppet animators. He trained under…
Berlin-born Charlotte ‘Lotte’ Reiniger, the first woman animator, was the foremost practitioner of silhouette animation (paper cut-outs lit from beneath and manipulated one frame at…
Otto Messmer was a pioneering animator whose Felix the Cat was the first internationally famous cartoon character. Messmer was born in New Jersey and went…
Tezuka Osamu was a manga (comic) artist, animator, and film director often called the “God of Manga” for his enormous lasting impact upon the manga…
Emile Cohl (Emile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet), a renowned caricaturist and pioneering filmmaker born in Paris, is often credited with inventing the animated cartoon. In…
New Zealand native Len Lye was an experimental innovator in painting, sculpture, documentary film, and animation. After studying indigenous art in Samoa, he emigrated to…
Born in Scotland, Norman McLaren was a filmmaker and one of the most inventive creators of animation films. His career is closely connected to the…
George Orwell is the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair. A writer, poet, journalist, broadcaster and critic, he is best known for his satirical novel Animal…
Vitalism is a philosophy of life that ascribes a vital principle or animating life-force to the processes of living organisms. Against the assertions of mechanistic…
Animator John Hubley, born in Marinette, Wisconsin, served as creative head of UPA (United Productions of America) in its early years and originated its most…
Oskar Fischinger (b. 22 June 1900, Gelnhausen, Germany; d. 31 January, 1967, Los Angeles, US) was one of the most influential German abstract experimental animators and creators…
Pioneering puppet animator Vladislav Starevich was born to Polish parents in political exile in Moscow. He initially filmed ethnographic and entomological subjects for Moscow’s Khanzhonkov…
Winsor McCay (born Zenas Winsor McKay) was an American graphic artist and animator, best known for his Art Nouveau-inflected landmark comic strips Little Nemo in…
Hollywood cartoon studio UPA (United Productions of America) was founded in 1943 by former Disney animators Steven Bosustow, Zachary Schwartz, and David Hilberman. It profoundly…
Diagonalsymphonien [Diagonal Symphony], a black-and-white, abstract, animated short film made in Germany by Swedish painter Viking Eggeling, assisted by Bauhaus student Erna Niemeyer, is a…
Takeuchi Seihô was one of the most prolific Nihonga painters in Kyoto’s painting circles. Originally trained under Kôno Bairei [幸野楳嶺] (1884–1895) from the Maruyama-Shijiô school…
Cartoon director Charles Martin ‘Chuck’ Jones studied drawing at Los Angeles’s Chouinard Art Institute. He briefly worked for Ub Iwerks and Walter Lantz before becoming…
Walt Disney, (b. 5 December 1901, d. 15 December 1966) born in Chicago and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, was a film producer and entrepreneur who built…
Born in Frankfurt, Ruttmann studied architecture and design, and started his career as a painter and lithographer before turning to film. His earliest films, Lichtspiel:…
Stan Brakhage (born Robert Sanders) was an American filmmaker and one of the most important figures of experimental cinema, noted for his abstract, lyrical style.…
Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the most important American and women artists of the twentieth century and a leading early abstract painter. She is most…
Lawrence (Larry) Jordan has worked as an experimental filmmaker for the last six decades. Raised in Denver, Colorado, he attended high school with filmmaker Stan…
Jan Švankmajer (1934–) is a Czech surrealist visual artist, primarily known for his film works. He studied puppetry and theatre at university and began his…