Martin Lewis died in obscurity in 1962; a retired art teacher who had found some success in his early career, but was largely forgotten after the Great Depression took away the demand for his craft, leaving Lewis to spend his last three decades teaching other people how to etch. History chose Edward Hopper, but Martin Lewis was his mentor.

Today's social media landscape can make anonymity hard to come by. And yet, Banksy, the British graffiti artist whose works have caught the eye of average viewers and critics alike for decades has managed to maintain his. The elusive figure has succeeded in rising to great fame and navigating the art world without ever revealing his true identity. His art is sharply critical, putting modern societal ills on display with a unique brand of satire and stenciling.

Vivian Maier was an American street photographer whose body of work was only discovered after her death. Maier took over 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, capturing the people and architecture of Chicago on a Rolleiflex camera as she walked the city on her days off. Born on February 1, 1926 in New York, she moved to Chicago in 1956, working as a nanny for wealthy families in the North Shore neighborhood. Her work has been compared to Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and Weegee, both for her spontaneous shooting style and for her fascination with human behavior.

Wim Crouwel (Dutch, 1928–2019) was a giant figure in the history of graphic design. Crouwel produced an astonishing body of work that is at once functional and experimental, objective and personal. He designed some of the iconic typefaces such as New Alphabet and Gridnik, following an extraordinary career from designer to teacher to curator to museum director.

Jean Giraud, better known by his pen name Moebius, remains one of the most influential cartoonists of all time whose signature blend of psychedelic fantasy and surrealism formed the aesthetic blueprint of modern sci-fi. Working in the Franco-Belgian style of bandes dessinées, popularised by The Adventures of Tintin and Asterix, Giraud’s seminal contributions ushered in a new age for comics and the visual arts generally.

Guy Bourdin was a preeminent French fashion photographer. Best known for his commercial work, often featuring glossy, boldly colored compositions of sensual women in meticulously posed, staged scenes laced with sardonic humor. He was among the first to produce distinctly narrative fashion editorials, creating images that challenged mainstream notions of beauty while celebrating popular fashions. He produced countless iconic images for high-profile magazines and clients that included Vogue, Chanel, Gianni Versace, and Bloomingdale's, launching his artistic career after befriending the Surrealist artist Man Ray in 1950, who would serve as a mentor and influence throughout Bourdin’s life. Credited with changing fashion photography in the latter half of the 20th century, Bourdin's legacy is extensive, with several exhibitions at institutions such as at Whitechapel Gallery in London, The Jeu de Paume in Paris, the National Art Museum of China, and the Venice Biennale in 1957. Born in Paris, France on December 2, 1928, he died on March 29, 1991 in the city of his birth.

Syd Mead was a visual futurist, automotive designer, motion picture concept designer, industrial designer, and an inspiration to almost everyone working in the design fields. His world was larger than ours, the technology was bolder, magical even, the cars and transport sleeker and more luxurious, the architecture more graceful and geometric. Mead worked on a series of age-defying movies that transcended the current age, though his designs also extended to the real world, even if they were mostly a future projection on what Mead saw life to be like for humanity years from now. The self-proclaimed “Visual Futurist”, Mead brought–to the best of any concept artist’s ability–a sense of science fact into the world of science fiction. His designs of a futuristic Manhattan depict people using handheld devices long before smartphones were in use. His designs were not just fanciful, many had real-world applications.

In a world that is riddled with high-stress levels, fast-paced living, unrealistic pursuits of perfection, and a damaging affliction with materialistic wealth, there’s an ancient Japanese way of life that can be just what we need right now, to save us from our total demise. Wabi-sabi is an elegant philosophy that denotes a more connected way of living—a lifestyle, where we are deeply connected to nature, and thus, better connected to our truest inner-selves. Wabi-sabi is a concept that motions us to constantly search for the beauty in imperfection and accept the more natural cycle of life. It reminds us that all things, including us and life itself, are impermanent, incomplete, and imperfect. Perfection, then, is impossible and impermanence is the only way.