Alexander Calder was born in 1898, the second child of artist parents—his father was a sculptor and his mother a painter. Because his father, Alexander Stirling Calder, received public commissions, the family traversed the country throughout Calder's childhood. Calder was encouraged to create, and from the age of eight he always had his own workshop wherever the family lived. For Christmas in 1909, Calder presented his parents with two of his first sculptures, a tiny dog and duck cut from a brass sheet and bent into formation. The duck is kinetic—it rocks back and forth when tapped. Even at age eleven, his facility in handling materials was apparent.

ROBERT MOTHERWELL (1915–1991)

An articulate, intellectual talent among the abstract expressionists, Robert Motherwell was born in 1915 in the State of Washington. While attending Stanford University (1932–1937), Motherwell took his first trip to Europe. After receiving his undergraduate degree, he began graduate coursework in philosophy at Harvard University. During a stay in Europe in 1938–1939, he had his first one-person exhibition in Paris. In 1940, he studied art history with Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University, and through Schapiro, he met many European surrealist painters. Motherwell soon devoted most of his time to painting. After settling in New York in 1941, he began writing and lecturing on modern art and became associated with the group of American artists whose work had been influenced by the surrealists’ ideas of automatism, a process of making art through subconscious free association—Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, William Baziotes, and Hans Hofmann. Motherwell, the youngest of this group of abstract painters, sought to create imagery that communicated the emotional truths of an authentic self and reflected a collective human consciousness.

Jasper Johns was born in Georgia in 1930 and grew up in South Carolina. After moving to New York City to pursue a career as an artist, he found fame in the 1950s for his paintings of flags, targets and other ordinary objects; this work was a change from Abstract Expression and helped usher in the Pop Art era. Over the course of his career, he has collaborated with an array of other artists, including choreographer Merce Cunningham. Johns, who also works in sculpture and printmaking, remains a leader in the art world.

1928

Edwin Parker Twombly is born in Lexington, Virginia, on April 25. His father, Edwin Parker Twombly Sr., was born in Groveland, Massachusetts, and his mother, Mary Velma Richardson, came from Bar Harbor, Maine. Edwin Twombly Sr. was a professional baseball player who once pitched for the Chicago White Sox in the American League. He was Athletic Director of the Washington and Lee University in Lexington and he was so admired by the college that a new swimming pool was named the "Twombly Natatorium" in his honor. The artist inherited his father’s baseball nickname “Cy”, after the baseball player Cyclone Young.

Dawoud Bey was born as David Edward Smikle on November 25, 1953, in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York. Bey received a BFA in Photography from Empire State College in 1990 and then later finished his masters degree at the Yale University School of Art.

Radiohead are one of the most celebrated alternative rock groups of the last two decades, wowing critics while maintaining a sizable following across the globe despite their insistence on producing challenging, forward-thinking music. When the British band began in the '90s, they resembled a traditional modern-rock group, but in subsequent years the quintet have slowly moved away from conventional guitar-and-drum-based music to explore experimental structures and tones. They may not be the most popular group in rock, but they're certainly one of the most respected.

Former 'Saturday Night Live' cast member Chris Rock has appeared in such films as 'Bad Company' and is the creator of the television show 'Everybody Hates Chris.'

Who Is Chris Rock?

Comedian Chris Rock grew up in Brooklyn, New York. At age 18, he was discovered by Eddie Murphy at New York's Comedy Strip. He went on to appear in films and on Saturday Night Live, and soon released his first comedy album.

Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick were born and raised in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. As husband and wife team, they have been documenting Louisiana and its people for more than 25 years. In New Orleans, they have documented the music culture, which consists of Brass Bands, Jazz Funerals, Social and Pleasure Clubs, Benevolent Societies, and the Black Mardi Gras Indians.