Painters (a collection)

Painters (a collection)

What makes someone an artist? What drives them to express themselves through painting and the visual arts? This collection of films about painters explores these questions and the creativity behind making art. Whether it's Pablo Picasso, Niki de Saint Phalle or an unknown artist, we see the inspiration behind their masterpieces and the lives they lived that made this kind of art possible.

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Painters (a collection)
  • The Silence of Mark Rothko

    Directed by Marjoleine Boonstra • Documentary • 2014 • 52 minutes

    'He wanted the viewer to step into the painting. What he aimed for was not a consumption of art, but a dialogue. He thought that art could transform the public.' -Annie Cohen-Solal, Mark Rothko biographer Painter Mark Rothko is be...

  • Pollock & Pollock

    Directed by Isabelle Rèbre • Documentary • With Sylvia Winter Pollock, Francesca McCoy Pollock, James McCoy, Helen Harrison, Peter Namuth, Terence Maloon, Dominic Gould, Rebecca Pauly, • 2020 • 82 minutes

    The film tells the story of two brothers, two American painters: Jackson Pollock and Charle...

  • With Peter Bradley

    Directed by Alex Rappoport • Documentary • With Peter Bradley • 2024 • 86 minutes

    When filmmaker Alex Rappoport met then-79-year-old abstract artist Peter Bradley in early 2020, Bradley hadn't sold many paintings or had a major show in over four decades - yet he still painted every day in a ship...

  • Fifi Howls from Happiness

    Directed by Mitra Farahani • Documentary • With Bahman Mohassess, Rokni Haerizadeh, Ramin Haerizadeh • 2014 • 102 minutes

    Mitra Farahani’s lyrical documentary explores the enigma of provocative artist Bahman Mohassess, the so-called “Persian Picasso,” whose acclaimed paintings and sculptures dom...

  • Infinity According to Florian

    Directed by Oleksiy Radynski • Documentary • With Florian Yuriev • 2022 • 74 minutes

    The extraordinary mind of Florian Yuriev, a visionary Ukrainian architect and artist, visualizes an astonishingly holistic view of the world. His abstract paintings brim with geometric colorful shapes and patter...

  • Edward Hopper

    Directed by Ron Peck • Documentary • 1981 • 47 minutes

    A study of the 20th century American painter's life and work.

  • Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace

    Directed by Jeff Dupre • Documentary • With Kehinde Wiley • 2014 • 40 minutes

    The artist behind Barack Obama’s presidential portrait, Kehinde Wiley is known for his vibrant, larger-than-life reinterpretations of classical portraits featuring young Black men. “Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace” ...

  • Golub: Late Works Are the Catastrophes

    Directed by Jerry Blumenthal,Gordon Quinn • Documentary • With Leon Golub • 2004 • 80 minutes

    Begun in 1985, the film ends with Leon Golub's death in 2004, taking us from searing images of interrogations and torture to the ironies and dark humor of old-age. Over-sized canvasses with screaming me...

  • Goya: The Secret of the Shadows

    Directed by David Mauas • Documentary • With Manuela B. Mena Marqués, Valeriano Bozal, Jesusa Vega, Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Mercedes Águeda Villar and José Hernández • 2011 • 77 minutes

    Ramón, a fine art photographer, purchases an anonymous 19th-century portrait in Barcelona. He and the singular e...

  • Kentridge and Dumas in Conversation

    Directed by Catherine Meyburgh • Documentary • 2009 • 72 minutes

    William Kentridge and Marlene Dumas are two of the most celebrated names in international contemporary art. In Kentridge and Dumas in Conversation, the two South African artists speak frankly about their work, their studio practice...

  • Draw Me Saint-Exupery

    Directed by Andrès Jarach • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes

    On the 31st of July 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea. With this mystery, a myth was born.

    Who was the man whose book The Little Prince was translated into more than 250 languages and dialects? Draw ...

