Elaine de Kooning 1920-1989 Painter

In New York City's art scene of the 1940s and 50s, Elaine de Kooning was a prominent painter and art critic, an important and outspoken member of the second generation of American Abstract Expressionists, and the wife of artist Willem de Kooning. She was an active participant in the downtown scene of East Tentth Street, The Club and the Cedar Street Tavern.

Willem de Kooning 1904-1997 Painter

One of the most celebrated abstract artists, de Kooning studied in Rotterdam and entered the U.S. as a stowaway. He settled in N.Y. in 1926, living at the Chelsea Hotel as well as East 10th St. De Kooning became a leader of Abstract Expressionism with Woman I and Bicycle among his most important works.

Edie Sedgwick 1943-1971 Model, Actress, Cult Figure

Edie was one of Andy Warhol's superstars. She was the star of many of his art films shot at The Factory. Her life as Warhol's muse led to excess, debt, and drug abuse-- and eventually her untimely death.

John Sloan 1871-1951 Painter and Etcher

In 1908, Sloan exhibited realistic urban paintings as a member of The Eight, eventually coined teh "Ash Can" school. He was a teacher at the Art Student's League of NYC, elected president in 1930. He lived in the Chelsea Hotel and painted McSorley's Ale House on E. 17th St., the oldest bar in the City.

Andy Warhol 1928-1987 Painter, Cult Filmmaker

After a career as a commercial illustrator in New York in the 1950s, Warhol began painting silkscreened Pop imagery in 1962. In 1963 he made underground fims, shot in his studio, The Factory, on Union Square and then on 17th St. Later in life, he published the successful Interview magazine.

Jackson Pollock 1912-1956 Painter

A native of NYC, Lee Krasner was a dedicated and talented artist assciated with Abstract Expressionism. Her marriage and devotion to the troubled Jackson Pollock was recently the subject of the successful fim Pollock.

Lee Krasner 1908-1984 Painter

Pollock arrived in New York City in 1929 to study at the Art Student's League and became the most original painter in America. His technique of dripping and pouring paint to avoid having to use a brush led to his becoming a huge force on the New York art scene in the 50s. "ARTNews magazine selected him as one of the top twenty-five most important western artists.

Mark Rothko 1903-1970 Painter

Rothko was born in Russia. In 1923, he left Yale Univeristy for New York City where he studied at the Art Student's League. He was much influenced by the simplicity of the work of Milton Avery and Matisse. In 1935, he co-founded "The Ten", artists whose expressionist, emotive styles were in opposition to abstract artists. Rothko lived near Tompkins Square in the East Village in the early 60s.

Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968 Painter

Born in 1887, near Rouen, France, Duchamp was a painter, poet , and experimenter in films and chess player--often seen in Village chess shops. He ws noted for his controversial cubist-futurist painting Nude Descending a Staircase and The Bride Stripped Bear by Her Bachelors, Even. In 1915 he was co-founder of a Dada group in New York. He became a U.S. citizen in 1955.