Painter, graphic artist, sculptor & writer

Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract

Primarily a sculptor, Arp's work extends into graphic art, painting and writing. Born in 1887, Arp studied art in Strasbourg from whence he was involved with several major art movements in the early twentieth century. He began working with Kandinsky and Macke, German Expressionists, in Munich in 1912, he then became a founding member of the Dadaists in Zurich. His spontaneous style suited this movement and he did experimental work relying on random chance not preconceived design.

In 1919 Arp joined the Surrealists (Paul Eluard, Luis Buñuel, and Salvador Dali and others) using the name Hans Arp. During this period he married Sophie Tauber and for many years they worked together until her death in 1943 when Arp fell into a state of depression. However he went on to paint and sculpt until his own death in 1966.

His most famous paintings include, Configuration, Maskenspiel (above), Abstract Compo, Head with Mustache, Constellation with Five White Forms and Two Black, Collage with Squares Arranged According to the Laws of Chance and Moondancer. Famous sculptures include, Rising Up and Growth.

Francis Bacon was one of the great painters of the twentieth century - born in 1909 to English parents, he came to London in 1925 to work as an interior decorator and furniture designer. He began his painting career, after a trip to Paris and Berlin, in 1929 but destroyed them all in 1944 when he painted Three Studies for Figures at Base of a Crucifixion - Francis Bacon's real time had come.

Deeply affected by the pictures by Rembrant and Velasquez, Francis Bacon carved his own niche in the world of modern art. His self-taught talents astounded his contemporaries and fans alike - a disturbing style of imagery that shocked the world making Bacon a controversial artist for the rest of his life.

He lived and worked in Monte Carlo, Tangiers, Paris and London, exhibiting his works in galleries and museums in Dublin, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York and Washington until his death in 1992 in Madrid. His studio has been rebuilt in Dublin at the Hugh Lane Gallery.

Born in Brighton in 1872, Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was to court controversy in his short career with his daring black and white illustrations and his association with playwright Oscar Wilde. Influenced by Japanese art and Greek illustration and Beardsley's distinctive style was at it's height in the late 19th century during the Art Nouveau period.

Introduced to the art world by Edward Burne-Jones in 1891, Aubrey Beardsley is famous for his illustration of Oscar Wilde's "Salome" and for his contribution to The Yellow Book, a collaborative magazine project with Oscar Wilde. His elegant style thinly disguised the erotic and almost depraved pictures he produced in his short life. Dogged by tuberculosis, Beardsley would have a career that spanned only seven short years.

Beardsley was the most controversial artsist of the Art Nouveau period, with strong sexual themes to much of his work, even pornographic, but playfully executed illustrations, his committment to the Aesthetic movement sets him apart as a truly original artist whose work is still relevant today.

Beardsley died of tuberculosis in 1898 aged 26.

Painter - Impressionist, Modernist

Pierre Bonnard was born in 1867 in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south west of Paris the son of a French government official. Originally he studied law but after failing exams and doing national service he took up painting for a living.

When he was 21 years old Bonnard went to Paris to study at Academie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he met Ker Xavier Roussel, Felix Vallotton, Maurice Denis and Edouard Vuillard. They were heavily influenced by Gauguin's use of colour and pattern and they formed a group called the Nabis (from the Hebrew for prophet) - they worked and exhibited together until 1899.

Pierre Bonnard's use of bright colour and flat patterns gave way to more muted colours as more and more he began to paint pictures of his wife, his friends and his domestic surroundings. His wife Marthe was his model of choice for many of the nudes and portraits in the early 1900s.

Bonnard died in 1947 in Le Cannet, on the French Riviera.

Born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839, Paul Cezanne's early works were heaviliy influenced by Delacroix and Daumier, he created dark, dramatic pictures, applying the paint roughly with a knife. Cézanne is often referred to as "the father of modern painting" as his influence on modern, contemporary art cannot be underestimated.

In his early years he formed a close friendship with Emile Zola and in 1861 Paul Cézanne left to join Zola in Paris. Here he also met Camille Pissarro and other impressionists, but still Cézanne's style remained his own. He had a philosophy that underpinned his attitude to art - "Right now a moment is fleeting by! Capture its reality in paint!"

In his later years Cézanne painted mostly still life and landscapes and he died in his home town of Aix-en-Provence in 1906. His art has influenced most who came after him and is still revered as one of the most influential artists of his time, influence that would shape most of the modern, contemporary art of the twentieth century.