The relationship between artist biography and work is one of tension—a problem that this volume addresses through the biographies of well-known 20th-century artists, including Jean Cocteau, Marilyn Monroe, Thomas Bernhard, and Václav Havel. It takes into account not only the public life (which thus becomes a work of art in itself) but also the reception in biographical texts, films, and other media. The synthesis of literature, music, and the visual and performing arts, as presented in this volume for the first time, allows for an abstraction from the respective production conditions and opens up a view of overarching artist concepts. Furthermore, it reveals the significance of gender and ethnicity-related factors in the construction of artist lives.