Although personally very shy, Schille possessed unusual courage and strength of will, which was reflected in both her independent lifestyle and in her work, as she continually worked to master new modes of painting throughout her career. A German critic once referred to Schille as "this daredevil disciple of art who is interested in anything and afraid of nothing."

Women of Allah

The photographic series titled Women of Allah, which also included Speechless consisted of a series of black and white images of chador-dressed women, including images of the artist herself. The black and white images were covered primarily in black text and frequently focused on various body parts such as the eyes, face, hands, and feet. In some scenarios, the models would gaze directly at the audience, posing with a rifle in a provocative way, while nonetheless dressed in full Islamic garb.

Julie Mehretu, (b. 1970, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) lives and works in New York City. She received a B.A. from Kalamazoo College, Michigan, studied at the University Cheik Anta Diop, Dakar Senegal, and received a Master’s of Fine Art with honors from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1997.

Anna Kristine Brondum was born on August 18, 1859, in Skagen, Denmark. Her father, Erik Andersen, was the owner of the Brondums Hotel in Skagen, while her mother, Ane Hedvig Moller, was a housewife. Skagen is located in the northern area of Denmark, and hence, it has always been a popular tourist attraction for its breath-taking and picturesquely scene beauty. Growing up in this beautiful valley, Anna’s artistic perceptions and aesthetics were considerably influenced by the natural beauty in her picturesque surroundings, and she began to show remarkable talent from a very early age.

PETRA CORTRIGHT, the 29-year-old Californian who has emerged from the art world’s post-internet sensationalism of the mid-2000s, shares this affinity with the founder of IMPRESSIONISM. And beyond botanicals, her current practice is increasingly aligned with Impressionist ideas, but for the 21st-century set. While Monet and his male counterparts reflected on the experience of seeing in late 19th-century France, Cortright does just this in the present moment, reflecting on the digital landscape.

Peter Doig was born in Edinburgh in 1959 to Mary and David Doig. At the age of two, his family moved to Trinidad where his siblings Andrew and Sophie were born. When he was seven, the family moved to Montreal, Canada, due to his father's job as a shipping merchant. He was sent to a Scottish boarding school from the age of 12 thanks to money left by a great-aunt, but after three years of unhappiness, his parents let him come home. His mother had been worried he'd be expelled; he was "an adventurous, free spirit" in her words.

Pacita Abad was a celebrated Filipino artist. Characterized by her rhythmic repetitions of form, pattern, and color, Abad's work shifts between abstraction and representation while consistently employing the rich reds, purples, and yellows of Islamic Filipino textiles and culture. Notable for developing the technique of trapunto painting, a re-interpretation of Italian quilting techniques, Abad began stuffing her later canvases with culturally charged items such as shells, textiles, and mirrors, and also began affixing them to the surface of her amalgamate works. Born on October 5, 1946 in Batanes, the Phillipines, she traveled extensively and went on to live on six out of the seven continents. She notably studied painting at several American institutions, including The Art Students League in New York and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Towards the end of her extremely prolific career—having produced some 5,000 works—Abad began creating large-scale installation. This culminated in her work on the Alkaff Bridge in Singapore, which she covered with thousands of circular patterned shapes in her characteristic hues. Before her death on Batan Island in the Phillipines on December 7, 2004, the artist achieved widespread acclaim, breaking an institutional gender barrier as the recipient of the TOYM Award for Art in the Philippines in 1984.

Dr. Seuss, pseudonym of Theodor Seuss Geisel, (born March 2, 1904, Springfield, MA, U.S.—died September 24, 1991, La Jolla, California), American writer and illustrator of immensely popular children’s books, which were noted for their nonsense words, playful rhymes, and unusual creatures.