International Artists’ Day 2021: Celebrate occasion by learning about these legendary painters of 20th Century

25 October marks the celebration of International Artists’ Day around the globe to honour artists and their contribution to society. The day commemorates the importance of art as an important medium of human expression and honours its impact on human life, nature, and communities.HistoryCanadian artist, Chris MacClure, founded International Artists’ Day in 2014 to give working artists a special day to revel in the allure, impact, and splendidness of their creations. The day also pays homage to one of the most celebrated artists of the last century, Pablo Picasso, whose birthday is celebrated on the same date.SignificanceInternational Artists’ Day is a celebration of all kinds of art. It elevates the credibility of artists among the common folk and aims to increase the visibility of their craft. Furthermore, it reconnects creators with their audience through various art shows, exhibitions, and other events.How To Celebrate International Artists’ Day 2021The International Artists’ Day website recommends celebrating the day by “taking an artist out for lunch, buying the painting that’s haunting you for weeks, or learning more about art.” Thus, we curated brief profiles of a few of the most prominent artists of the 20th century to give you a tour of art history.The Most Prominent Artists of the 20^th Century

1. Pablo Picasso

Dubbed as the most influential artist of his generation, Pablo Picasso revolutionised art by creating the most distinct representation of emotions and impressions in his works. He rejected traditional ideas that emphasised the importance of colour and depicted subject matter with geometrical shapes and lines instead of proportions and perspective. He took Cubism to its extremes, invented collage, and made a major contribution to Surrealism. He also explored sculpture, ceramics, and printmaking. However, Pablo considered himself a painter before anything, and his works embody the spirit of Bohemian art in the modern era.

2. Frida Kahlo

No other work of art chronicles the tragedy of life, its despair, trauma, and hardships more poignantly than the pieces made by Frida Kahlo. The Mexico City-born artist is widely remembered as a surrealist. However, she rejected the label and its misogyny of Freudian male-centric depictions of women. Instead, the legendary painter expressed the complexity of female experience through her work, inextricably intertwined with her childhood trauma and emotional distress, and asserted the validity of her vision paintings such as The Two Fridas, Frida and George Rivera, and The Broken Column, among others.

3. Georgia O’Keeffe

Best known for her canvasses of magnified flowers, Mexican landscapes, and animal skulls, Georgia O’Keeffe, was one of the first painters to claim public fanfare and critical acclaim. Considered a cornerstone of the American Modernist movement, O’Keeffe excelled at painting and sculpting and epitomised the expression of its zeitgeist in works such as Black Iris, Oriental Poppies, Jimson Weed, and others. However, O’Keeffe’s works remained independent of shifting trends and focused on metamorphosising natural objects into abstract geometry instead, highlighting her elusive personality as well as perennial love for nature.