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LAUREN BACALL
With her unmistakable voice, commanding gaze and cool intelligence, Lauren Bacall helped redefine the modern screen heroine.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach transformed counterpoint, harmony and sacred music into an inexhaustible architecture of human emotion.
FRANCIS BACON
Painter Francis Bacon distorted the human figure into raw visions of flesh, isolation and psychological violence.
ERYKAH BADU
Singer, songwriter and cultural provocateur Erykah Badu fused soul, jazz, hip-hop and Afrofuturism into a sound and presence entirely her own.
CHET BAKER
Trumpeter and singer Chet Baker made vulnerability sound dangerous, turning West Coast jazz into an intimate study of beauty, damage and restraint.
JOSEPHINE BAKER
Performer, wartime resistance agent and civil-rights activist Josephine Baker transformed international celebrity into a platform for freedom.
JAMES BALDWIN
Novelist, essayist and witness James Baldwin confronted America with the intertwined realities of race, sexuality, identity and power.
LUCILLE BALL
Comedian, actor and studio pioneer Lucille Ball transformed physical comedy while helping reshape the business and visual language of television.
LESTER BANGS
Critic Lester Bangs treated rock writing as a contact sport, mixing passion, argument, humor and self-exposure into a literature as unruly as the music.
TALLULAH BANKHEAD
Actor, wit and unapologetic libertine Tallulah Bankhead turned theatrical excess, sexual independence and a famously dangerous voice into legend.
BANKSY
Anonymous street artist Banksy turned walls, stencils and public disruption into a global language of satire, dissent and cultural sabotage.
BRIGITTE BARDOT
Actor and cultural icon Brigitte Bardot embodied a new kind of screen sexuality, helping overturn the conventions of postwar cinema and celebrity.
DJUNA BARNES
Modernist writer and bohemian observer Djuna Barnes transformed queer desire, exile and emotional ruin into some of the twentieth century’s most haunting prose.
SYD BARRETT
Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett transformed English whimsy, childhood memory and psychedelic experimentation into a strange and enduring musical world.
BÉLA BARTÓK
Composer and field researcher Béla Bartók carried the traditional music of rural Eastern Europe into the radical language of modern composition.
RICK BARTON
Guitarist and songwriter Rick Barton carried Boston punk from the Outlets into the founding lineup of Dropkick Murphys and a lifetime of uncompromising rock & roll.
JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
Jean-Michel Basquiat carried the language of graffiti into the gallery, confronting race, power, history and celebrity with restless symbols and electric urgency.
BATMAN
Television’s Batman transformed a masked comic-book detective into a brightly colored collision of Pop Art, deadpan comedy and camp spectacle.
DOMENICO BECCAFUMI
Sienese painter Domenico Beccafumi pushed Renaissance harmony toward Mannerism through strange light, elongated figures and restless theatrical space.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven shattered classical boundaries, turning private struggle, revolutionary ambition and sheer force of will into monumental music.
ROBERT BENCHLEY
Humorist, actor and Algonquin Round Table regular Robert Benchley transformed confusion, procrastination and everyday incompetence into an elegant comic art.
BRENDAN BENSON
Singer, songwriter and member of the Raconteurs Brendan Benson turns sharp melodies, layered guitars and emotional unease into meticulously crafted power pop.
BERRY BERENSON
Photographer, model and actor Berry Berenson moved through fashion, film and art, documenting the creative world she also inhabited.
INGRID BERGMAN
Actor Ingrid Bergman brought emotional directness and luminous intelligence to Hollywood before risking her career to pursue artistic freedom in European cinema.
PAUL BERN
Hollywood producer Paul Bern helped shape MGM’s early success, but his mysterious death after marrying Jean Harlow became one of the studio era’s darkest legends.
HISHAM BHAROOCHA
Artist and musician Hisham Bharoocha moves freely among visual art, percussion, voice and performance, building immersive worlds from rhythm and repetition.
JELLO BIAFRA
Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra turned punk into political theatre, attacking conformity, censorship and American hypocrisy with corrosive satire.
AMBROSE BIERCE
Writer, Civil War veteran and merciless satirist Ambrose Bierce transformed horror, cynicism and the corruption of language into a distinctly American literature.
BJÖRK
Singer, composer and multimedia visionary Björk joins electronic experimentation, natural phenomena and raw emotion in a world perpetually being reinvented.
OTIS BLACKWELL
Songwriter Otis Blackwell helped build the language of rock & roll, supplying Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and others with songs made to ignite.
ART BLAKEY
Drummer and bandleader Art Blakey drove hard bop forward while turning the Jazz Messengers into an academy for generations of fearless improvisers.
RONEE BLAKLEY
Singer, songwriter and actor Ronee Blakley moved between recording studios, Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue and the fractured American spectacle of Nashville.
BETTY BLYTHE
Silent-screen star Betty Blythe became an emblem of Jazz Age extravagance through exotic spectacle, elaborate costumes and fearless sensuality.
MAX BOHM
Painter Max Bohm brought European training to Provincetown, helping establish the fishing village as a gathering place for American artists.
MARY BOONE
Gallery owner Mary Boone became a defining force in the overheated New York art market of the 1980s, where artists, money and celebrity collided.
