19 Famous Modern Artists You Should Know. 23 October, 2020   

Not many people can influence our lives more than an artist. We all love and adore artists and respect them for what they have done and stood for. They bring character and desire to our life, inspires us in a way that we can change ourselves. 

Art has the power to influence and convey a message to the world beautifully and strongly, and it reaches thousands of people across the world.

Many famous modern artists revolutionize society through their hard work and creativity. Without them, this world wouldn’t be the same. Let us talk about some of the best in their category.

Pablo Picasso 

One of the best painters in the world's history, Picasso is a Spanish painter famous for the art movement known as Cubism. He owns near 1900 artworks, and many of them are on the list of the expensive arts that were sold. Guernica, based on the war, is considered to be his best work. 

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was a victim of mental instability. He shot himself to death, but his artworks have made him an important figure in modern art. He was a Post-Impressionist artist, and his artwork is rich with dramatic brushwork and bold colors. The Starry Night, the Sunflower series are some of his famous works.

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was someone who thought out of the box and went with surrealism instead of rationalism. He used to paint bizarre images born from wild imagination, but everything with a purpose has a certain element of meaning with them. The Persistence of Memory in1931 had melted watches which deals with a different perception of time.

Frida Kahlo

Frida was a victim of a tragic accident, which made her undergo 35 different operations in her life. He started painting while she was at the hospital and focused mainly on self-portraits. She is the most famous modern female artist and is an icon for many.

Claude Monet

Regarded as the founder of the art movement Impressionism. He was born in 1840, was a French citizen. He had used strong colors, poses, and background that changed with the power of light, meaning different interpretations of colors in different lighting conditions. ‘Water Lilies’ is his most famous artwork, and he is known to be one of the best painters ever.

-Maybe the artists with the most fans would be singers; singing is a powerful medium. It can relax you, motivate you, manipulate you! It can tell a story too, and social media made it easy to access lots of songs.

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) was a singer-songwriter, pianist, guitarist. He is the co-founder of the British band Queen. He was famous for his vocal range and flamboyant stage performance. He was of Persian Descent and was born in Zanzibar. His hits include ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ ‘Killer Queen,’ ‘Somebody to love,’ and many more. He died of Bronchopneumonia. He is indeed one of the famous modern artists that reformed the world of music.

Michael Jackson

The King of Pop, MJ (1958-2009), was an American singer, dancer, and songwriter. He made the Pop Industry his own by breaking the records through his albums Thriller, Bad, Dangerous. His unbelievable voice control and the historic dance moves made him the greatest entertainer on stage. Moonwalk, The Lean are iconic dance moves that people still use, and his clothing style was unique. 

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley (1935-1977) was an American Singer and Actor. Known as ‘The King’, he is a famous modern artist that everyone should know about. His career as a musician began in 1954.

 His best includes ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Hound dog,’ ‘Jailhouse Rock,’ and more. He passed away due to an attack, which is caused by an overdose of drugs.

Whitney Houston 

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (1963-2012) was an American singer, Actress. She is cited as the most awarded singer in Guinness book. She is one of the top-selling pop artists ever. She released her debut album at the age of 22. Her first Grammy came through the album ‘I’m your baby tonight’ in 1990. She made a comeback in 2009 from a life full of drugs, which made her deviate from her success. 

Robert Plant

Born in 1948, Robert Plant is a British Rock singer and writer, famous for being the lead in the band ‘Led Zeppelin.’  Plant also made an individual career in 1982, without breaking the strings with the band. Their second album Led Zeppelin 2, containing ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ ‘Ramble On,’ ‘Heartbreaker’ Reached top spots in the charts, and their band began to grow.

 In 1977, Plant’s son died due to viral infection, making him canceling much of the tours and taking a break. In 2009, He was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire, bestowed by Prince Charles. Also, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the UK Americana Music Association.

John Lennon

One of the famous modern artists, he is the co-founder of the renowned ‘Beatles.’ He and Paul McCartney met in 1957, and he joined Lennon’s Group, which later became the most successful band ever. 

Lennon left the Beatles in 1969. Few weeks after the release of the comeback album ‘Double Fantasy,’ Mark David Chapman, a deranged guy, Shot and killed Lennon in New York City. He died at the age of just 40 and was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987.

-We absolutely love an elegant piece of music, whether it is on stage or in a film, so it would be horrible if we don’t list some of the famous modern artists that are composers. Since there are different types of composers worldwide, we stick to the best film composers today. 

