10 Artists Who Made It Without Art School

Image via Complex Original

Miranda July didn’t need art school to become the multi-talented artist, filmmaker, actress, and author that she is. After dropping out of UC Santa Cruz, July moved to Portland and quickly earned recognition for her performance art before making serious strides as a filmmaker. Her debut film (which she also stars in), Me and You and Everyone We Know, won numerous awards at Cannes, Sundance, and the L.A. Film Festival. In 2014 she went on to release an app called Somebody, where users can send a message to an unknown Somebody user near them, creating a rare offline/online connection and meeting opportunity. Dozens of films, books, and other projects later, July interviewed (and subsequently befriended) Rihanna for the New York Times Style Magazine, giving us Rih’s most revealing interview in years. 

Though Jean-Michel Basquiat’s mother gave him an early art education of sorts at The Brooklyn Museum (she enrolled him as a junior member), he didn’t take a liking to art school, and many would argue that he didn’t need it. Basquiat showed artistic promise at an early age and was trilingual by the time he turned 11. He dropped out of Edward R. Murrow High School in New York before going to experimental, internship-based school, City-As-School. Fast forward to the ’80s, and Basquiat was a successful artist with seemingly endless potential. Though he died young, his art is still some of the most valuable work out there, and his most expensive painting went for $48,843,750 at auction.

Frida Kahlo was always known for marching to the beat of her own drum, but also for being bold in the face of obstacles (like having polio since she was six years old and being in a horrible bus accident when she was 18). While recovering from the bus accident, Kahlo began painting self-portraits with an easel that was fixed above her bed. She attended one of the best schools in Mexico, Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, to study natural science, but never went to formal art school afterward. Her talent seems to transcend anything she would have learned in a classroom.

As a known musician, visual artist, and performance artist, Yoko Ono went to school in both Tokyo and New York before dropping out of Sarah Lawrence College. After moving to downtown New York, she quickly became part of the art scene and met her husband-to-be, John Lennon, at one of her gallery openings. She continues to use her art and music for activism and has had numerous retrospectives around the world.

JR states that the street is “the largest art gallery in the world,” and it’s clear that what he learned on the streets of the world has been more vital than anything he could have learned about photography in the classroom. The French artist began doing graffiti in Paris before finding a camera on the subway and developing his now signature aesthetic—pasting black and white photographs onto walls outside. In 2010, he won a TED Prize and has since collaborated with Robert DeNiro and the New York City Ballet. 

When Dustin Yellin speaks of why he dropped out of high school, he says, “I wasn’t learning about what I wanted to do.” Yellin’s early vision to be an artist was quite clear, so he left school and moved to New York to pursue his sculptural painting practice. After living in Chelsea and creating a 24-hour event space out of his loft, he purchased property in Red Hook and founded Pioneer Works. Yellin not only exhibits his art globally, he travels to remote locations to stay inspired. 

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, like many of the other artists on this list, got most of his art education on the streets and in the galleries of New York. He dropped out of Parsons and drew street portraits while working multiple jobs and taking photos in his free time. After his father became ill, Weiwei moved back to China and began connecting with other artists and publishing materials that documented their work. He has had numerous exhibitions globally and remains outspoken against the Chinese government in his art and on social media. In 2014, he installed multiple pieces on former prison site Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, and is also regarded as an architect due to his design collaboration for the Beijing National Stadium at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Though Haring learned about commercial art and had a stint both at The Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh, and later at School of Visual Arts, he ended up dropping out. The backstory is an amazing one, in that, part of the reason SVA didn’t work out for him was because his teachers wouldn’t give him credit for his art related to social activism. Haring’s defiance against institutional norms fueled much of his incredible, politicized works that often existed illegally on the streets and in subway stations. Though he died young, the influence of his loose doodle style is ubiquitous in the work of today’s artists.

As one of the richest living artists, Jasper Johns hardly needs an introduction. Many know him for his abstract paintings of flags and maps that have more depth than initially meets the eye. Though he learned some of it through his time at University of South Carolina and Parsons, he left both schools early and continued painting before and after his two years of service in the Korean War. His work is now considered timeless and more relevant than ever in discussions of nationalism, globalism, and symbolism. In 2010, President Obama presented him with the 2010 Medal of Freedom, which was given to 12 pioneers in sports, labor, politics, and arts.

David Choe has made a name for himself as a renegade, refusing to go about his art career in any traditional way. He dropped out of high school and the California College of Arts and Crafts and got his start doing graffiti and painting murals on the streets. Many know him for choosing company stock over a cash payment to paint Facebook’s first offices in Palo Alto, Calif. In 2012 when Facebook went public, his stocks were worth around $200 million. Additionally, Choe has done album-art projects, decorated movie sets, and has a podcast with Asa Akira.