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® Br ca ti anni LEARNING L I B R A R Y Artists Around the World Meet some of the greatest artists of all time CHICAGO LONDON NEW DELHI PARIS SEOUL SYDNEY TAIPEI TOKYO PROJECT TEAM Judith West, Editorial Project Manager Christopher Eaton, Editor and Educational Consultant Kathryn Harper, U.K. Editorial Consultant Marilyn L. Barton, Senior Production Coordinator Editors Theodore Pappas Anthony L. Green Mary Rose McCudden Andrea R. Field Michael J. Anderson Colin Murphy Locke Petersheim Indu Ramchandani (Encyclopædia Britannica India) Bhavana Nair (India) Rashi Jain (India) Design and Media Specialists Nancy Donohue Canfield, Design Megan Newton-Abrams, Design Karen Koblik, Photos Joseph Taylor, Illustrations Amy Ning, Illustrations Jerry A. Kraus, Illustrations Michael Nutter, Maps Copy Editors Barbara Whitney Laura R. Gabler Dennis Skord Lisa Braucher, Data Editor Paul Cranmer, Indexer ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA PROJECT SUPPORT TEAM EDITORIAL Linda Berris Robert Curley Brian Duignan Kathleen Kuiper Kenneth Pletcher Jeffrey Wallenfeldt Anita Wolff Charles Cegielski Mark Domke Michael Frassetto James Hennelly Sherman Hollar Michael R. Hynes Sandra Langeneckert Gene O. Larson Michael I. Levy Robert Lewis Tom Michael Janet Moredock DESIGN Steven N. Kapusta Carol A. Gaines Cate Nichols ART Kathy Nakamura Kristine A. Strom Nadia C. Venegas ILLUSTRATION David Alexovich Christine McCabe Thomas Spanos MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT Jeannine Deubel Kimberly L. Cleary Kurt Heintz Quanah Humphreys COPY Sylvia Wallace Jennifer F. Gierat Glenn Jenne Mary Kasprzak Thad King Larry Kowalski Joan Lackowski Dawn McHugh Julian Ronning Chrystal Schmit Sarah Waterman INFORMATION MANAGEMENT/ INDEXING Carmen-Maria Hetrea Edward Paul Moragne Marco Sampaolo Sheila Vasich Mansur G. Abdullah Keith DeWeese Catherine Keich Stephen Seddon EDITORIAL TECHNOLOGIES Steven Bosco Gavin Chiu Bruce Walters Mark Wiechec COMPOSITION TECHNOLOGY Mel Stagner MANUFACTURING Dennis Flaherty Kim Gerber INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Leah Mansoor Isabella Saccà ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, INC. Jacob E. Safra, Chairman of the Board Jorge Aguilar-Cauz, President Michael Ross, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development Dale H. Hoiberg, Senior Vice President and Editor Marsha Mackenzie, Managing Editor and Director of Production © 2008 BY ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, INC. Cover photos (front): Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis; (back): Julie Lemberger/Corbis. Cover insert photos (left): Bettmann/Corbis; (center): Robbie Jack/Corbis; (right): Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis International Standard Book Number: 978-1-59339-517-9 No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. BRITANNICA LEARNING LIBRARY: ARTISTS AROUND THE WORLD 2008 Britannica.com may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.britannica.com. (Trademark Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.) Printed in U.S.A. Artists Around the World I N T R O D U C T I O N How did Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Who was Basho? Where was Kiri Te Kanawa born? What is “scat” singing? Artists Around the World, you’ll In To help you on your journey, we’ve provided the following guideposts in Artists Around the World : ■ Subject Tabs—The colored box in the upper corner of each right-hand page will quickly tell you the article subject. discover answers to these ■ Search Lights—Try these mini-quizzes before and after you read the questions and many more. article and see how much—and how quickly—you can learn. You can even Through pictures, articles, and fun facts, you’ll learn about the many kinds of make this a game with a reading partner. (Answers are upside down at the bottom of one of the pages.) ■ Did You Know?—Check out these fun facts about the article subject. With these surprising “factoids,” you can entertain your friends, impress art and meet some of the your teachers, and amaze your parents. greatest artists of yester- ■ Picture Captions—Read the captions that go with the photos. They day and today. provide useful information about the article subject. ■ Vocabulary—New or difficult words are in bold type. You’ll find them explained in the Glossary at the end of the book. ■ Learn More!—Follow these pointers to related articles in the book. These articles are listed in the Table of Contents and appear on the Subject Tabs. Br ® ca itanni LEARNING L I B R A R Y Have a great trip! © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers are probably some of the most famous paintings in the world. You may even have seen them on T-shirts and coffee mugs. This is a photo of an original, painted in 1889. © Christie’s Images/Corbis © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Artists Around the World TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 VISUAL ARTS NIGERIA Wole Soyinka: The Nobel Laureate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 UNITED STATES Emily Dickinson: A Life of Letters and Literature. . . 36 CHINA Xia Gui: Lonely Landscapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Gwendolyn Brooks: Prized Poet of Illinois . . . . . . . . 38 EGYPT Hassan Fathy: Culture-Conscious Architect . . . . . . . . 8 Mark Twain: The Writer and the Mississippi River . 40 ITALY Michelangelo: Genius of European Art . . . . . . . . . . . 10 PERFORMING ARTS MEXICO Frida Kahlo: The Brilliant Colors of Mexico . . . . . . . 12 AUSTRIA Fanny Elssler: Theatrical Ballerina . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 THE NETHERLANDS Vincent van Gogh: Sunflowers and Starry Nights. . . 14 FRANCE Sarah Bernhardt: “The Divine Sarah” . . . . . . . . . . . 44 SPAIN Francisco de Goya: Painter to the GERMANY Ludwig van Beethoven: Living for Music . . . . . . . . . 46 King and to the People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 INDIA Ravi Shankar: Music at His Fingertips . . . . . . . . . . 