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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The Art of Nothing
Directed by Stefan Liberski • Drama • With Benoit Poelvoorde, Camille Cottin • 2025 • 110 minutes
"Tabula rasa and vita nova," exclaims artist Jean-Yves Machond (Benoît Poelvoorde). "A clean slate and a new life." Leaving Brussels and his job as a professor to settle in Normandy, Machond searche...
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Paul Gauguin
Directed by Alain Resnais • Documentary • 1949 • 13 minutes
PAUL GAUGUIN uses the artist’s own writings and artwork to trace his creative journey. The film begins with Gauguin losing his job in finance—the catalyst for his commitment to paint every day—and continues through to his final days in ...
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Hidden Heritage: The Roots of Black American Painting
Directed by Andrew Piddington • Documentary • With David Driskell • 1991 • 52 minutes
David Driskell, the pathbreaking art history professor and artist, is the focus of HIDDEN HERITAGE: THE ROOTS OF BLACK AMERICAN PAINTING. He made it his life mission to trace the work of Black artists from the ...
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The Hermitage Dwellers
Directed by Aliona van der Horst • Documentary • 2003 • 73 minutes
THE HERMITAGE DWELLERS is as much about the people who work in Russia's renowned museum as it is about the glorious art works housed in this St. Petersburg institution. We meet with several 'Hermitage-niks'-including Olga Bogdano...
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Black Is the Color: A History of African American Art
Directed by Jacques Goldstein • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes
In 1969, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York mounted a major exhibit called “Harlem On My Mind.” There was just one thing wrong: the show had no work by African-American artists.
The “Harlem on My Mind” fiasco is emblematic ...
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Mona Lisa is Missing
Directed by Joe Medeiros • Documentary • 2013 • 86 minutes
How did an unassuming housepainter from Italy pull off the greatest little known art heist in modern time? Was his motivation more than money?
Writer-director Joe Medeiros traces the path of Vincenzo Peruggia, charged with the 1911 thef...
