Italian photographer Paolo Ventura creates stories by giving life to the simplest of materials which he has gathered. He gave up a successful career as a fashion photographer because he just had to photograph the images that haunted him. Images that the artist had imagined as a child when his grandmother told him about her adventures during the war. In his studio, in a barn on top of a secluded mountain, he creates a timeless melancholic world that resonates the isolation in which he grew up. Ventura conquered the international art scene with his photography series War Souvenir and Winter Stories. His work is included in collections by renowned museums in Italy, France and the US.
Peter von Bagh's documentary about Juhani Aho and people around him.
A 1993 portrait of rock singer and poet Nick Cave, a versatile artist who gained importance over the years. Jacobson also wrote the scenario that was built around a long conversation with the singer. From Australia and his work with the Birthday Party to his current city, Berlin, with The Bad Seeds.
Bob Ross brought joy to millions as the world's most famous art instructor. But a battle for his business empire cast a shadow over his happy trees.
A place of pleasure and pain, creation and separation, Frida Kahlo's home, known as "La Maison Bleue", was the scene of one of the most singular adventures of the 20th century. In the 1930s, while Europe was being torn apart, Frida Kahlo welcomed painters, actresses, writers, photographers and revolutionaries: from Diego Rivera, the great Mexican painter and Frida's fickle husband, to Leon Trotsky in exile, via André Breton, who dreamed of Mexico as the land of "real surrealism".
Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known and loved for his impressionist paintings of Paris. These paintings count among the world’s favourites. Renoir, however, grew tired of this style and changed course. This film, based on the collection of 181 Renoirs at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia,– examines the direction he then took and why it provokes such extreme reactions right up to today. Some claim they are repulsed by Renoir’s later works and some claim they are seduced. What may surprise many is that among the many artists who sought Renoir’s new works out and were clearly highly influenced by them were the two giants of the 20th century – Picasso and Matisse.
Richard Hambleton was a founder of the street art movement before succumbing to drugs and homelessness. Rediscovered 20 years later, he gets a second chance. But will he take it?
Tina, Photographer and Revolutionary is a documentary that blends animation and live action to chronicle the life of Tina Modotti, a pioneering photographer and committed activist. The film delves into her artistic journey and political passions, revealing a woman whose legacy continues to inspire.
Leonhard Lapin is the classic and the enfant terrible of Estonian contemporary art, constantly followed by scandals, lewd legends and envious grumbling. Lapin confidently steps on the cornea of mediocrity, enjoying the situation to the fullest. Loved by his muses, the artist is not ashamed of his dalliances. He still has plenty at the grand old age of 70. The new Estonian film opens the doors to a disappearing Bohemianism, in which racy vocabulary reigns instead of political correctness.
Filmmaker Peter Sasowsky examines the life and work of artist Joe Davis
Jeanne is a black artist in her sixties who hasn't had the career she'd hoped for. She has fallen into a deep depression. Bitter, she is unable to communicate with her thirty-year-old daughter, whose mere presence reminds her of her failures. Will she be able to rise above her bitterness to start living again and break out of her solitude? Perhaps one day.
A documentary that traces the creation of the Philadelphia sculpture, Schuylkill Currents from the granite quarry through the refined finished public sculpture.
"Remembering Arthur is a feature-length documentary about an influential yet little-known Canadian filmmaker. Although the Montreal-born artist's work won many awards and received an Oscar nomination, his life ended tragically in suicide. This intimate portrait explores Lipsett's creative genius and impact on film while illuminating his fascinating life story. The film is directed by filmmaker Martin Lavut, Arthur's closest friend."
A documentary-style capturing of the life of Ab, a young struggling artist trying to find her way, all while dealing with unwanted company.
Wrapped Walk Ways, in Jacob Loose Memorial Park, Kansas City, Missouri, consisted of the installation of 136,268 square feet (12,540 square meters) of saffron-colored nylon fabric covering 2.7 miles (4.4 kilometers) of formal garden walkways and jogging paths.
Best known for her drawings of the ocean and the galaxies of the night sky, Vija Celmins has solidified herself as one of the most important artists of the postwar generation. Stepping back from painting in order to explore her photorealistic drawing style, Celmins creates spectacularly precise renderings of the natural world. In her forty year retrospective at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Celmins recalls her beginnings in abstraction, her choices of subject matter after freeing herself of the New York School influence, and her later immersion in what must be termed her great master drawings.
"Brice Marden: 4 Decades" follows the renowned abstract artist as he explores his acclaimed 2006 MoMA retrospective with curator Gary Garrels. Applauded for his bold and contemporary style, Marden speaks openly with Garrels about his approach, beginnings and influences. His fluid and colorful works demand attention but welcome the viewer to choose their own path within the painting itself. Marden's career is mapped out through a tour of the exhibition, as he and Garrels discuss key works of the last forty years.
Ed Ruscha made his very first art in his native Oklahoma, but soon became attracted to Los Angeles . Curator Margit Rowell has examined his extensive body of work and created a brilliant exhibition of his seldom seen drawings. Rowell visits Ruscha in his studio, looking at new paintings with the artist, discussing his progress over the decades and asking him to comment on the many milestones in his large retrospective exhibition at MoCA in Los Angeles.
Conceptual visual artist Ján Mančuška died in 2011. However, in his short 39 years of existence, he managed to create a number of remarkable works, many of which have been exhibited in renowned galleries around the world – including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and MoMA in New York. In his homeland, however, his work reflecting everyday life, social reality or the meaning of language has never achieved comparable fame. Together with the children of an artist who was not afraid to confront the public with the question of the meaning of art, the director embarks on a journey that aims not only to get closer to Mančuška, but also to reveal him in hitherto unrecognised shades, thus filling in the gaps that are increasingly appearing in the context of the fading memory of his personality.