1980s art star Eric Fischl is best known for his provocative pastiche paintings which focus on the female body and the seedy underbelly of suburban life. His wife is artist April Gornik.

Born in NYC, Fischl grew up unhappily in Phoenix. He hopped from Phoenix University to Arizona State University and finally the California Institute of the Arts where he earned his BFA. After snagging a job as a security guard at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, he was exposed to the art of Chicago's Hairy Who and started his own career as a "painter of the suburbs," embracing formerly taboo themes like adolescent sexuality and voyeurism. More recently, he may be best known for his controversial Tumbling Woman, a response to 9/11 which some considered to look like people falling from the building, his collaboration with the Museum Haus Esters in Germany, and his traveling gallery caravan, an "art circus" of sorts, which includes dozens of visual artists, musicians, and performance artists. [Image via AP]