Leslie-Lohman Gallery

MILESTONES: A Timeline of Gay and Lesbian Artists and History

It is, of course, impossible to create a truly comprehensive list of our artist ancestors. We can never know all the names of people who labored anonymously in ancient courts and over the centuries in cathedrals and town halls, in palaces and pavilions — but we can be sure, given the very nature of art, that vast numbers of them were what we now call "gay." This list constitutes a small but heartfelt act of gratitude and homage for what they did and what they have given us.

— Charles Leslie

The following timeline is a record of the history and influence of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered artists upon the world at large. It is a simple yet powerful list testifying to our existence. A few literary figures, composers, dancers and events are interspersed for continuity but this is mainly a list of visual artists.

The list is in order by date of birth with lesbians & women in red and gay men in blue. Please note that every name on this list is not necessarily gay but may be included as a timeline marker.

(This list is compiled and maintained by Wayne Snellen. Special thanks to Tee A. Corinne for sharing her list of lesbian artists with LLGAF and for her continuing support of this project. Also to Charles Leslie who has made many helpful suggestion. If you would like to be included email me. Be sure to specify your birth date, nationality, and type of artist.)

For sources see bottom of page.

1000 B.C.E.
1 C.E. | 1300 | 1400 | 1500 | 1600 | 1700 | 1800 | 1850 | 1860 | 1870 | 1880 | 1890
1900 | 1910 | 1920 | 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000
Sources

Period/Movement	Date(s)	Event/Person

Ancient	30,000 B.C.E.	Cave paintings at Lascaux, Venus of Willendorf and those ithyphallic figures
	4,000 B.C.E.	Sumerian writing appears
	3,000 B.C.E.	Copper in wide use in Egypt & Near East
	2900 - 2700 B.C.E.	Great Pyramids & Great Sphinx at Giza
	2700 B.C.E.	Gilgamesh (Gilgamesh & Enkidu recorded c. 628 B.C.E.). In this legendary friendship many scholars see a homosexual subtext.
	2460 B.C.E.	Niankhkhnum & Khnumhotep (two Egyptian lovers or brothers buried together)
	2000 B.C.E.	Bronze Age in Europe
	1500 B.C.E.	Stonehenge constructed in England
	1390 - 1330 B.C.E.	Alabaster statue of Pharaoh Akhenaten (18th Dynasty) and Prince Smenkhcara. NOTE: Akhenaten, also called Nefer-Kheperu-Ra and husband of Queen Nefertiti commanded an unknown court sculptor to style Smenkhcara as "The Beloved of Akhnaten" and to render them in alabaster in a conjunction that is considerably more than fraternal and was indeed a jutaposition that was reserved for images of a husband and wife.

	1000 B.C.E.	David, King of Israel (Some scholars see a homosexual subtext in the friendship between David & Jonathan, Ruth & Naomi, and, indeed, even between Jesus and John)
	950 B.C.E.	Solomon's Temple built in Jerusalem
	800 B.C.E.	Homeric epics Iliad & Odyssey recorded in Greece
	776 B.C.E.	Olympic Games in Greece founded
	753 B.C.E.	Rome founded by Romulus
	612 - ? B.C.E.	Sappho, poet
	525 B.C.E.	Buddha's Great Enlightenment
Greek & Roman Classical	322 - 443 B.C.E.	Pindar, Greek musician & poet
	450 - 420 B.C.E.	Polykleitos, referring to the Doryphoros Pliny stated, "he alone of human kind is deemed to have emboided the principles of his art in a single work."
	ca. 490 - 430 B.C.E.	Phidias, Greek sculptor, artistic director of the construction of the Parthenon
	447 - 432 B.C.E.	Parthenon erected in Athens
	375 - 340 B.C.E.	Praxiteles, Greek sculptor
	399 B.C.E.	Death of Socrates
	fl. 390 B.C.E.	Lysippos, personal sculptor to Alexander the Great.
		(NOTE: The Greek artists Phidias, Polykleitos, Lysippos and Praxiteles, regardless of their own sexuality — and dozens of other artists, produced countless images of male lovers in which the Greek world was awash; e.g., innumerable bronzes and marbles of Zeus and Ganymede, Achilles and Patroklus, Herakles and Iolaus, Herakles and Hylas, Dionysius and Ampelos, Apollo and Hyakinthos, Orestes and Pylades, and Harmodius and Aristogeiton
	221 - 206 B.C.E.	Great Wall of China
	65 - 5 B.C.E.	Horace, Greek poet,
	38 B.C.E.	Laocoon
	4 B.C.E.	Birth of Jesus of Nazareth
	1 B.C.E.	Reclining Hermaphrodite, Greek

