Art Films at the Library

Chihuly: Fire & Light: The Making of an Exhibition

 

Observe glass artist Dale Chihuly at work with his team as he conceives and installs his most ambitious exhibition to date, Chihuly at the de Young. This documentary reveals the complexity and depth of Chihuly's forty year investigation into his preferred medium of glass. (58 min, 2010)

 

 

Be sure to make time for the Chihuly exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, now through February 10.

 

 

 

 

 

The Kiss

 

The film reveals how Rodin conceived the sculpture, how he executed it, and what happened next and re-creates the studio in which Rodin developed small clay, then  larger terracotta versions of the sculpture.

 

(50 min, c2006.)

 

Audience:

College through adult (nudity, explicit language)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regular or Super: Views on Mies van der Rohe

 

This introduction to Mies van der Rohe, one of the 20th century's most influential architects, provides a stimulating

examination of modernism and urban environments. (57 min, 2008)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris: The Luminous Years: Toward the Making of Modern

 

From 1905 to 1930, Paris was the magnetic center for radical innovation and experiment, the Mecca for creative talents. The film traces who came to Paris and why, whom they met, what they made there, and how being in Paris transformed them and their work. (120 min, 2010)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edward Hopper

 

This National Gallery of Art video traces the iconic American painter’s varied influences from French Impressionism to the Hollywood gangster movies of the 1930s. Using archival photos and film, locations in New York and on the New England coast, much is uncovered about the enigmatic Hopper. Narrated by actor and art collector, Steve Martin. (30 min, 2007) Visit the exhibit web site.

 

Jacob Lawrence: The Glory of Expression

 

The first African American to be represented by a New York gallery, Jacob Lawrence discusses his work and life. Lawrence explains the epic narratives he paints and the Importance of motivation and determination in successfully creating art and the emphasis placed on the emotional aspects of art.

Narrated by Ossie Davis. (28 min, 2006)

 

Whistler

 

The personal life of James Abbott McNeill Whistler may have been the most remarkable of any 19th century artist. Born an American, he spent his childhood in St. Petersburg, Russia, received his only formal art training in the West Point Military Academy. (50 min, 2006)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hunan: Monks, Artist, and Mummies

 

The cultural riches of China's Hunan province have survived for 2,000 years, and are as globally significant as the vestiges of ancient Greece or Egypt. A photographer explores the teeming capital, Changsha - the site of spectacular Han graves discovered in 1972. In rural Hunan, an artist returns to his hometown of Fenghuang, a small but beautiful urban center on the Tuo Jiang river, where he examines a palace and stately homes. (45 minutes, 2010)

 

 

 

 

 

The Rape of Europa

 

Experience an epic journey through seven countries, into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But heroic young art historians and curators from America and across Europe fought back with a miraculous campaign to rescue and return millions of lost, hidden, and stolen treasures. (116 min, c2007)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Light: Tuscany and the Dawn of the Renaissance

 

This four-part series deliberates on the explosive changes that occurred in Tuscany between 1200 and 1350. Invaluable works of art and architecture from the early Italian Renaissance serve as a window through which leading art historians analyze the formation of city-states, their commerce, visual arts, and religion. A stimulating examination of how the Renaissance has shaped Western civilization. (each film, 49 min, 2004)

 

A New Saint, A New Art

 

This film explores how St. Francis of Assisi inspired artists of the period to produce naturalistic depictions full of action and feeling.

 

The City: Building Reputations

 

There was fierce competition between newly wealthy merchant classes in Sienna and Florence. Art historians interpret this conflict through detailed analysis of each city-state’s stunning cathedrals and exquisite artworks.

 

The Invention of Banking

 

This installment follows the remarkable rise of the great banking families, such as the Medici, who used their extraordinary wealth to become patrons for charities and spectacular works of art and architecture.

 

Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany

 

Tuscany’s prosperity and growth came to a halting decline when the plague struck in 1348. The art world underwent a

significant change. Magnificent works remained incomplete, works were less realistic and more fanciful and focused

more on the divine than the natural.