John Williams

51 Academy Awards nominations, winning 5 of them, 24 Grammy Awards, Seven and four British Academy Awards and Golden Globe awards respectively, is there anything more needed to clarify how great this individual is. 

He is an idol for every composer because he has set his standards so high. His career is onto the seventh decade, and some of his recognizable works include ‘Star War’ series, ‘Jaws,’ ‘Superman,’ ‘Indiana Jones’, ‘E.T,’ ‘Schindler’s List.’ 

Hans Zimmer

First of all, every artist is randomly listed here in every category; I said that because these composers I am going to talk about are hard to be numbered. If we argue about the best composer now, it might be between Hans and John Williams. German-born Hans Zimmer is considered one of the best, if not the best, film composer. 

His music and background score gives you Goosebumps and literally pulls you into the scene. His entry was through ‘The Buggles’, and the music video in which he was featured was an instant hit. His works include more than 150 films, including ‘The Lion King’ for which he bagged the Academy Award for Best Original Score. 

His other films include ‘Pirates of Caribbean,’ ‘Interstellar,’ ‘Gladiator,’ ‘Dark Knight’ Trilogy. He also has four Grammy Awards, three Classical BRIT awards, and more.

Ennio Morricone

Born in Italy, Ennio Morricone is also an orchestrator, Conductor, and Trumpet player. He tried a wide variety of styles in music. He has worked with more than 70 award-winning films.

 By 2013, he was able to sell over 70 million records across the globe. Nominated for six Oscars, he won his first Oscar in 2015 for the film ‘Hateful Eight’ by Quentin Tarantino, becoming the oldest person to win the award. He also has three Grammy, Three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, and more.

Howard Shore

Howard Leslie Shore was born in Toronto, Canada, and has composed for over 80 films, most notably for the ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘The Hobbit’ series. He has acquired 3 Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards and four Grammy Awards.

 He also composed few concerts, including the opera ‘The Fly’ in 2008 and the cello concert ‘Mythic Gardens’ in 2012.

-Maybe for the last part, we should talk about some personalities that actually doesn’t get considered as an artist, but is indeed, people with extraordinary skills and talent in a wide variety of fields. Yes, I am talking about the Directors who should also be listed in this list of famous modern artists. Directors have exceptional versatility and the ability to find quality materials for their film within a short period. They create successful movies back to back only by dedicating hours and hours to their project.

Steven Spielberg

People have huge respect and appreciation for Steven Spielberg because he is one of the most talented and Influential directors alive. 

He can be said to have a laid way for a new type of filmmaking in Hollywood. His works include ‘Jaws,’ ‘Indiana Jones’, ‘E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial,’ ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Schindler’s List,’ ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and more. He mostly works with composer John Williams and Actor Tom Hanks.

 Spielberg also produced must acclaimed films like ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Back to future’ series. He has won two Academy Awards out of the nominated seven in Best Director Category.

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino has created films on an entirely different base. He has used not such typical storylines, strong dialogues, and aggressive scenes that completely capture the situation's mood. His films include the ‘Kill Bill series,’ ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ‘Inglorious Basterds,’ ‘Django Unchained,’ and more. He has won two Academy Awards and two BAFTA Awards for Original Screenplay. 

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese is active since 1963 and is considered to be the best among the directors. He is known for Slow-Motion and Freezing-Frames. In 2007, he founded the World Cinema Foundation. His works include ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘Raging Bull,’ ‘The Departed,’ ‘The Aviator.’ He is close to Actor Di Caprio, who leads in many of his films. He was nominated eight times for Best Director Academy Award and won one for the film ‘The Departed’.

Christopher Nolan

Born in London, Nolan is famous for his themes, including time, memory distortion, and cosmic science.  He debuted through ‘Following’ in 1998. He rose to fame through his second film ‘Memento.’ His famous works include ‘Dark Knight Trilogy,’’ Inception,’ ‘Interstellar,’ ‘Dunkirk.’ His films have collected more than US$4.8 Billion worldwide and got 34 nomination Academy Awards and ten wins.  

There are many categories to consider when talking about famous modern artists, and these categories would continue to grow. It is cruel even to rank these individuals because they have done so much in the world.

Actors are very much prone to favoritism and Sculpture to perspective; an entirely new article might be needed to list them. No doubt they equally important to the people above.

It is great to be a fan of some artists, but it's greater to be a fan of all of them. We have unlimited access to their works, so find the time and flow away in their magnificent artworks.