Larry Wessel's Palace of Wonders

In 2018 Japan’s NHK television network was given unprecedented access to the Freer Gallery of Art’s collection of works by Katsushika Hokusai so they could film the details of paintings using a state-of-the-art 8K video camera. The resulting documentary is hosted by actor Iura Arata and features commentary from the James Ulak, former curator at the National Museum of Asian Art, and Tim Clark, former curator at the British Museum. The film’s intended premiere in April 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic. We are proud to finally screen it. Explore masterpieces at a never-before-seen level of detail and enjoy new insights into the artist’s genius.

A look at the work of Japanese woodblock printing artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).

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.

Lifting the lid on the fascinating last decade of Andy Warhol's life and the legacy he left for future artists, through never-before-seen footage and interviews with insiders.

A collection of BBC archive material about painter Francis Bacon, including a previously unseen interview recorded in 1965.

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.

Hours and historical meetings, Pierre Assouline has composed an anthology of the best extracts presented in the form of a primer, which he had commented on by a surprised Bernard Pivot.

One of the last true remaining secrets in magic. A move, a technique, a tool that has been closely guarded for over a century. Mentioned in print only a handful of times throughout history. This is the first time that the complete workings have been made available to the magic community. Flawlessly control a single card - or group of cards - in a shuffled deck. The spectator can take the deck and examine it to their heart’s content. They can even shuffle the deck themselves as many times as they desire. You have FULL and TOTAL control at all times. The basic concept behind Sub Rosa can be learned in a matter of minutes and can be put into use in a matter of hours — even by a total beginner. Complete mastery of the techniques and concepts will take longer of course, but you’re in control of the difficulty at all times. Once you’re familiar with the concept, you’ll be armed with the tools necessary to perform this with ease.

Trace is a powerful tool that creates up to two different card impressions on ANYTHING. A modern and eerie revelation that guarantees to great reactions. A must have utility tool straight from Will Tsai's everyday repertoire. Trace ... 1. will fit in your wallet 2. will create up to two different impressions 3. is made of the best material that will last you a life time If you are looking for simple and powerful magic from professionals' everyday repertoire, Trace is for you. Simple. Powerful. Magic At your finger tips. From the mind of Will Tsai

A documentary about legendary butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno.

First broadcast in 1987 on the UK's Channel 4, Bombin' is a documentary about Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu nation bringing American hip-hop culture to the UK for first time. The main focus is the graffiti art of Brim and the variety of reactions he is faced with from the British public and press.

Citizen Lane is an innovative mix of documentary and drama that delivers a vivid and compelling portrait of Hugh Lane, one of the most fascinating and yet enigmatic figures in modern Irish history. A man of multiple contradictions, by turns infuriatingly parsimonious or extraordinarily generous, a professed nationalist and a knight of the realm; a monumental snob and a fearless campaigner for access to the arts.

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.

London, England, 2008. Some of the most distinguished experts on the work of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) gather at the National Gallery to examine a painting known as Salvator Mundi; an event that turns out to be the first act of one of the most fascinating stories in the history of art.

A montage, using documentary material filmed during the war, shows the beginnings of an air attack and Londoners entering shelters. From the silent deserted streets, the film moves underground into the world of Henry Moore's shelter drawings. People sit along subway platforms, looking after their children, settling down for the night, sleeping in bunks and on the floor. Above ground London burns. Henry Moore used the eye of a sculptor in portraying the stolidity and enduring patience of a besieged people. This film brings together a unique series of drawings which are some of the most remarkable achievements of an artist during wartime. Eliminating all narration, it explores, on several metaphoric levels, the very nature of human consciousness and creativity.

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.