While listening to conversations on art, I have come to realize that I have little knowledge on art and art movements. Within popular movies, such as "The Thomas Crown Affair", the ownership of art serves as a strong status symbol. The purchasing of art pieces represents a person's taste and wealth. Furthermore, the knowledge of famous artists and movements suggests sophistication. With art familiarity and ownership carrying such strong insights to a person, it is important to be acquainted strong figures within the art world.

Personally, I felt awkward and stupid when I could not contribute to conversations on art. I felt I had been failed somewhere within my education and social circles. After all, highly esteemed people seemed to know all about art and were proud of their awareness. Therefore, I made it my own mission to familiarize myself with the big names within the art world. More importantly, I wanted to find why these names were so big. Was it because their paintings, drawings, photographs, etc, were so aesthetically pleasing that they earned their titles as great artists?

As I started looking into the works and motives of these big names, I found that their works were less than beautiful or intriguing, even hideous at times. I understand that art is subjective and that each person can have a different opinion on what is valuable, attractive, worthy, etc, but the appearance of these pieces alone could not have been the reason for some of these artists’ notoriety. Instead, most of the well-known names within the art world became notorious because they were pioneers in their field.

This website will attempt to explain how these artists gained their place within the art world and why their works are so highly recognized. Also, it will help familiarize those lacking art comprehension with some of the staple artists of the past. I hope that by the end of this website, enough information will have been presented so that anyone could make at least some contributions to art discussions. If not, the viewer should at least able to recognize famous pieces and understand the significance behind them.