Mentor Artists & Resources

Why Research and Identify "Mentor Artists?"

It is helpful to identify artists who you find particularly compelling, and who you might revisit when you are feeling "stuck" or need a some inspiration. 

ALL ARTISTS HAVE MENTOR ARTISTS, or artists that they look at closely, learn from, emulate, and allow to influence their work. As always, of course it is important to keep in mind the difference between "inspiration & imitation."

Before you identify your Mentor Artists, First you need to "steep" yourself in influence, do research look at work by lots of artists-maybe even some that aren't in your "discipline" since they may be investigating ideas that connect to those you intend to explore.

Pay attention to the work you find particularly inspiring or connect with on some level. It could be because of

their materials usage, technique, subject matter, or other reasons. 

Consider creating "mentor artist pages" in your sketchbook or journal, including written notations listing what you like about their work, images of their art torn out of magazines or printed and pasted in, etc.

Here's a sample sketchbook page for Mentor Artist Frida Kahlo & Salvador Dali from one of my former AP students:

Websites to get you started:

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/

Art in America

https://art21.org/artists/

Here are just a few artists I think you should know and be familiar with, in no particular order or hierarchy:

Bansky

Kara Walker

Kehinde Wiley

Georgia O’Keefe

Mondrian

Alice Neel

Judy Chicago

Eric Fischl

Marie Cassatt

Gerrit Rietveld

Cristo

Nic Cave

Renoir

Soutine

Prendergast

Munch

David Salle

Manet

Monet

Degas

Gauguin (“Go-Gan”)

Cassatt

Paul Klee

Gustav Klimt

Man Ray

sol le Witt

David Hockney

Matisse

Aie Weiwei

Klee

Bacon

Malevich

Shepherd Ferry

Jeff Koons

Roy Lichtenstein

Faith Ringgold

Dali

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Marc Chagall

Frida Kahlo

Velasquez

Jean (Hans) Arp

Georges Braque

Shirin Neshat

Marcel Duchamp

Yayoi Kusama

Renee Magritte

Max Ernst

Marsden Hartley

Jackson Pollock

Edward Hopper

Bosch

Egon Schiele

Richard Serra

Chuck Close

Georges Braque

Gustav Klimt

Gerhard Richter

Jasper Johns

Sandro Botticelli

Cindy Sherman

Pablo Picasso

Kandinsky

Barbara Kruger

Kehinde Wiley

Amy Sherald

James Rosenquist

Jasper Johns

Dan Flavin

Jean Michel Basquiat

Andy Warhol

Van Gogh

If you discover artists you think we should all know about and explore, add a post with a link and a photo of their work for us to check out!