  • Sol LeWitt

    Directed by Chris Teerink • Documentary • 2012 • 72 minutes

    'Conceptual artists leap to conclusions logic cannot reach,' Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) said in a rare audio-interview from 1974. Notoriously camera-shy, Lewitt refused awards and rarely granted interviews, yet in Chris Teerink's sensitive ...

  • The Grand Masters of the Chauvet Cave

    Directed by Christian Tran • Documentary • 2015 • 52 minutes

    The paintings and drawings of the Chauvet cave – made 36,000 years ago and discovered 20 years ago in the south of France – are the oldest human artistic expression to date. Their strength and modernity changed radically all the ideas ...

  • Van Gogh

    Directed by Alain Resnais • Documentary • 1948 • 18 minutes

    Classic French New Wave director Alain Resnais’ early film, VAN GOGH won an Oscar for best short documentary film. Recently restored, this 1948 boundary-pushing short brilliantly evokes the life of Vincent Van Gogh, using only his paint...

  • Guernica

    Directed by Alain Resnais and Robert Hessens • Documentary • 1949 • 14 minutes

    In 1937, Spanish nationalists called on Nazi and Italian Fascist forces to bomb the Basque town of Guernica. The horrors of the bombing led Pablo Picasso to create perhaps his greatest work, “Guernica”: a massive pain...

  • Painted Landscapes of the Times

    Directed by Helene Klodawsky • Documentary • 1987 • 25 minutes

    Sue Coe continues to shock and inform the art establishment with her graphic depictions of the world around her. This energetic and moving film introduces Coe’s passionate art and explores her vision. Produced early in her career, it...

  • On the French Riviera with Man Ray and Picasso

    Directed by François Lévy-Kuentz • Documentary • 2021 • 53 minutes

    A group of friends meet up in the country to spend the summer together. They go to the beach, play cards, and take day trips in the surrounding region. But these aren’t everyday city folk on vacation. The hosts are Pablo Picasso ...

  • Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here

    Directed by Amei Wallach • Documentary • With Ilya Kabakov, Emilia Kabakov, Igoris Markovas, Andrei Monastrysky, Oleg Vassiliev • 2013 • 103 minutes

    Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here portrays two of Russia’s most celebrated international artists, now American citizens, as they come to terms wi...

  • Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

    Directed by Tamra Davis • Documentary • With Jean-Michel Basquiat • 2010 • 88 minutes

    Centered on a rare interview that director and friend Tamra Davis shot with Jean-Michel Basquiat more than 20 years ago, this film chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of the young artist. In the crime-ridden ...

  • Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti

    Directed by Laura Mulvey • Documentary • With Miriam Margolyes • 1983 • 29 minutes

    This tautly structured documentary sheds light on the work of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and Italian photographer Tina Modotti, women icons of the Mexican Renaissance. The film not only explores the two women's a...

  • What Means Something

    Directed by Ben Rivers • Documentary • With Rose Wylie • 2015 • 66 minutes

    A portrait of the painter Rose Wylie. I met Rose quite a few years ago and we became good friends. I asked her if I could make a film about her and she agreed. The film, finally, is a meeting between two friends, made spo...

  • Niki

    Directed by Céline Sallette • Drama • With Charlotte Le Bon • 2025 • 99 minutes

    The debut feature of actor-turned-director Céline Sallette, Niki is a vibrant portrait of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (Charlotte Le Bon, star of The White Lotus), one of the most iconoclastic figures ...

  • Claude Monet in Giverny, Alice's House

    Directed by Philippe Piguet • Documentary • 2011 • 50 minutes

    For 43 years - half of his life -, from 1883 to his death in 1926, Claude Monet lived in Giverny. When he settled in his house in Normandy, a new life began for the painter. He embarked on an innovative pictorial adventure, developing...

  • Drunk on Too Much Life

    Directed by Michelle Melles • Documentary • 2021 • 77 minutes

    Drunk on Too Much Life is an intimate and powerful documentary following the filmmaker's 21-year-old daughter’s mind-opening journey from locked-down psych wards and diagnostic labels towards expansive worlds of creativity, connection...