Name That Artist

Question: Which artist chopped off his own ear?

Answer: In December 1888, in a fit of rage, van Gogh severed his left ear, wrapped his head in bandages, and would have bled to death had he not been discovered the next morning.

Question: Which artist invented pointillism?

Answer: In the late 1880s Seurat invented pointillism: the practice of applying small strokes or dots of color to a surface so that from a distance they visually blend together. His most-famous pointillist painting is A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884.

Question: Which artist invented the ready-made?

Answer: Dada artist Marcel Duchamp came up with the concept of the ready-made, a mass-produced object presented as art. He presented his most-notorious ready-made in 1917, a porcelain urinal titled Fountain and signed “R. Mutt.”

Question: Which artist died of a drug overdose at age 27?

Answer: American artist Basquiat, known for his graffiti-like paintings, died of a heroin overdose in 1988.

Question: Which artist made sculptures of writers Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac?

Answer: Rodin made bronze portrait sculptures of Hugo and Balzac in the late 19th century.

Question: Which artist is known for self-portraits?

Answer: Each of these artists is known for many self-portraits—Rembrandt in the 17th century, van Gogh in the 19th century, and Sherman in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Question: Which artist designed a flying machine?

Answer: Designs for a flying machine much like the modern-day helicopter were found in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. He called it the “helical air screw.”

Question: Which artist’s primary medium was the quilt?

Answer: Ringgold is known for her story quilts, many of which have a political or social message.

Question: Which artist’s photographs were discovered only posthumously?

Answer: Maier, who lived as a nanny in Chicago most of her life and died in 2009, was also apparently a prolific and talented photographer. A trove of her negatives and rolls of film were first discovered in 2007, and since 2010 her talent has been shared with the public through exhibitions and books.