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	1 C.E.
	32 C.E.	St. Peter (first Pope)
	72 - 80 C.E.	Colosseum built in Rome
	79 C.E.	Pompeii & Herculaneum buried by Mt. Vesuvius (many homoerotic scenes were painted on the walls of Pompeii
	88 C.E.	Pope Clement I (first Pope for whom any reliable information is known)
	105 C.E.	Invention of paper in China
	117 - 138 C.E.	Hadrian & Antinuous, Emperor Hadrian in his agony of grief over the death of his young lover, the beautiful, Bythnian youth Antinuous, raised the boy to godhood.
		Throughout the Roman Empire hundreds of busts and full statues of Hadrian and Antinuous appeared. Although all the artists were not necessarily gay -- (but many surely were) -- all these busts and full statues were created to glorify and memorialize one of the great gay loves of history.
	140 C.E.	Venus of Milo, sculpture (rediscovered in 1820)
	300 C.E.	Mayan Calendar
	351 C.E.	Theodosius forbids the Olympic Games (approx.)
	476 C.E.	Fall of Rome
	523 - 537 C.E.	Hagia Sophia constructed in Constantinople
	540 C.E.	Empress Theodora introduces long white dresses, purple cloaks, gold emproidery, tiaras, and pointed shoes
	570 C.E.	Mohammad
	658 - 680 C.E.	Caedmon, English poet
	756 - 810 C.E.	Abu Nuwas, Arabian poet. Considered the greatest poet of his age in the Arab world and still revered although part of his work is now surpressed. One of the sections of his more than 5,000 surviving verses is devoted to "the love of youths."
Byzantine	800 C.E.	Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome
	801 C.E.	Charlemagne prohitits prostitution
	932 - 953 C.E.	The Nine Classics were first printed from woodblocks in China
	950 C.E.	The temples of Kahjuraho, an enigma to this day, they are covered with sculptural images of gods, goddesses and a sacred elite engaged in every manner of sexual congress including one strong image of a priest performing "auparishtaka", a sacred act of fellatio, on a visiting prince.
	990 C.E.	Development of systematic musical notation
	1048 - 1122 C.E.	Omar Khayyam, Persian poet & astronomer

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	1000 C.E.
Romanesque	1054	The Great Schism between Greek Orthodox & Roman Catholic churches
	1073	Pope Gregory VII orders Sappho's works destroyed in public bonfires in Rome and Constantinople
	1074	Excommunication of married priests
	1088	Chung-Jen, Chinese painter & priest paints with India ink on silk
	1100 C.E.
	1120	Angkor Vat founded in Cambodia
	1200 C.E.
Gothic	1200	University of Paris founded
	1215	Magna Carta signed by King John of England
	1240 - 1302	Cimabue, Italian painter
	1244 - 1314	Jacques De Molay, 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights Templer. Burned at the stake for denying Christ and trampling on the Holy Cross but he steadfastly denounced the accusations that the Albigensian initiation ritual consisted of homosexual practices.
	1250	Oxford University founded
	1267 - 1337	Giotto, Italian painter

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	1300 C.E.
Early Renaissance	1305 - 1306	Giotto paints frescoes in Arena Chapel, Padua
	1310 - 1321	Dante writes Divine Comedy
	1325	Development of Noh plays in Japan
	1350	Black Plague throughout Europe
	1350	Boccaccio writes Decameron

