As the testing week approaches here's a list of a few terrific films on art and artists for inspiration that all happen to be available on Netflix streaming right now along with a few others below that aren't but are worth getting a hold of in helping to keep the creative juices flowing.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Director: Alison Klayman
This compelling documentary explores three years in the life of celebrated Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who uses social media and his art to inspire protests against the state, and suffers government persecution for his actions.
Director: Banksy
Filmmaker Thierry Guetta's project to chronicle the underground world of street art takes a fascinating twist when he meets elusive stencil artist Banksy, who turns the project around to film Guetta while he reinvents himself as a street artist.
Director: Tamra
Davis
Controversial, charismatic artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is the subject of this
insightful documentary from director Tamra Davis, who has uncovered a
never-before-seen interview with the artist conducted before his untimely death
at the age of 27.
Director: Arne
Glimcher
Director Arne Glimcher (The Mambo Kings) and narrator-producer Martin Scorsese
present this art-filled documentary that explores the connection between cinema
and the Cubist paintings of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Extraordinary film
clips from Georges Méliès and others offer a cinephile's delight, as interviews
with filmmakers, artists and historians, including Scorsese, Chuck Close, and
Julian Schnabel, give insightful commentary.
Director: Steven
Soderbergh
Spalding Gray, known for his radically minimal solo shows staged on equally
spare sets, is the focus of this unconventional documentary that compiles rare
footage of what amounts to a posthumous monologue by the writer and actor.
Director: Heinz
Bütler
Exploring the life and work of influential French photographer Henri
Cartier-Bresson, this captivating documentary tells the story of a camera-shy
photographer whose vision quietly shaped the emerging field of photojournalism.
Focusing primarily on the artist's career from the 1940s to the '60s, the film
features memorable images of Marilyn Monroe, Henri Matisse, the liberation of
Paris and the death of Gandhi.
Director: Lucy
Walker, Karen
Harley, João
Jardim
Renowned artist Vik Muniz embarks on one of the most inspired collaborations of
his career, joining creative forces with Brazilian garbage pickers who mine
treasure from the trash heaps of Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Gramacho landfill.
Director: Thomas
Riedelsheimer
This astonishing documentary from Thomas Riedelsheimer shadows renowned sculptor
Andy Goldsworthy as he creates works of art with ice, driftwood, leaves, stone,
dirt and snow in open fields, beaches, rivers, creeks and forests. With each new
creation, he carefully studies the energetic flow and transitory nature of his
work. The film won the Golden Gate Award Grand Prize for Best Documentary at the
2003 San Francisco International Film Festival.
Crumb
Director: Terry
Zwigoff
Director Terry Zwigoff spent six years compiling this portrait of the
underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, an animation cult hero whose characters
Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural became counterculture icons. Candid interviews
with Crumb's friends, family and the artist himself render a compelling profile
of a tormented man who transcended a harrowing upbringing. The film won the
Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Director: Vanessa
Gould
Filmmaker Vanessa Gould takes you on a provocative odyssey into the mesmerizing
world of modern origami, where artists and scientists use the ancient art form
to craft works of delicate beauty and to model cutting-edge mathematical
theories. Pushing the envelope of origami to include caricatured portraits and
elaborate abstract designs, these experts examine how paper folding can reveal
the profound connection between art, science and philosophy.
Director: Sydney
Pollack
In this intimate documentary, Sydney Pollack explores the signature style of
architect Frank Gehry, whose famous works include the Fish in Barcelona, the
Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and various residences. Pollack starts
with Gehry's original sketches and follows their evolution from a 3D model to a
computer-assisted rendition, on to construction and, finally, to the polished
finished product.
Helvetica
Director: Gary
Hustwit
We use it every day on our computers, we see it on street signs -- and we take
it for granted. Now, Gary Hustwit's unique documentary introduces us to
Helvetica, a font whose readability has made it the most popular font in the
world.
Basquiat
Director: Julian Schnabel
Director Julian Schnabel's biopic won an Independent Spirit Award for its depiction of Jean-Michel Basquiat's meteoric rise in New York's art world, his anguish over his family, and his hatred of a society that both courted and exploited him. In 1981, Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) was a 19-year-old graffiti artist living on the streets. Eight years later, he was a world-renowned painter -- and the tragic victim of his own addiction.
Director: Nathaniel Kahn
Documentarian Nathaniel Kahn examines the life and career of his father, architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974), whose work included the Salk Institute and the Parliament and Capitol Buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Among other surprising facts, the Oscar-nominated film reveals that the elder Kahn died of a heart attack in a Penn Station bathroom, unidentified and broke despite having been one of the century's most influential visionaries.
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