48 Pablo Picasso: Exploring with an Artist. . . . . . . . . . 18 JAPAN Akira Kurosawa: A Vision in Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 LITERATURE NEW ZEALAND Kiri Te Kanawa: New Zealand’s Opera Star . . . . . . . 52 ARGENTINA Jorge Luis Borges: Creator of Fantastical Fictions . . 20 PAKISTAN Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Center Stage of Qawwali . . . 54 AUSTRALIA Kath Walker: Aboriginal Poet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 UNITED STATES Alvin Ailey: Enriching American Dance . . . . . . . . . . 56 CHILE Isabel Allende: The Letter Writer’s Stories. . . . . . . . 24 Louis Armstrong: Satchmo—Jazz Superstar . . . . . . 58 ENGLAND Charles Dickens: Writer of Life-Changing Stories . . . 26 Jim Henson: Muppet Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 FRANCE Jules Verne: Journey to Everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 INDIA Rabindranath Tagore: Poet Laureate of India . . . . . 30 JAPAN Basho: Haiku Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Br ® ca itanni LEARNING L I B R A R Y © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Lonely X DID YOU KNOW? Xia Gui and his fellow artists used a dramatic kind of brushwork called “ax stroke.” It was named this because it looked like the chop mark of an ax on wood. ia Gui is known today as one of China’s greatest masters of landscape painting. He painted rapidly, using short, sharp strokes of the brush. Most of his landscapes were done in shades of black, but a few had light washes of color added to them. Xia was probably official court painter to either the emperor Ningzong or the emperor Lizong (or maybe both). That means he would have lived about the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century. Together with his friend and fellow artist Ma Yuan, Xia founded the Ma-Xia school of painting. This group followed a tradition of very simple landscape painting, with little happening in the landscape and few details. By showing only selected features, such as mountain peaks and twisted trees, they aimed to create a feeling of unlimited space and quiet drama. The Ma-Xia school had a great influence on later artists. Most of Xia’s surviving works are album leaves. These were usually square-shaped, and they were occasionally glued onto fans. The paintings were done on silk, mainly in shades of black ink. Each landscape showed distant hills in the upper left corner and a closer view of land in the lower right corner. In the center, groups of trees reach into the empty space all around. The empty space was always an important feature of Xia’s work. Xia was also a master at composing works on the hand scroll. H These are rolls of paper that are viewed by unrolling the scroll RC LI from one end to the other, then rerolling the scroll as you view it. The effect is like a continuous imaginary journey through the scenery of nature.
T GH SE A La s e p a c s d n Fill in the blanks: Xia Gui made his paintings on album leaves and _______ _______. 6 © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. LEARN MORE! READ THESE ARTICLES… BASHO • MICHELANGELO • VINCENT VAN GOGH The painting here, known as “Swinging Gibbon,” is said to be by Xia Gui. The next generation of painters did not value Xia’s work. But about 50 years after that, one critic wrote, “His works have an exciting [stimulating] quality,…a remarkable achievement.” © The Cleveland Museum of Art 2003. John L. Severance Fund, 1978.1 ★ Answer: Xia Gui made his paintings on album leaves and hand scrolls. © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 7 XIA GUI The Sadat Resthouse (built in Garf Huseyn, Egypt, in 1981) shows some of Hassan Fathy’s trademark features. Here you can see the thick walls and air scoops that help cool the building naturally. DID YO U KNO W? Hassan F athy is q uoted as aid, “Arc hitecture is music frozen in place and mus ic is arc hitecture frozen in time.” W hat do you supp ose he m eant by this? having s 8 © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Culture-Conscious HASSAN FATHY Architect H
SE A T GH assan Fathy is famous as a humanitarian architect. He built RCH LI homes and buildings that put people’s needs first. Fathy was born in 1900 in Alexandria, Egypt. He studied there and began his career in Egypt. Fathy’s goal was to build affordable housing for local Egyptian people. He felt that many European building methods and designs that had come into his country weren’t right for it. He The New Gourna Village thought houses should be built from local materials, according to was built of local designs, and with traditional methods. By building this a) sticks. way, he lowered the cost of his houses and respected the culture b) straw. of the area as well. In addition, traditional methods and c) mud. materials tended to suit the local climate best. Because Egypt is a very hot country, it is important to make houses as cool as possible. Fathy’s buildings often had thick walls (to keep out heat) surrounding interior courtyards. Air scoops on the roofs caught winds from the desert and funneled them down through the buildings. By these natural methods, Fathy managed to keep the houses cool inside. One of Fathy’s most famous creations was the New Gourna Village near Luxor, Egypt. The original village was near the archaeological digs of ancient Luxor and had to be relocated. Fathy trained the local people in the ancient tradition of mud-brick construction. The people then built themselves new homes that were Hassan Fathy. almost entirely of mud bricks and that kept all Courtesy of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture the good features of their former homes. Fathy died in 1989, but his work has inspired many young architects in the Middle East. He promoted ideas that adapted traditional styles and methods to the needs of the present day. © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ★ Answer: c) mud. Courtesy of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture LEARN MORE! READ THESE ARTICLES… CHARLES DICKENS • NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN • MICHELANGELO 9