Marcel Broodthaers (January 28, 1924 – January 28, 1976) was a Belgian poet, filmmaker and artist with a highly literate and often witty approach to creating art works.

He was born in Brussels, Belgium, where he was associated with the Groupe Surréaliste-revolutionnaire from 1945 and dabbled in journalism, film, and poetry. After spending 20 years in poverty as a struggling poet, he performed the symbolic act of embedding fifty unsold copies of his book of poems Pense-Bête in plaster, creating his first art object. That same year, 1964, for his first exhibition, he wrote a famous preface for the exhibition catalogue;











He worked principally with assemblies of found objects and collage, often containing written texts. His most noted work was an installation which began in his Brussels house which he called Musée d'Art Moderne, Départment des Aigles (1968). This installation was followed by a further eleven manifestations of the 'museum', including at the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle for an exhibition in 1970 and at documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972. For such works he is associated with the late 20th century global spread of both installation art, as well as "institutional critique," in which interrelationships between artworks, the artist, and the museum are a focus.

Broodthaers died in Cologne, Germany on his 52nd birthday. He's buried at Ixelles Cemetery in Brussels under a tombstone of his own design.

I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art (1971)

Six Colorful Inside Jobs (1971)

Title (1971)

Teaching a Plant the Alphabet (1972)

John Baldessari Sings Sol LeWitt (1972)

Time/Temperature (1972-73)

The Meaning of Various News Photos to Ed Henderson (1973)

The Way We Do Art Now (1973)

Six Colorful Tales: From the Emotional Spectrum (Women) (1977)

Peter Kirby - John Baldessari: Some Stories (Documentary) (1990)

"Language is your most versatile scientific instrument. Learn to use it with precision."

John Baldessari (born June 17, 1931, National City, California) is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice, California

Initially a painter, Baldessari began to incorporate texts and photography into his canvases in the mid 1960s. He has created thousands of works that demonstrate—and, in many cases, combine—the narrative potential of images and the associative power of language within the boundaries of the work of art. His art has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. His work has had a huge influence on Cindy Sherman, David Salle, and Barbara Kruger among others.

"I, too, wondered whether I could not sell something and succeed in life. For some time I had been no good at anything. I am forty years old... Finally the idea of inventing something insincere finally crossed my mind and I set to work straightaway. At the end of three months I showed what I had produced to Philippe Edouard Toussaint, the owner of the Galerie St Laurent. 'But it is art' he said 'and I will willingly exhibit all of it.' 'Agreed' I replied. If I sell something, he takes 30%. It seems these are the usual conditions, some galleries take 75%. What is it? In fact it is objects." Broodthaers, 1964

"I am not a filmmaker.
For me, film is simply an extension of language."

I don't believe in film, nor do I believe in any other art.
I don't believe in the unique artist or the unique work of art.
I believe in phenomena, and in men who put ideas together.

The great difficulty lies, of course, in finding a harmony among these three elements.

I began with poetry, moved on to three-dimensional works, finally to film, which combines several artistic elements. That is, it is writing (poetry), object (something three-dimensional), and image (film).

Karel Appel (born amsterdam, 1921) was one of the dutch painters that unleashed a revolution in the renowned dutch school of painting shortly after the second world war. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement Cobra in 1948. His work was rejected by nearly all critics and by the public at large and supported only by some friends and fervent followers, among whom amsterdam's world-famous museum director sandberg was notable. following the examples of other dutch painters who found'no favour in their own country (van gogh, mondrian, jongkind, van dongen) appel established himself in 1950 in paris, where his talent developed stormily and was soon recognised everywhere - even in holland. witness the government-sponsored documentary film that was made of him and his work.

Today the vitalistic, philosophically-minded Karel Appel is one of the world's most famous and best-paid modern painters. He is a man with his best years still before him, a powerful personality, passionately interested in all the phenomena of his time. success has not spoilt him: he lives frugally, does not smoke or drink, works hard, and has only two extravagances: good food and fast cars.

"My work is no art, but the spontaneous adventure of now. i never try to make a painting - it is a cry, it is like a child, it is like a tiger behind its bars. I paint as a barbarian of this barbarous time."

"i'll turn it upside down and go on."

1.JOHN BALDESSARI
2.MARCEL BROODTHAERS
4.KAREL APPEL
5.JENNY HOLZER
6.BARBARA KRUGER