The Canon · 02

The Essentials

The artists you need to understand the major routes into modern and contemporary art.

01Claude MonetThe artist who taught painting to see light.02Diego VelazquezThe painter who made looking itself the subject.03Edouard ManetThe man who dragged painting into the present.04Francisco GoyaThe bridge between the old world and the modern one.05Frida KahloThe self becomes the battlefield.06Georgia O'KeeffeThe intimate becomes monumental.07Jean-Michel BasquiatThe street enters the canon.08Mark RothkoPainting becomes an experience.09Paul CezanneThe painter who quietly broke reality apart.10Piet MondrianThe artist who reduced painting to its bones.