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	1400 C.E.
	1420	Oil paints came into general use
	1421	Peking established as capital of China
	1431	Joan of Arc burned at the stake at Rouen
	1435	Alberti writes della Pittura, treatise on Renaissance painting
	1445-1510	Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter
	1452-1519	Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter & scientist
	1456	Gutenberg prints Bible with movable type
	1467 - 1516	Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Italian, painter (student & lover of da Vinci)
High Renaissance	1475-1564	Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian sculptor, architect, painter, poet
	1477-1549	Giovanni Antonio Bazzi aka Il Sodoma, Italian painter
	1465	First printed music
	1490	Beginnings of ballet in Italian courts
	1492	Columbus reaches New World
	1494-1557	Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo, Italian painter
	1498	Savonarola burned at the stake in Florence (b. 1452)
	1498	Leonardo paints Last Supper in Milan

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	1500 C.E.
	1500-1571	Benvenuto Cellini, Italian sculptor, goldsmith, writer
	1503-1572	Agnolo Bronzino, painter
	506	Laocoon group unearthed in Rome
	1511	Vitruvius' De Architectura republished
	1514	Correggio discovers chiaroscuro
	1519 - 1522	Magellan circumnavigates the world
Mannerism	1529	Women seen for first time on Italian stages
	1534	Jesuit Order founded
	1542	Pope Paul III establishes Inquisition in Rome
	1542 - 1543	Portuguese first Europeans to visit Japan
	1543	Copernicus published theory that the planets orbit the sun
	1558	Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603) ascends the throne to became the queen of England
	1550	Vasari writes Lives of Artists
	1573-1610	Michelangelo da Caravaggio, painter
	1564 - 1593	Cristopher Marlowe, the greatest English playwrite before Shakespeare, "He who loves not tobacco and boys is a fool"
	1564 - 1616	William Shakespeare, the greatest English playwrte ever, and think of those sonnets to Master W.H...need I say more. In the 1640 edition John Benson changed all the "he" pronouns to read "she."
	1588	The defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English
	1597	Daphne, first opera, composed by Rinuccini and Peri

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Baroque	1600 C.E.
	1601 - 1602	Shakespeare writes Hamlet
	1602 - 1654	Jerome Dusquesnoy, Flemish sculptor, executed for sodomy
	1604	Cervantes writes Don Quixote
	1611	King James Bible published
	1619	First Negro slaves in English North America
	1620	Pilgrims settle at Plymouth
	1625 - 1689	Kristina, (Queen of Sweden 1644 - 1654)
	1626	Peter Minuit buys Manhattan
	1632	Taj Mahal built
	1642	Rembrandt paints Nightwatch
	1655 - 1743	Vittore Ghislandi (Fra Galgario), Italian painter
	1663	Milton writes Paradise Lost
	1669	Palace of Versailles begun
	1685	Handel & Bach

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	1700 C.E.
Rococo	1710	Meissen produces first true porcelain in Europe
	Fl. 1720	Margaret Clap (known as Mother Clap). Ran the best known and most popular molly house in 18th c. London
	1721	Bach composes Brandenburg Concertos
	1741	Handel composes Messiah
	1741 - 1825	Henry Fuseli, Swiss artist, writer
	1753	Foundation of British Museum
Neoclassism	1755 - 1831	Sarah Ponsonby and Eleanor Butler
	1757-1822	Antonio Canova, painter
	1759	Voltaire writes Candide
	1767 - 1824	Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, French painter
	1769	Watt invents steam engine
	1776	Declaration of Independence
	1779 - 1843	Washington Allston, American painter
	1789	George Washington becomes President
	1790 - 1833	Goethe writes Faust
	1793	Grand Gallery of Louvre opened

