Written By: Ben Cosgrove
It’s always eye-opening to see the men and women behind famous works of art. And yet, while Picasso, Dali, Matisse and perhaps a handful of other “art superstars” are recognized around the world, countless other painters and sculptors of note including some of the finest, most influential artists of the past century are, in a sense, invisible. Their works endure; but their look their faces, the way they held themselves is often an utter blank in the mind of the casual art enthusiast.
Here, LIFE.com presents a series of portraits of the artists who re-imagined and redefined the way we see the world. Pollock is here, and Picasso, along with Georgia O’Keeffe and even Renoir. But can art aficionados actually identify a photograph of, say, Claes Oldenburg? Jasper Johns? Barbara Hepworth? Giorgio de Chirico?
[MORE: “Georgia O’Keeffe: Invincible”]
What’s wonderful about the pictures here, including those (like the deeply shadowed silhouettes of Hopper and O’Keeffe) in which we perceive a powerful sense of the full figure, rather than discrete details, is that each photo reveals something uniquely essential about the artist. One would be hard-pressed to find two more dissimilar portraits than those of Arshile Gorky and Robert Rauschenberg; but each of those captures an aspect of the artist’s personality and sensibility (Gorky’s moody intensity; Rauschenberg’s exuberance) that, in a heartbeat, helps us see something even if it’s only a glimpse of the human being behind the art.
Jasper Johns 1958
Peter Stackpole Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Thomas Hart Benton, 1939
Alfred Eisenstaedt Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Louise Bourgeois 1983
Ted Thai Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Georgia O’Keeffe
John Loengard The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Marcel Duchamp 1952
Gordon Parks Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Georges Braque 1946
David E. Scherman Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Pablo Picasso 1949
Gjon Mili Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Elaine de Kooning 1964
Alfred Eisenstaedt Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Alexander Calder 1952
Gordon Parks Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Jackson Pollock 1949
Martha Holmes Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Marc Chagall 1960
Loomis Dean Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Henri Matisse, 1951
Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Roy Lichtenstein 1963
John Loengard Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Herman Cherry 1946
Eliot Elisofon Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Christo 1968
Carlo Bavagnoli Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Salvador Dali 1950
Mark Kauffman Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Giorgio de Chirico 1949
Gjon Mili Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Willem de Kooning 1945
Gordon Coster Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Guy du Bois 1949
Herbert Gehr Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Marisol Escobar 1957
Walter Sanders Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Lyonel Feininger 1951
Andreas Feininger Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Alberto Giacometti 1951
Gordon Parks Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Robert Rauschenberg 1951
Wallace Kirkland Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Arshile Gorky 1945
Gjon Mili Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Barbara Hepworth 1964
Paul Schutzer Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Eva Hesse 1969
Henry Groskinsky Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Edward Hopper 1967
John Loengard Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Edward Kienholz 1965
Ralph Crane Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Franz Kline 1954
Fritz Goro Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Fernand Leger 1949
Gjon Mili Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Peter Max 1967
Yale Joel Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Henry Moore 1946
Eliot Elisofon Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Isamu Noguchi 1946
Eliot Elisofon Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Claes Oldenburg 1960
Yale Joel Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Man Ray 1947
Yale Joel Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Ad Reinhardt 1966
John Loengard Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Auguste Renoir 1919
Pictures Inc. Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Georges Rouault 1949
Gjon Mili Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Richard Serra 1969
Henry Groskinsky Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Ben Shahn 1954
Gjon Mili Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Jacques Villon 1949
Gjon Mili Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
