Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Arts & Music

35

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Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez

Diego Rivera

Mexico

8 December 1886 – 24 November 1957 (70 years old)

Preeminent Mexican muralist whose monumental public frescoes revitalized mural painting worldwide, celebrating indigenous Mexican heritage, labor struggles, and revolutionary socialist ideals.

Mexico City, Mexico

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Arts & Music

3,454

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Jean Sibelius

Johan Julius Christian Sibelius

Finland

1865 – 1957 (91 years old)

Finland's greatest composer whose monumental symphonies and tone poem Finlandia galvanized Finnish national identity.

Järvenpää, Finland

3,454 Full Record →

Arts & Music

36

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Constantin Brâncuși

Constantin Brâncuși

Romania

19 February 1876 – 16 March 1957 (81 years old)

Romanian-French sculptural visionary who stripped form to its pure, primordial spiritual essence through direct carving in bronze, marble, and oak, creating The Kiss, Bird in Space, and The Endless Column.

Paris, France

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Arts & Music

0

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Moustafa Farroukh

مصطفى فروخ

Lebanon

25 November 1901 – 16 February 1957 (55 years old)

Pioneering Lebanese master painter who studied in Rome and Paris, documenting the landscapes, historic villages, and cultural leaders of Lebanon.

Beirut, Lebanon

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Arts & Music

10

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Hadj Bouchiba

الحاج بوشيبة

Algeria

1903 – 1957 (54 years old)

Founding father of the modern Chaabi mandole and lyric poet who mentored Dahmane El Harrachi and composed foundational standards of popular Algerian song.

Algiers, Algeria

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Arts & Music

27

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Alexander Rodchenko

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko

Russia

1891 – 1956 (64 years old)

Russian Constructivist artist, graphic designer, and photographer who declared the death of painting to pioneer radical diagonal photography, photomontage, and functional design.

Moscow, Soviet Union

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Arts & Music

23

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Art Tatum

Arthur Tatum Jr.

United States

1909 – 1956 (47 years old)

American jazz pianist renowned as the supreme virtuoso in the history of the instrument, whose lightning speed, complex reharmonizations, and stride mastery astonished classical and jazz peers.

Los Angeles, United States

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Arts & Music

26

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Kenji Mizoguchi

溝口 健二

Japan

1898 – 1956 (58 years old)

Japanese filmmaker renowned for Ugetsu, The Life of Oharu, and Sansho the Bailiff, master of hypnotic long takes and fierce, compassionate chronicler of women's suffering in feudal Japan.

Ikegami (Tokyo), Japan

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Arts & Music

1,555

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Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock

United States

1912 – 1956 (44 years old)

American painter and leading force in Abstract Expressionism, world-famous for his radical 'drip painting' technique.

Springs, Long Island, New York, United States

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Arts & Music

25

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Emil Nolde

Emil Hansen

Germany

1867 – 1956 (88 years old)

German-Danish Expressionist master renowned for his explosive color palettes, violent brushwork, brooding North Sea landscapes, and incandescent biblical cycles.

Seebüll, Germany

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Arts & Music

30

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Lyonel Feininger

Lyonel Charles Feininger

United States

1871 – 1956 (84 years old)

German-American modernist painter and graphic artist celebrated for his prismatic, architectural Cubism and iconic leadership as the first master of the Bauhaus print workshop.

New York City, United States

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Arts & Music

0

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Mistinguett (Jeanne Bourgeois)

Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois

France

1875 – 1956 (80 years old)

Legendary queen of the Parisian music hall who reigned over the Moulin Rouge, Folies Bergère, and Casino de Paris, world-famous for her million-franc insured legs and the immortal anthem Mon Homme (My Man).

Enghien-les-Bains (Val-d'Oise), France

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Arts & Music

31

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Maria Izquierdo

María Cenobia Izquierdo Gutiérrez

Mexico

1902 – 1955 (53 years old)

Mexican painter celebrated for her lyrical, folkloric compositions, still lifes of folk altars, and circus scenes, who in 1930 became the first Mexican woman to hold a solo art exhibition in the United States.

Mexico City, Mexico

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Arts & Music

29

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Max Pechstein

Hermann Max Pechstein

Germany

1881 – 1955 (73 years old)

German Expressionist painter and printmaker who brought Die Brücke to broad public acclaim with his luminous, decorative compositions of bathers and Pacific island landscapes.

West Berlin, Germany

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Arts & Music

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Charles Parker Jr.

Charlie Parker

United States

29 August 1920 – 12 March 1955 (34 years old)

Legendary alto saxophonist and co-inventor of Bebop with Dizzy Gillespie, whose blistering tempos, chromatic substitutions, and soaring improvisational logic revolutionized 20th-century music.

New York City, United States

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Arts & Music

16

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Hadj M'rizek

الحاج مريزق (عمر ضرابحة)

Algeria

c. 1912 – 1955 (43 years old)

Charismatic master of Algerian Chaabi music who popularized the modern tempo of Hawzi and Medh ballads, serving as honorary vice-president of Mouloudia Club d'Alger (MCA).

Algiers, Algeria

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Arts & Music

30

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Yves Tanguy

Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy

France

1900 – 1955 (55 years old)

French-American Surrealist painter acclaimed for his hallucinatory, boundless dreamscapes populated by enigmatic biomorphic forms, mineral stones, and infinite horizons.

Woodbury, United States

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Arts & Music

37

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Henri Émile Benoît Matisse

Henri Matisse

France

31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954 (84 years old)

Titan of 20th-century modern art and undisputed leader of the Fauves ('Wild Beasts') whose radiant decorative harmonies in The Dance (La Danse) and late gouache cut-outs revolutionized color and line.

Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), France

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