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	1800 C.E.
Romanticism	c. 1800 - c. 1992	Mary Ann Willson (Wilson), American painter, activist
	1805 - 1807	Beethoven composed the Fifth Symphony
	1809 - 1864	Hippolyte Flandrin, French painter -- heterosexual -- but best known for his painting, "Nude Young Man Seated on a Rock" (1835/6), which became an icon of gay imagery after Wilhelm von Gloeden took a photograph of a young man in the identical pose around 1900.
	1815 - 1882	Emma Stebbins, sculptor
	1818	Byron begins Don Juan
	1819 - 1892	Walt Whitman, poet
	fl. 1810 - 1825	Mary Ann Willson, American, drawing & watercolor
	1821-1915	Ann Whitney, sculptor
	1822-1899	Rosa (Marie Rosalie) Bonheur, French painter
	1825-1895	Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, -- considered the grandfather of gay liberation.
Hudson River School	1827-1910	William Holman Hunt, painter
	1830 - 1908	Harriet Hosmer, sculptor
	1830-1919	Emma Jane Gay, photographer
Realism	1835 - 1902	Samuel Butler, British painter & writer
	1837-1913	Okuhara Seiko, Japanese, poet & painter
	1837 - 1887	Hans von Marees, German painter
	1840-1905	Simeon Solomon, British painter
	1845 - 1909	Mary Edmonia Lewis, American sculptor, (may have been lesbian)
	1843 - 1917	Zahrtmann (Peter Henrik) Kristian, Danish painter
	1844-1916	Thomas Eakins, American painter
	1844-1927	Victorine Meurent, painter
Pre-Raphaelites	1848 - 1894	Gustave Caillebotte, painter
	1849 - 1896	Weiwha, Native American "berdache" (Zuni)

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	1850
Arts & Crafts	1852-1921	Seisui, painter, (female)
	1852 - 1929	Vincenzo Gemito, Italian sculptor
	1852 - 1930	Wilhelm von Pluchow, photographer
	1854 - 1900	Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, dramatist, wit
	1856 - 1925	John Singer Sargent, American painter
	1856 - 1942	Anna Klumpke, painter
	1856 - 1931	Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer
	1850 - 1935	Mary Lowndes, British, stained glass
	1858 - 1927	Louise Abbema, painter
	1858 - 1927	Henry Scott Tuke, British painter

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	1860
	1860	Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" published
	1860 - 1913	Frederick William Rolfe, British artist, writer
	1861 - 1865	American Civil War
	1961 - 1935	Dorothy Kate Richmond, New Zealand, painter
	1861-1943	Edith S. Watson, photographer
	1861-1951	Ethel Walker, painter
	1862 - 1915	Eugene Jansson, Swedish painter
	1862-1928	Loie Fuller (The Electric Fairy), dancer
Impressionism	1863	"Salon des Refuses" in Paris
	1863 - 1929	Carl von Platen, Swedish photographer
	1863-1937	Charles Shannon, painter (partner of Charles Ricketts)
	1864-1933	Fred Holland Day, American photographer
	1864-1952	Frances Benjamin Johnston, photographer
	1865	Yale University opens first Dept. of Fine Arts in U.S.
	1865 - 1941	Elizavera Kruglikova, Russian, printmaker (painter?)
	1865-1950	Elsie De Wolfe (Lady Mendl), American interior designer
	1866-1931	Charles Ricketts (partner of Charles Shannon), painter
	1866-1952	Alice Austen, photographer
	1867 - 1948	Dora Ohlfsen, Australian sculptor
	1867	Karl Heinrich Ulrichs made a speech urging the repeal of sodomy laws in Germany
	1876-1939	Gwen John, painter, , bisexual
	1869-1929	La Goulue (Louise Weber), dancer
	1869-1947	Frances Hodgkins, painter
	1969 - 1951	Andre Gide, French, author & Nobel Prize winner
	1869-1958	Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, architect