SANDRO BOTTICELLI
Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli transformed mythology, beauty and spiritual longing into images whose graceful lines still define the Florentine imagination.
NADIA BOULANGER
Composer, conductor and legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger shaped twentieth-century music through generations of students while insisting that each discover an authentic voice.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN
Chef, writer and traveler Anthony Bourdain used food as a doorway into labor, place, politics and the complicated lives unfolding beyond the tourist map.
CLARA BOW
Silent-film star Clara Bow embodied the speed, sexuality and independence of the Jazz Age, becoming Hollywood’s original “It Girl.”
DAVID BOWIE
Singer, songwriter and master of transformation David Bowie turned identity itself into an art form, continually redrawing the boundaries of music, fashion and performance.
NEITH BOYCE
Writer and Provincetown Players co-founder Neith Boyce helped turn radical experiments in art, feminism and communal theatre into a new American stage.
RUSSELL BRAND
Comedian and media provocateur Russell Brand carried celebrity, personal reinvention and anti-establishment rhetoric into an increasingly contentious political arena.
MARLON BRANDO
Actor Marlon Brando brought danger, vulnerability and startling naturalism to the screen, permanently changing the language of American performance.
GEORGES BRAQUE
Painter Georges Braque helped invent Cubism by breaking objects and spaces into shifting planes, teaching modern art to see from several directions at once.
ASA BREBNER
Guitarist, songwriter and Boston rock & roll original Asa Brebner carried the city’s underground spirit through Jonathan Richman, Robin Lane, the Chartbusters and his own hard-won songs.
BERTOLT BRECHT
Playwright and theorist Bertolt Brecht used songs, alienation and political confrontation to prevent audiences from mistaking theatre for reality.
ANDRÉ BRETON
Writer and Surrealist instigator André Breton sought to liberate imagination from reason, transforming dreams, chance and the unconscious into a cultural revolution.
ISAAC BROCK
As the restless voice of Modest Mouse, Isaac Brock transformed isolation, anxiety and roadside American absurdity into jagged, searching indie rock.
LOUISE BROOKS
Actor and Jazz Age icon Louise Brooks brought fierce intelligence and modern sexuality to silent cinema before walking away from Hollywood on her own terms.
CLAUDE BROWN
Writer Claude Brown transformed his Harlem childhood, street life and survival into Manchild in the Promised Land, a landmark American memoir.
JAMES BROWN
Singer, bandleader and rhythmic revolutionary James Brown stripped popular music to the downbeat and built the foundation for funk, hip-hop and modern dance music.
JOAN BROWN
Bay Area painter Joan Brown transformed autobiography, domestic life, swimming and spiritual seeking into bold, eccentric narratives of personal reinvention.
LENNY BRUCE
Comedian Lenny Bruce turned the nightclub stage into a courtroom for free speech, exposing hypocrisy until censorship and prosecution consumed him.
FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI
Architect and engineer Filippo Brunelleschi recovered linear perspective and raised Florence’s impossible dome, helping invent the visual world of the Renaissance.
BOUDLEAUX BRYANT
With Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant wrote songs that moved effortlessly among country, pop, folk and rock & roll—helping build the musical language later called Americana.
FELICE BRYANT
With Boudleaux Bryant, Felice Bryant erased the borders between country, pop, folk and rock & roll, writing songs that became part of America’s shared musical memory.
LOUISE BRYANT
Journalist, revolutionary and Provincetown bohemian Louise Bryant reported from the Russian Revolution while challenging the limits placed upon women, politics and love.
MIKHAIL BULGAKOV
Novelist and playwright Mikhail Bulgakov used fantasy, satire and the Devil himself to expose censorship, conformity and absurdity under Soviet rule.
LUIS BUÑUEL
Surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel used dreams, blasphemy and deadpan absurdity to attack religion, respectability and the hidden appetites of the bourgeoisie.
VASHTI BUNYAN
Singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan disappeared after her fragile pastoral debut, only to return decades later as a quietly influential voice of outsider folk.
MILDRED BURRAGE
Painter, writer and preservationist Mildred Burrage carried Maine’s landscapes, communities and cultural memory into art while helping protect the history surrounding her.
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS
Writer William S. Burroughs cut language apart to expose addiction, control and institutional power, becoming the Beat Generation’s darkest and most disruptive voice.
TIM BURTON
Filmmaker Tim Burton built a gothic storybook universe where monsters are misunderstood, suburbia is terrifying and outsiders become unlikely heroes.
DAVID BYRNE
David Byrne transformed nervous rhythms, conceptual art and global musical curiosity into the distinctive language of Talking Heads before extending that restless imagination across film, theatre and multimedia performance.
AUBREY BEARDSLEY
Illustrator Aubrey Beardsley turned black ink, erotic suggestion and elegant provocation into a visual language that anticipated the modern counterculture.
RICHARD BUTLER
As the distinctive voice of the Psychedelic Furs, Richard Butler carried art-school abrasion, romantic disillusionment and post-punk atmosphere into the modern rock songbook.
BIG BILL BROONZY
Big Bill Broonzy carried country blues from the rural South into Chicago, adapting his commanding voice and rhythmic guitar to city bands while helping shape the path toward electric blues.
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