Born May 12: Ross Bleckner

Writing in Vanity Fair, Edmund White called Ross Bleckner, the New York neo-abstractionist who turns fifty-nine today, "the first serious painter since Degas to be all at once so social, so relentlessly frivolous, and so gifted." The New York Times called him, among many other things over the years, "the gay powerbroker and ubiquitous partygoer." Look at a gallery of his paintings on his website, and read the full Edmund White profile of Bleckner here. Yes, Dolly Parton is a fan.