May 22 2026
Born on this day, May 22, 1930, in Paris, María Sol Escobar—known throughout the art world simply as Marisol—became one of the most celebrated and unconventional artists of the 1960s. Her life-size figures, carved from heavy blocks of wood and combined with painting, drawing, plaster casts, photographs, clothing, shoes, handbags, doors, and other found objects, …
May 21 2026
On May 21, 1955, Chuck Berry entered the Chess Records studio in Chicago and recorded a fast, guitar-driven song about romance, jealousy, Cadillacs, Fords, and a desperate chase down an open highway. The record was called “Maybellene,” and in a little more than two minutes, Berry introduced many of the elements that would become fundamental …
May 18 2026
Born on this day, May 18, 1883, in Tokyo, Hasui Kawase became one of the great landscape printmakers of modern Japan. His images are filled with places that seem temporarily removed from noise: a temple gate disappearing behind falling snow, a solitary traveler beneath an umbrella, a boat resting on dark water, a village illuminated …
May 17 2026
Born on this day, May 17, 1898, in Toronto, Alfred Joseph Casson became the youngest member of Canada’s legendary Group of Seven and one of the most distinctive painters of the Ontario landscape. While other members of the group became famous for monumental mountains, northern lakes, rocky wilderness, and windswept forests, Casson often turned his …
May 14 2026
Born on this day, May 14, 1936, Bobby Darin seemed to live with the knowledge that time might be shorter for him than for everyone else. Born Walden Robert Cassotto in the Bronx, he suffered rheumatic fever as a child, permanently damaging his heart. His family doctor reportedly warned that he might not survive into …
May 13 2026
Born on this day, May 13, 1904, in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, Chishū Ryū became one of the most quietly powerful actors in Japanese cinema. He rarely relied on dramatic outbursts or attention-grabbing performances. Instead, Ryū could communicate affection, regret, loneliness, resignation, and grief with a pause, a lowered gaze, an awkward smile, or a few …
May 12 2026
Born on this day, May 12, 1936, in Malden, Massachusetts, Frank Stella entered the New York art world while still in his early twenties and almost immediately challenged assumptions about what a painting should be. His early canvases contained no recognizable figures, dramatic brushwork, landscapes, or visible emotional confessions. Instead, wide black stripes repeated across …
May 11 2026
Born on this day, May 11, 1889, in London, Paul Nash became one of the most distinctive British artists of the 20th century. He was a landscape painter, war artist, printmaker, photographer, illustrator, designer, writer, and important advocate for modern art in Britain, yet nearly all of those roles can be traced back to one …
May 08 2026
Born on this day, May 8, 1951, in Denver, Colorado, ceramic artist and educator Joyce Michaud built a career around an unusually deep understanding of clay—not only as an artistic material, but as a physical structure shaped by force, movement, balance, heat, and touch. Michaud became known for elegant thrown and hand-built ceramic forms, technical …
May 07 2026
Born on this day, May 7, 1932, in Barcelona, Jordi Bonet became one of the most prolific and distinctive public artists working in Canada during the 1960s and 1970s. A painter, draftsman, ceramicist, sculptor, and muralist, Bonet created monumental works for theaters, universities, churches, airports, banks, schools, government buildings, and subway stations across Canada, the …
