Gifted Beauties

Described in Art Review as the world’s most influential and expensive living artist, the German painter Gerhard Richter was enjoying enormous success in London with his retrospective show at Tate Modern entitled Panorama in 2011. This particular film was made some years ago at the time of his equally successful American retrospective at MOMA entitled “40 Years of Painting” and charts his entire artistic career. Born in Dresden in 1932, the year before Hitler came to power, Richter later grew up in communist East Germany, before escaping to the West just before the Wall went up in Berlin. Since then he has produced a large diverse body of work from his blurred photobased paintings to his gigantic abstractions, from his Baader Meinhof pictures to his perceptual installations using sheets of glass. Gerald Fox’s film caught up with the artist at his home in Cologne where he was undergoing a period of quiet reflection and preparation before beginning a new series of paintings.

Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait explores the recurring themes in Bacon’s work, his influences and his life. The documentary is accompanied by a haunting score specially composed by Edwin Astley for the production.

George Segal constructs a type of human form and vulnerability that feels rare in the world of sculpture. As we follow his process at the isolated New Jersey farmhouse that serves as his studio, the intimacy between Segal and his art is contagious. He casts people who he knows, respects and admires, making the final outcome of the piece seep with personality and humanity. Segal is focused on creating a mold that does not necessarily subscribe to society’s notion of beauty. Originally released in 1979.

Alma W. Thomas lived a life of firsts: the first Fine Arts graduate of Howard University (1924), the first Black woman to mount a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1972), and the first Black woman to have her paintings exhibited in the White House (2009). Yet she did not receive national attention until she was 80.

The Art of Antony Gormley features the documentary Antony Gormley and the 4th Plinth, produced for Sky Arts, which reveals the background to this living monument and explores its origins in the sculptor's beautiful and mysterious art. Works created across more than two decades were filmed in HD for this visually sumptuous and thought-provoking documentary.

The Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky claimed, or has been credited with, the 'creation' of abstract art. At the core of this film is a dramatic recreation of Kandinsky's account of returning to his studio one dark evening, and being astonished by an unknown masterpiece of abstract art leaning against the easel - a picture which turned out to be one of his own landscapes fallen on its side. 'Now I knew for certain that the object spoiled my pictures.' While this film's narration does indeed emphasize the notion of an inspired breakthrough to Abstraction, the picture it conveys in more purely filmic ways is a rich and complex one.

A film about and with Max Ernst.

Documentary about filmmakers of the New German Cinema who were members of the legendary Filmverlag für Autoren (Film Publishing House for Authors). Among them are Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Wim Wenders.

Director Francois Levy-Kuentz's film uses previously unreleased archival material, such as Klein's personal films, to capture the artist's astonishing career, from its beginning in 1954 to his death in 1962. In those eight short years, Klein turned the modern art world upside down.

Emil Nolde was a Nazi – and so what, asks contemporary German artist Daniel Richter. “It’s a moralistic debate. A debate, that mirrors the moralism and bigottery of a generation that seems to think, that the world is a moral playground.” Emil Nolde’s relationship to the Nazi-regime in the Third Reich has given rise to immense discussions within the last months. For decades the broader public had a picture of Nolde being one of the “entartete” artists as well as being prohibited painting by the Nazi-regime. Though this on the surface is true, it was the result of a great disappointment to Nolde. For years, he had strived to become “the” artist of the Thrid Reich, praising his own art as true, German, anti-French and anti-Jewish. Possible competitors within the German art world like Max Pechstein he actively denounced to the Nazi authorities.

Klaus Kinski has perhaps the most ferocious reputation of all screen actors: his volatility was documented to electrifying effect in Werner Herzog’s 1999 portrait My Best Fiend. This documentary provides further fascinating insight into the talent and the tantrums of the great man. Beset by hecklers, Kinski tries to deliver an epic monologue about the life of Christ (with whom he perhaps identifies a little too closely). The performance becomes a stand-off, as Kinski fights for control of the crowd and alters the words to bait his tormentors. Indispensable for Kinski fans, and a riveting introduction for newcomers, this is a unique document, which Variety called ‘a time capsule of societal ideals and personal demons.’

A documentary-style capturing of the life of Ab, a young struggling artist trying to find her way, all while dealing with unwanted company.

Acclaimed Canadian artist Cliff Eyland looks back on his life after a successful double lung transplant.

An Austrian director followed five successful African music and dance artists with his camera and followed their lives for a year. The artists, from villages in Ghana, Gambia and Congo, were the subjects of Africa! Africa! touring across Europe, but they have unbreakable roots to their homeland and their families. Schmiderer lovingly portrays his heroes, who tell their stories about themselves, their art and what it means to them to be African with captivating honesty. The interviews are interwoven with dance scenes and colourful vignettes set to authentic music.

A fascinating journey through the life of Israeli artist Dani Karavan, an irreverent and charismatic creator, recognized worldwide for radically transforming public space with his monumental environmental installations.

Cameras record artist Ellsworth Kelly as he creates sculptures for the US Embassy in Beijing. With all his equipment around him, Ellsworth undertakes a big task as his creates he next masterpieces.

Charlotte Gainsbourg looks at her mother Jane Birkin in a way she never did, overcoming a sense of reserve. Using a camera lens, they expose themselves to each other, begin to step back, leaving space for a mother-daughter relationship.

Sean Penn is almost a living legend. His filmography paints a picture of an 'other America': the lower class, the oppressed and the outsiders. Whether as an actor or director, he turns all the great myths upside down.

Destroying your own artwork. For many artists it is unmentionable, but Loes Heebink from Kolderveen irreparably destroyed her artwork "Fluisteraars" herself and came up with the idea for a documentary of the same name, directed by Saskia Jeulink.

An investigation of Edward Brezinski, an ambitious, charismatic Lower East Side painter hell-bent on sucess, who thwarted his own career with antics that roiled NYC’s art elite. Brezinski’s quest for fame gives an intimate portrait of the art world’s attitude towards success and failure, fame and fortune, notoriety and erasure.