Maurer was born in New York City, the son of a German lithographer. At age sixteen, Maurer quit school to work at his father's lithographic firm. In 1897 Maurer left for Paris, where he stayed the next four years, joining a circle of American and French artists. At the time, Maurer's style was realist.
Briefly returning to New York, he was determined to show his skeptical father that he could paint. Maurer painted what arguably is his most famous painting "An Arrangement", using a woman next door as a model and completing the work (on a borrowed piece of cardboard) in a matter of hours. The painting received first prize at the 1901 Carnegie International Exhibition. Other awards received by Maurer included the Inness Jr. prize of the Salmagundi Club in 1900 and a bronze medal at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, New York in 1901. In 1905 he won the third medal at the Liège International Exposition and a gold medal at the International Exposition in Munich.
At age thirty-six, in Paris, Maurer changed his methods sharply. From that point on he painted only in the cubist and fauvist manner. By 1909 he was an important American avant-garde painter. He had a two-man exhibition with John Marin in New York City at the 291 Gallery. Four of his paintings were included in the Armory Show of 1913.
Leaving Paris shortly before World War I, he returned to his father's house, but was denied support. For the next 17 years, Maurer painted in a garret in his father's house, and gained no critical acclaim. However, he took part in exhibitions at the Anderson Galleries and others. He exhibited regularly at the New York Society of Independent Artists and was elected their director in 1919. In 1924 the New York dealer Erhard Weyhe bought the contents of Maurer's studio and represented the artist for the remainder of his career.
Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive was a British video game publisher. It was formed as Virgin Games Ltd. in 1981. The company became much larger after purchasing the budget label, Mastertronic in 1987. It was part of the Virgin Group. In 1994 it was renamed Virgin Interactive.
It published games for PC and systems, including the Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, C64, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast.
It helped the career of many developers, including Westwood Studios (who developed Command & Conquer Series and the PC port of Resident Evil) and Synergistic. Also, many workers for Shiny Entertainment, including David Perry, worked for Virgin before splitting off to create "Earthworm Jim".
Also among Virgin Interactive alumni are famed video game composer Tommy Tallarico, artist Doug TenNapel, designer David Bishop, animator Bill Kroyer, animator/artists Andy Luckey and Mike Dietz and programmer Andy Astor.
In 1993 Virgin Interactive created the "Digicel" process, originally for an unpublished game called "Dynoblaze". Key to developing the process were Dr. Stephen Clarke-Willson, David Perry, designer David Bishop, animator Bill Kroyer, animator artists Andy Luckey, animator Mike Dietz and programmer Andy Astor. The technology was first released to the general public in "Disney's Aladdin" for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis and subsequently on such projects as "The Lion King" video game.
The worldwide operations were acquired in a management buyout backed by Mark Dyne who became its Chief Executive Officer in 1998. Tim Chaney, the former Managing Director was named as President. The U.S. operations were spun out to Electronic Arts as part of its acquisition of Westwood Studios that same year.
The Company's assets were acquired by the French publisher Titus Software -- its name was changed to Avalon Interactive on July 1, 2003.
In May 2002, the Spanish division of Virgin Interactive, known as Virgin Interactive España, was purchased by Tim Chaney along with former Spanish president and founder Paco Encinas. The branch was then separated from the main Virgin Interactive company, already part of Titus Software, and kept its own identity as a Virgin brand. Renamed Virgin Play in October 2002, this Spanish publisher remains as the sole representation of the Virgin Group in the video game industry.
Charles Cecil
Charles Cecil MBE (born 11 August 1962) is an English video game designer. He has worked in the interactive entertainment industry for 25 years. He is currently the Managing Director for UK based company Revolution Software which has released such critical and commercial hits as "Beneath a Steel Sky" and the "Broken Sword" series. Cecil is on the advisory panel of the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival, and Develop Conference and regularly talks at events and to mainstream press about creative and commercial aspects of the video games industry. He is also a co-founder and director of Game Republic, an alliance of game developers, and is a Board member of Screen Yorkshire, a regional agency that supports movie, television and interactive entertainment in Yorkshire. In 2006, Cecil was awarded the status of ‘industry legend’ by Develop, Europe’s leading development magazine.
Barrington Pheloung
Barrington Somers Pheloung (born 1956 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian composer, now living in England. He is one of the most prolific television and movie composers in the UK, known for his wide range of compositional genres.
Best known for the theme and incidental music to the "Inspector Morse", for which he was nominated for 'Best Original Television Music' at the British Academy Television Awards in 1991, the sequel " Lewis", and the prequel "Endeavour". He has also composed for dance companies, such as the London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and for events, including the opening night of the Millennium Dome.. Pheloung also wrote the theme music for the BBC television series Dalziel & Pascoe.
His film work, includes "Hillary and Jackie", based on the life of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, for which he was nominated for the 'Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music' at the 52nd British Academy Film Awards. Other works include "A Previous Engagement", "The Little Fugitive", "Shopgirl", "Touching Wild Horses", "Twin Dragons", "Shopping" and "The Mangler". He also made the music to Revolution Software's adventure games In Cold Blood and the first two Broken Swords.
Pheloung's other work includes music for the Sydney Opera House's Twentieth Birthday Celebrations and he contributed to the music for the movie, "Truly, Madly, Deeply" in which he also appeared. He composed the incidental music for the first series of "Boon".
In 2009 he composed the music for "1983", the concluding episode of the acclaimed Channel 4 drama series "Red Riding".
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth (born September 13, 1937) is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for leaving The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and later directing of animated movies such as "The Secret of NIMH" (1982), "An American Tail" (1986), "The Land Before Time" (1988), "All Dogs Go to Heaven" (1989), "Anastasia" (1997), and "Titan A.E." (2000), as well as his work on the laserdisc game "Dragon's Lair".
He is also often credited for providing competition to Disney, and making them improve from their streak of less-successful movie efforts to the movies that would make up the Disney Renaissance.
Manierre Dawson
Manierre Dawson (December 22, 1887, Chicago, Illinois – August 15, 1969, Sarasota, Florida) was an avant-garde painter and sculptor. He was born and raised in Chicago, but lived most of his life in Michigan.