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	1870
	1870 - 1925	Magnus Enckell, Finnish painter
	1870-1949	Etta Cone, collector, amateur photographer
	1872 - 1929	Sergi Diaghilev, dance producer
	1872 - 1942	Elisar von Kupffer, German painter and poet
	1872 - 1898	Aubrey Beardsley, painter
	1873 - 1962	Ethel Sands, painter
	1874 - 1951	J(oseph) C(hristian) Leyendecker, German-American painter, illustrator
	1874 - 1961	Violet Oakley, American, painter, illustrator
	1874 - 1970	Romaine Brooks, American painter
	1875	The "Hermes" of Praxiteles found at Olympia, Greece
	1876 - 1972	Natalie Clifford Barney, amateur photographer
	1877 - 1943	Marsden Hartley, American painter
	1878 - 1939	Kuz'ma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkim, Russian, painter
	ca. 1878 -	Evelyn Wyld, designer
	1878 - 1939	Jessie Lillian Buckland, photographer
	1878 - 1976	Eileen Gray, architect, designer

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	1880
Post-Impressionism	1880	Metropolitian Museum of Art opened
Nabis	1880 - 1964	Carl Van Vechten, American photographer, writer,
	ca. 1881 - 1964	Kate Weatherby
Fauvism	1881?-1968	Florence Wyle, sculptor
	1882 - 1973	Evelyn Wyld, designer
	1883 - 1935	Charles Demuth, American painter
	1884 - 1937	Glyn Philpot, English, painter
	1885 - 1965	GAN (Gosta Adrian Nilsson), Swedish painter
	ca. 1885 - 1952	Margarethe Mather, photographer
	1885 - 1956,	Marie Laurencan, painter, bisexual
	1883 - 1964	Jane Heap, wrote about art & owned gallery
	1885 - 1975	Clara Sipprell, American photographer
	1885 - 1978	Duncan Grant, British painter
	1886 - 1931	Lili Elbe (Einar Wegener), Danish painter,
	1886 - 1972	Ella Louise Naper (nee Champion), bisexual
	1887 - 1963	Una Troubridge, born Una Elena Taylor, Lady Troubridge, sculptor
	1887 - 1966	Malvina Hoffman, sculptor
	1887? - 1968	Frances Loring, sculptor
	1894 - 1970	Mariette Lydis, Vienna-born painter, bisexual
	1888 - 1989	Eleanor Raymond, architect
	1887 - 1986	Georgia O'Keeffe, American, painter
	1889 - 1957	James Whale, British film director
	1889 - 1963	Jean Cocteau, French painter, writer, filmmaker
	1889 - 1978	Hannah Hoch, German collagist, bisexual

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	1890
Art Nouveau	1890-1950	Vaslav Nijinsky, dancer
	1890 - 1976	Jeanne Mammen, German illustrator
	1891-1956,	Cecile Walton, painter, bisexual
	1891-1979	Laura Gilpin, American photographer
	1892 - 1953	Hubert Stowitts, painter
	1892-1982	Djuna Barnes, painter
	1892 - 1990	Erte (Romain de Tirtoff), Russian-French designer, artist
Modernism	1893	New Zealand gives women the right to vote -- USA not until 1919
	1893-1968	Mercedes De Acosta, amateur photographer
	1894 - 1954	Claude Cahun (Lucy Renee Matilde Schwob) French photographer
	1894-1972	Violet Keppel Trefusis, drawings
	1894 - 1996	Eyre de Lanux, American designer, (bisexual)
	1895 - 1943	Willem Arondeus, Dutch painter
	1895 - 1957	Ottone Rosai, Italian painter
	1895-1978	Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein), British painter
Ashcan School	1896	"Die Jugend" & "Simplicissimus" important German art magazines first appear
	1897	Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Germany.
	1896 - 1956	Filippo De Pisis, Italian painter
	1897 - 1985	Germaine Krull, photographer, (bisexual)
	1898-1978	Dorothy Hepworth, painter
	1898?-1980	Tamara De Lempicka, Polish painter, (bisexual)
	1898-1957	Pavel Tchelitchew, Russian painter, stage designer
	1898 - 1977	Ellis Wilson, African American painter
	1898-1991	Berenice Abbott, photographer, bi
	1899-1965	Elizabeth McCausland, critic
	1899 - 1970	Sir William Dobell, Australian painter
	1899 - 1983	George Cukor, American theater and film director

