An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.
Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and a rich range of artists, including market darlings George Condo, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, this documentary examines the role of art and artistic passion in today’s money-driven, consumer-based society.
CREMASTER 3 (2002) is set in New York City and narrates the construction of the Chrysler Building, which is in itself a character - host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to the process of (spiritual) transcendence. These factions find form in the struggle between Hiram Abiff or the Architect ...
CREMASTER 2 (1999) is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. On the biological level it corresponds to the phase of fetal development during which sexual division begins. In Matthew Barney's abstraction of this process, the system resists partition and tries to remain in the state of equilibrium imagined in Cremaster 1 ...
A remarkable walk through the life and work of the French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), one of the most important creators of the 20th century, revolutionary of arts, aesthetics and pop culture.
Follows Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar as he finds his artistic voice and develops the socially critical perspective of his work.
A painter in the throes of a creative block finds inspiration thanks to a fascinating and mysterious gallery owner, but he can't expect the shocking consequences of their encounter.
Many twentieth century European artists, such as Paul Gauguin or Pablo Picasso, were influenced by art brought to Europe from African and Asian colonies. How to frame these Modernist works today when the idea of the primitive in art is problematic?
This documentary follows 200 days in the life of contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto— a leading presence in the world of modern art. He is the winner of many prestigious awards and his photographs are sold for millions of yen at overseas auctions. The film shows the sites of the Architecture series shot in southern France, the huge installation art work at 17th Biennale of Sydney, his new work Mathematics at Provence, his art studio while working on Lightning Fields, and more. It thoroughly pursues the question Sugimoto's works pose - "living in modern times, what are these works trying to tell us?" A thrilling look into the world of Hiroshi Sugimoto.
Both a visit to a very peculiar exhibition at the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, Germany, as well as an unprejudiced look at the artistic depiction of violence throughout history and the ways in which that depiction has been gendered.
A rural American town suffering economically from factory closures finds an unconventional route to recovery with the help of MASS MoCA.
In between performance, dance and cerémonies, "The Ferryman” is a choreographic exploration of rituals and animistic roots, a luxurious visualisation of a bewitchment and an exorcism of a man-deer in the borders of the world.
On the occasion of the fourty years anniversary of François Mitterand's election, a look back to the relationship between the President and artists, from admiration to manipulation.
Research and dissemination documentary-film about contemporary art in which more than 30 staff members of museums and galleries, visual and sound artists, collectors, art critics and curators share their knowledge and give an account of their experiences and anecdotes.
Paintings, performances, experiments, electronic music sounding in the spaces of two old houses in a small Italian town, heated conversations about contemporary art, touching meetings with the closest people and places in Bulgaria after 50 years of separation. "Flying with Fins" is a film about the constant search for meaning in art and life. Alzek Misheff, artist - rebel and experimenter, leads us in this philosophical and aesthetic journey through time, space and ideas.
A delusional man in a modern day city dresses, acts like, and has the mindset of a cowboy.
Spit Earth: Who Is Jordan Wolfson? is a feature documentary film about this controversial and divisive artist who in the ensuing five years has only solidified his stature with unnerving and provocative new works that elicit extreme reactions from both critical naysayers and vocal proponents alike. Wolfson is not content to play by the rules of a conservative self-policing art market that favors the status quo, instead preferring to make us squirm as he engages a host of lightning-rod issues facing our society today; homophobia, misogyny, racism, white nationalism, antisemitism and violence to name but a few. Wolfson is an art maker on the world stage whose immersive works take on today’s endemic virtue signaling and politically correct narratives, veritably throwing it all back into our faces.
Contemporary artists describe their work and discuss why and how they do it. The programs are grouped according to themes of place, spirituality, identity and consumption. A PBS series, educational resource, archive, and history of contemporary art, Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century premiered in 2001 and is now broadcast in over 50 countries worldwide. Premiering a new season every two years, Art21 is the only series on United States television to focus exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists.
Rebellious, provocative and unapologetic. The Young British Artists crashed the 90s art scene, making Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and others household names. This is their story.
A series of 6 Arts Documentaries, fronted by supermodel, actress and Cambridge Arts graduate, Lily Cole. Lily gets unprecedented access to some of today's most revered and successful contemporary artists. In the name of Art; she navigates the desert with 'wrap' artist Christo, learns the art of boomerang throwing with Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, models for a nude portrait for Contemporary artist Fiona Banner, has a drawing lesson with the sculptor, Antony Gormley, touches down in Monaco for Marc Quinn's latest exhibition and paints pictures with the doyenne of celluloid film, Tacita Dean. These intimate portraits of artists at home and at play show a side to them rarely seen before. Largely observational documentary in style, there are also contributions from high profile curators, collectors and art commentators; from Ralf Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery to Germaine Geer and, champion of public art, Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
