How the art in the Detroit Institute of Art connects to life's experiences and the neighborhood.
Social & External
At the peak of Perestroika, in 1987, in the village of Gorki, where Lenin spent his last years, after a long construction, the last and most grandiose museum of the Leader was opened. Soon after the opening, the ideology changed, and the flow of pilgrims gradually dried up. Despite this, the museum still works and the management is looking for ways to attract visitors. Faithful to the Lenin keepers of the museum as they can resist the onset of commercialization. The film tells about the modern life of this amazing museum-reserve and its employees.
The artist J.M.W. Turner is widely recognised as England’s greatest painter. Tate has the world’s finest and most extensive collection of his work. Turner at Tate explores Turner’s art through many of his best-known canvases and exquisite sketches and watercolours, all newly and exceptionally filmed in HDTV from the original artworks. Incorporating the landscapes and places that inspired the works, the film provides an overview of Turner’s life and - in an accessible and engrossing way - of critical approaches to his art. The film’s focus is Turner and England, and his work is considered against the radical social and political changes of the early nineteenth century. Turner at Tate is a film about ideas and history and landscape, a film about colour and light. Contributors include Tate curators Ian Warrell and David Blayney Brown, and art historians Sam Smiles and Barry Venning. Also featured on the DVD are ten additional short films, each of which considers in detail a major work.
From the remote Australian desert to the opulence of Buckingham Palace - Namatjira Project is the iconic story of the Namatjira family, tracing their quest for justice.
This documentary follows three parallel stories. First, that of the masterpiece, The Little Girl with the Blue Ribbon, this melancholic Renoir work with the "musical face" described by Henri Michaux. The painting was constantly tossed around, shelved by its patrons, looted by the Nazis, found by the Monument Men, recovered by the family, sold to a controversial collector, before finally arriving at the Kunsthaus Zurich. We also discover the painter's biography, and the eventful life of his model, Irene Cahen d'Anvers. Born into the Jewish upper middle class, this free and divorced woman long disowned the painting and left it to her daughter, who was murdered at Auschwitz. Discover the tumultuous journey of this painting, its model, Irene Cahen d'Anvers, and its connection to the dark hours of the Nazi regime.
Jim Carrey exhibits his talent as a painter and reflects on the value and power of art.
In this documentary, we go back to the beginning and tell the origin story of Scotty the T. Rex and how it was discovered on that fateful day in 1991. We also showcase the lasting impact the discovery had on the town of Eastend and the Paleo world in Canada. In 2019, Scotty was proclaimed the biggest in the world. Believed to be a female, she measured over 13 m or just over 42.6 feet long and weighed over 8.8 metric tons. Discovered in the dinosaur-rich Frenchman Formation, Scotty's bones have been carefully preserved and are stored at the T. Rex Discovery Centre in Eastend, Saskatchewan.
Black Is the Color highlights key moments in the history of Black visual art, from Edmonds Lewis’s 1867 sculpture Forever Free, to the work of contemporary artists such as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, Ellen Gallagher, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Art historians and gallery owners place the works in context, setting them against the larger social contexts of Jim Crow, WWI, the civil rights movement and the racism of the Reagan era, while contemporary artists discuss individual works by their forerunners and their ongoing influence.
Follows the young people of Selma, Alabama's RATCo (Random Acts of Theatre Company) as they journey to New York City to share their story of hope, resilience, and overcoming.
What does modern art mean for ordinary visitors to an exhibition?
In decades past, Native American artists who wanted to sell to mainstream collectors had little choice but to create predictable, Hollywood-style western scenes. Then came a generation of painters and sculptors led by Allan Houser (or Haozous), a Chiricahua Apache artist with no interest in stereotyped imagery and a belief that his own rich heritage was compatible with modernist ideas and techniques. Narrated by actor Val Kilmer and originally commissioned as part of an exhibit of Houser’s work at the Oklahoma History Center, this program depicts the artist’s tribal ancestry, his rise to regional and national acclaim, and the continuing success of his sons as they expand upon and depart from their father’s achievements. Key works are documented, as is Houser’s tenure at the Santa Fe–based Institute of American Indian Arts.
Tilburg artist Tommy van der Loo searches for the influence of superiority thinking, racism and colour in his life. Van der Loo is an emerging artist and his work has been purchased by Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. He also had an exhibition at the Kunsthal. He also made the memorial for the abolition of slavery in Eindhoven. He has had multiple experiences with discrimination and incorporates that into his sculptures. Identity and image formation are important to him: How do you look at others, how do others look at you. The search is the inspiration for his new sculpture.
Tells the history of skateboard art and its evolution through the decades, as iconic and rebellious skateboarders and artists give firsthand experiences and stories about their art that challenged the establishment.
Ningwasum follows two time travellers Miksam and Mingsoma, played by Subin Limbu and Shanta Nepali respectively, in the Himalayas weaving indigenous folk stories, culture, climate change and science fiction.
For both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, Captain James Cook is a figure of great historical significance.
People looking at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre – or are they just looking at themselves?
"The prevailing stigmatization of the 'villero' universe is fed back by the images. In order to dismantle this stigmatization, other images must be presented or we need to reveal what the existing ones seek to cover up. The slum is usually represented from a limited and deceitful visual panorama. This representation has an intention. Cinema and television are two image-producing devices that strengthen the stereotypes that we have about the people who inhabit these spaces. And what happens in the field of painting? Do clichés reign there too? This visual essay seeks to confront various works by national painters and sculptors, belonging to the Palais collection, with the kinetic images of current cinema and television, to reflect on both the differences and the similarities in the meanings and discourses that both regimes of images can produce." César González
This ninety-minute film takes audiences on an epic journey across nine countries and over 1,400 years of history. It explores themes such as the Word, Space, Ornament, Color and Water and presents the stories behind many great masterworks of Islamic Art and Architecture. Narrated by Academy Award winning performer Susan Sarandon, this dazzling documentary reveals the variety and diversity of Islamic art. It provides a window into Islamic culture and brings broad insights to the enduring themes that have propelled human history and fueled the rise of world civilization over the centuries
British artist, academic, musician and activist Bob and Roberta Smith has been waging slightly odd political protests for years, in this documentary he investigates the age of activism and discovers what people are protesting about.
Cartoneras is a documentary that grapples with Latin America’s urban realities, and the cardboard publishing movement that has emerged from these in the 21st century. Reflecting on the different contexts that propelled this form of community publishing, like Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis, the independent art scene, and the movements which formed around waste-pickers, the film’s narrative is developed through conversations with important actors from the cartonera world.
Artist David Choe has led a life of high risk, from hedonistic excesses to being imprisoned at a maximum security facility in a foreign country, and yet has been dramatically rewarded for his exploits. Life didn't change much when he traded a $60k fee in favor of stock in a start-up called The Facebook, but now he is estimated to be worth over $250 million, highlighting a colorful career filled with giant street art installations, porn star affairs and investigative reporting for companies like Vice and CNN. Director and childhood friend Harry Kim guides us through the fantastically surreal life of Choe featuring interviews and appearances by Kevin Smith, Eli Roth, Sasha Grey, Sean Parker, and Shepard Fairey.