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	1900 C.E.
	1900 - 1935	Rene Crevel, French Dadaist
	1901-1970	Thelma Wood, sculptor
	1900-1971	Patricia Preece, painter
	1897-1979	Dorothy Arzner, film director
	1900-1982	Betty Parsons, painter, art dealer
	1900-1988	Louise Nevelson, sculptor, bi
	1900 - 1991	Arno Breker, German sculptor
	1901 - 1979	Sir Norman Hartnell, British fashion designer and designer to the Queen and Queen Mother
	1901 - 1979	Beauford Delaney, American painter
	1901 - 1989	James Richmond Barthe, sculptor
	1902 - 1949	Christian Berard, French
	1902 - 1972	John Banting, British painter
	1903 - 1957	George Quaintance, American painter
	1903 - 1975	Herbert List, German photographer
	1903 - 1996	Count Eigil Knuth, Danish sculptor & explorer-archeologist
	1904 - 1978	Oliver Messel, British stage designer, artist
	1904-1980	Cecil Beaton, British photographer
	1904 - 1990	Angus McBean, British photographer
	1904 - 1994	Tatsuji Okawa, Japanese, painter
	1904-1999	Paul Cadmus, American painter
Expressionism	1905	First regular cinema established in Pittsburgh, Pa.
	1905 - 1976	Edward Burra, British painter
	1905 - 1994	Robert Medley, British set designer
	1905 - 1988	Jared French, American painter
	1905 -	Ruth Bernhard, photographer, bisexual
	1906 - 1976	Luchino Visconti, Italian filmmaker & opera director
	1906 - 1977	John Beresford Fowler, British interior decorator
	1906 - 1982	Walter Battiss, So African
	1906 - 1987	Richard Bruce Nugent, American artist, writer
	1906 -	Philip (Cortelyou) Johnson, American architect
	1907	Picasso's "Demoiselles d'Avignon"
	1907 - 1954	Frida Kahlo, Mexican Jewish painter, (bisexual)
Cubism	1907-1955	George Platt Lynes, American photographer
	1907 - 1974	Bruce of Los Angeles (Bruce Harry Bellas), American photographer
	1907 - 1996	Lincoln Kirstein, American art patron, writer, impresario
	1908 - 1996	Leonor Fini, Argentine-Italian artist, (bisexual)
	1908 - 1999	Quentin Crisp, British writer and public figure (attended many of LLGAF's openings)
	1908 - 2000	Gisele Freund, photographer
	1909-1992	Francis Bacon, British painter
	1909 - 1999	Horst (Horst P. Horst), German photographer

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	1910
	1910 - 1957	George Quaintance, painter
	1910 - 1989	Yannis Tsarouchis, Greek painter
	1910 - 2008	John B. Lear, American, painter
Der Blaue Reiter	1911 - 1975	Alexis Preller, South African, painter
	1912- 1992	John Cage, American musician
	1912 - 1977	Keith Vaughan, English painter
	1912 - 2004	Agnes Martin, American painter
	1911 - 1999	Lon of New York (Alonzo Hanagan), photographer
	1913 - 1999	James Broughton, American filmaker
	1914 - 1962 & 1913 - 1966	Robert Colquhon & Robet MacBryde, Scottish painters aka the Two Roberts
	1913	The Armory Show in New York
	1914 - 1918	World War I
	1915 - 1989	Donald Friend, Australian painter, illustrator, writer
	ca. 1915 -	Go Hirano, Japanese, painter
	1916-1982	Martin Battersby, painter
Dada	1916 - 1986	Brion Gysin, English Surrealist
	1916 - 1989	Neel Bate aka Blade, American painter, illustrator
	1916 - 1990	Alfonso Ossorio, Flipino American painter and assemblagist
	1917 - 1957	John Minton, British painter, illustrator
De Stijl	1917 - 1983	Lloyd Lozes Goff, American painter
	1917 - 2002	Mary Meigs, painter
	1918 - 1963	Sonia Sekula, painter
	1918 - 2003	Rollie McKenna, photographer
	1918 -	Bernard Perlin, American painter
Bauhaus	1919 - 1998	Bill Ward, painter, illustrator

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	1920
Surrealism