The following is a chronological list of French artists working in visual or plastic media (plus, for some artists of the 20th century, performance art). For alphabetical lists, see the various subcategories of Category:French artists. See other articles for information on French literature, French music, French cinema and French culture.

See also Middle Ages, Gothic architecture, Illuminated manuscript

See also Renaissance, Francis I of France, Henry II of France, Catherine de' Medici, Henry III of France, Henry IV of France, Louvre, Fontainebleau, Châteaux of the Loire Valley

See also French Baroque and Classicism, Louis XIII of France, Cardinal Richelieu, Baroque, Louis XIV of France, Palace of Versailles, Classicism

See also Palace of Versailles, Louis XV of France, Madame de Pompadour, Rococo, Louis XVI of France, Neoclassicism, Enlightenment, Gobelins. For art criticism, see Denis Diderot

See also French Revolution, Napoleon I, Romanticism, Barbizon school, Naturalism, Symbolism (arts), Impressionism, Academic art, Napoleon III of France, Photography, Modernism

Ai Weiwei (born 18 May 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. As a political activist, he has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He has investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of so-called "tofu-skin schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, following his arrest at Beijing airport on 3 April, he was held for over two months without any official charges being filed; officials alluded to their allegations of "economic crimes" (tax evasion). In October 2011 ArtReview magazine named Ai number one in their annual Power 100 list. The decision was criticised by the Chinese authorities. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin responded, "China has many artists who have sufficient ability. We feel that a selection that is based purely on a political bias and perspective has violated the objectives of the magazine".

Katherine von Drachenberg, best known under her registered trademark Kat Von D (born March 8, 1982), is an American tattoo artist, model and television personality. She is best known for her work as a tattoo artist on the TLC reality television show LA Ink, which premiered August 7, 2007, in the United States and ran four seasons.

Kat Von D was born in Montemorelos, Nuevo León, Mexico. Her missionary parents, father René and mother Sylvia or Silvia Galeano, were born in Argentina, of German descent and Italian and Spanish descent, respectively. Von D has a sister, Karoline and a brother, Michael. She moved with her family to the Los Angeles area at age 4 and grew up in Colton, California. Von D was classically trained in piano beginning at age 6. She particularly appreciates Ludwig van Beethoven.

Von D credits her grandmother, Clara von Drachenberg, as an inspiration for her in music and art, and the Latino culture of Los Angeles as a major influence on her tattoo art and style. She began listening to the Ramones, Misfits and other punk rock bands at the age of 12. She got her first tattoo at 14 and quit school at 16 to become a tattoo artist.

French Montana (born November 9, 1984) is an American rapper and singer of Moroccan and Somali descent. He is the founder and CEO of Cocaine City Records, and in 2012, signed a joint venture recording deal with Maybach Music Group and Bad Boy Records. He is known for his frequent collaborations with Max B, and more recently with Rick Ross and with his group Coke Boys.

French Montana was born Karim Kharbouch in 1984 in Rabat, Morocco, where he lived for the first 13 years of his life. Growing up in Rabat, he was consumed by playing soccer and rapping, describing them as his two favorite childhood hobbies. In 1996, French emigrated with his parents and two younger brothers to the Bronx in New York City. His father left the family when French was 17, and so he began to provide for his mother and younger brothers.

In 2002, along with his friend Camz he created a series of street-flavoured DVD documentaries called 'Cocaine City' after drawing inspiration from the 'Smack' DVD series. Under the name Young French he used the DVDs as a means of showcasing his talent as an underground artist. To gain a broader fan base, French incorporated interviews with major artists, as well as some up and comers. The first edition in the series included Pee Wee Kirkland and Remy Ma alongside French himself among others. What started out as simply a medium for developing an audience quickly grew into one of the top-selling "street DVDs". The series ran for 8 years between 2002 and 2010, with a total of 14 editions being released.

George Celino Barnes (July 18, 1895 – July 18, 1954), better known as "Machine Gun Kelly", was an American gangster during the prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a Thompson submachine gun. His most famous crime was the kidnapping of oil tycoon and businessman Charles Urschel in July 1933 for which he, and his gang, earned $200,000 ransom. Unfortunately, their victim had collected and left considerable evidence that assisted the subsequent FBI investigation that eventually led to Kelly's arrest in Memphis, Tennessee on September 26, 1933. His crimes also included bootlegging and armed robbery.

During the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s Kelly worked as a bootlegger for himself as well as a colleague. After a short time, and several run-ins with the local Memphis police, he decided to leave town and head west with his girlfriend. To protect his family and escape law enforcement officers, he changed his name to George R. Kelly. He continued to commit smaller crimes and bootlegging. He was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for smuggling liquor onto an Indian Reservation in 1928 and sentenced for three years to Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas, beginning February 11, 1928. He was reportedly a model inmate and was released early. Shortly thereafter, Kelly married Kathryn Thorne, who purchased Kelly’s first machine gun and went to great lengths to familiarize his name in the underground crime circles. She was known to hand out the expended .45cal cartridge casings from his Tommy Gun as souvenirs. Some historians claim that Kathryn even went so far as to plot some small bank robberies.^{[citation needed]}