Freshman Colloquium Art & Practice

Billie Holiday

• Famous black jazz and blues singer from the 1930s- 1959

• Political artist with a hard backstory

• Notable songs like Strange Fruit.

Keith Jarret

• Famous jazz improvisational pianist 

• Born 1945, rose to fame in 1966

• Still alive but unable to perform

• Active from 1966-2018

George Harrison

• Lead guitarist for The Beatles

• Active from 1958-2001

Nina Simone

• Famous black jazz/blues singer

• Political artist who fought for civil rights through music

• Active from 1954-2003

Aaron Copland

• American composer, critic, pianist, conductor, writer, and teacher, most known for his work as a classical composer who created an “American Sound” in classical music.

• Active from 1925-1983

Stephen Sondheim

• American composer and lyricist, credited as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater.

• Wrote the music for Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, and many more

• Active from 1952-2021

Lucian Freud

• 20th-century British painter, known for his figurative realism-style portraits 

• Active from 1939-2011

Edward Hooper

• One of America's most famous realist painters, most known painting being “Nighthawks” of a diner at night

• Active from 1908-1967

Georgia O’Keeffe

• Female modernist painter known for her landscape paintings and controversial abstract flower paintings perceived as depicting the female form. 

• Active from 1915-1971

David Hockney

• British painter, photographer, videographer, set designer, etc. 

• Most famous for portraits of friends and family, as well as landscapes

• Active from 1954-2026

Alexander Calder

• American sculptor known for his innovative and interactive mobiles as well as static sculptures

• Active from 1923-1976

Keith Haring

• Highly influential graffiti artist/painter, political advocate

• Active from 1978-1990

Egon Schiele

• Austrian Expressionist painter, known for his provocative and raw nude portraits.

• Active from 1906-1918 

Diane Arbus

• Candid street photographer, captured a wide range of subjects 

• Active from 1956-1971

Richard Avedon

• The most influential fashion photographer of all time, introduced movement to fashion photography, worked for Harpers Bazar 

• Active from 1944-2004

Robert Frank

• American candid photographer, photo series “The Americans”, one of the most influential photo series of all time

• Active from 1941-2019

Dorothea Lange

• American documentary photographer  documented poverty during the great depression, captured “migrant mother”

• Active from 1919-1965