The Portuguese painter Paula Rego’s work has been described as dealing with all aspects of the human comedy from a female perspective. She now lives in the UK and spent a year working at the National Gallery in London as their first Associate Artist. This exploration of her inspiration and influences, shot on location in Portugal and England, surveys her art, focusing on the paintings she produced using the National’s collection as a source.
Paolo Veronese
“Art is the celebration of the world. It does not seek to evoke sin, guilt, torment, distress and fear.” With these words, Veronese (1528-88) successfully defended the supposed irreverence of his work before the Inquisition. Shot on location in Venice, this sumptuous study of the sixteenth-century master, his works, life and times, reveals the deeper interaction between sensuousness and faith that lies beneath the careless beauty, wit and gaiety of his art.
Oscar Marzaroli
Oscar Marzaroli was a gifted photographer but worked as a director in the Scottish film industry. He left over one hundred thousand negatives when he died in 1988 and yet his arresting view and social history of Scotland – Glasgow in particular – was scarcely known. His obsession and his legacy are the subject of this film by acclaimed directors Bill Forsythe and Charlie Gormley, who pay unsentimental homage to the man they worked with when they started out in films.
Roy Lichtenstein
Filmed in New York, this profile centres on a rare interview with the influential American artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97), who became famous in the 1960s for his enormously enlarged frames from comic strips. It surveys the work he went on to produce, which confirmed his position as one of the world’s foremost contemporary artists, and shows him at work on a painting. The late Leo Castelli, the dealer who launched Lichtenstein’s career, is among the contributors to the programme.
Werner Tübke
This film profiles one of the outstanding artists who remained in the German Democratic Republic, 1949-90, and considers his art within the context of the political constraints that shaped his work during this period. Tübke is seen at work in his studio, talking about his art and its inspiration. The programme is richly illustrated with examples of his paintings.
Wolfgang Mattheuer
This film looks at the work of one of the artists who enjoyed considerable success in the German Democratic Republic, despite the fact that he mined a seam of elusive and ambiguous imagery, constructing allegories which contained covert criticism of the GDR. An in-depth interview with Mattheuer and a comprehensive survey of his work provide a fascinating insight into his creative genius and his response to the political régime he lived under from 1949 to 1990.
Bernhard Heisig
As a member of the oldest generation of artists in the former German Democratic Republic, Heisig played an important role in shaping a school of Realist painting relevant to the social and political conditions. A staunch believer in the importance of history, his depiction of historical themes has been refined over many years. This 35mm film gives an overview of his work and sets it in the context of the political upheavals he has lived through.
Harald Metzkes
Based on a major Berlin retrospective and conversations with Metzkes, this film shows how this first-rate draughtsman uses subject matter drawn from literature and mythology in his work. Metzkes played an important part in the artistic life of the German Democratic Republic and his creative reaction to the political situation he lived through is also brought into focus.
Willi Sitte
“It is self-evident that nobody can live in a society and at the same time be free from it. Hence everything we do or don’t do has a political dimension, and that includes our work as artists.” This view, expressed by Sitte, one of the painters who played an important role in the artistic life of the German Democratic Republic, indicates the commitment he shared with many of his contemporaries to use art as a force for social change. In this profile, Sitte is seen at work and reviewing recurring themes in his paintings.
Storming the Citadel
This programme was made shortly before Motherwell’s death in 1991. In the early 1940s, together with Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko and Kline, he created a distinctly American school of painting – Abstract Expressionism – and shifted the centre of modern art from Paris to New York. He talks eloquently about this movement and the hardships that preceded success, and is seen painting in his studio, creating a collage in Provincetown and preparing for a major New York retrospective.