02/10/2023, 13:34 12 Documentaries About Artists That Will Inspire Your Creativity

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12 Documentaries About Artists That Will Inspire Your

Creativity
Want to know more about the art world? These documentaries on artists may help out.

BY ASHLEY HAJIMIRSADEGHI PUBLISHED FEB 5, 2023

American Masters

Despite debates about the relevance of art and whether students should be studying fine

arts in universities, the act of making art has been a fascinating process for many

throughout the years. Whether people realize it or not, art surrounds people in their

everyday lives and can be therapeutic for anyone willing to take up ceramics or a

paintbrush. Some artists have risen above the rest, whether it s due to talent, connections, ’
or being in the right place at the right time, and have been a source of public fascination.

Documentaries, movies, biographies, and books have been released about these creatives

and their impacts on not only the industry they worked within but the broader world as well. Close

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Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat can be two prime examples of American artists

who managed to remain popular years after they died in the global art world. Others, like

Yayoi Kusama, are launching their fashion lines with luxury fashion houses and remain a

staple in the public consciousness despite being a part of a different generation of artists.

It is through documentaries that one can interrogate the body of their work in context,

understanding what caused them to make the art that they do. That said, these essential

documentaries about artists are much needed.

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12 Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

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Curiously Bright

Jean-Michel Basquiat, who lived and worked in New York City while active as an artist, is

now one of the most sought-after artists in contemporary art. Although he died young, his

works have managed to sell to prominent figures and celebrities for millions of dollars. In

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, filmmaker Tamra Davis, who interviewed the

artist when he was still alive, merges this old footage with first-hand accounts from

’
Basquiat s family and friends. With these primary sources, it pieces together who Basquiat

was as a person outside of the art he made.

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11 Kusama: Infinity
Lenz Filmz

Yayoi Kusama might be known for her large sculptures with polka dots, infinity rooms, and

the new line she has with Louis Vuitton, but she once rubbed shoulders with some of the

most prominent people in New York City during the 60s and 70s. Heather Lenz spearheads

the documentary Kusama: Infinity, which traces her early years in Japan, where she lived

through World War II, her immigration to the United States, and how Kusama began to

struggle with mental health issues throughout her life. This affected her art, turning it into

the artistic style the world now knows today as distinctly Yayoi Kusama s art. ’

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10 Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present

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Show of Force

Beginning in March 2010, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, or MoMA, hosted an

exhibition titled The Artist is Present. The exhibition consisted of Marina Abramović sitting

silently at a wooden table in the center of the room, and patrons could sit across from her

briefly while she maintained eye contact. The documentary Marina Abramovic: The Artist

is Present traces the process the artist made while preparing for this exhibition. The

documentary covers the meaning of why she makes art, or why anyone makes art at all, as

well as how the exhibition unfolded in front of the camera s eye. ’

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9 Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

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Film Manufacturers

Robert Mapplethorpe, forever memorialized in rock and roll star Patti Smith s memoir Just ’
Kids, left behind an extensive legacy before he passed due to AIDS. The photographer s ’
work was controversial in an increasingly conservative America, especially as he depicted

graphic nudity, LGTBQ+ subjects, and bondage openly in his imagery. Mapplethorpe: Look

at the Pictures, tells his story as to how he became an artist. It also examines his work and

its impact on American photography, especially how the perspective of his art changed

with time.

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8 Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict

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Woman looks at sculpture
Dakota Group

The Guggenheim family has left their mark on the art world, especially as museums like the

Guggenheim carry their namesake. Peggy Guggenheim, one of the members of the family,

is one of the most well-known to have a deep passion for art. Friends with some of the

most prominent writers and artists of her time, she moved to Europe and began to collect

works from the region and the United States. Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict describes

how deep her devotion to the craft was, and how her legacy lives on through her collection.

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This documentary is an insider s look into how buying art typically was the work of the

wealthy in the early days.

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7 Finding Vivian Maier

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Girl chases another girl
Ravine Pictures

Finding Vivian Maier sheds light on one of the most important figures in street

photography that the world never knew until recently: Vivian Maier. After Maier s death, her ’
collection of over 150,000 photographs she took during her lifetime launched her to fame,

as the extent of her work was extraordinary. Finding Vivian Maier describes her life as a

housekeeper and nanny in Chicago, and how, in 2007, a box of her photographs was

accidentally bought and uncovered. A Kickstarter campaign led the documentary to

’
creation, bringing Maier s story to audiences around the world.

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6 Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

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Ai Weiwei wears missing shirt
Never Sorry

The son of a prominent Chinese poet until the Cultural Revolution, Ai Weiwei has continued

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to put out work that is provocative in today s climate, as seen in Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.

Director Alison Klayman meets Ai after a brief detention by the Chinese authorities in 2011.

His life has been upturned by the authorities, yet he continues to make art and protest

despite the consequences of going against the government directly showing up in front of

him. Klayman interviews personal acquaintances and family members of Ai to present a

holistic picture of his work and life.

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8 Movies About Painters That Are Visually Stunning

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5 All the Beauty and Bloodshed
All the Beauty and All the Bloodshed
Neon

The Sackler family, which has had an extensive legacy in the art world throughout the west,

was found to play a big part in the opiates crisis in the United States, leading to their

downfall. One prominent artist played a role in all of this: photographer Nan Goldin. All the

Beauty and the Bloodshed tracks the progress of her career, which often focused on

subjects vulnerable to these crises, and how Goldin eventually ended up with an addiction

to opiates. The documentary shows how after an almost fatal overdose, Goldin began to

fight for justice against what was happening behind the scenes.

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4 Alice Neel
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Alice Neel
SeeThink Films

Alice Neel, which depicts the life of the artist of the same name — who was a
groundbreaking painter that depicted women in honest, real ways through a feminine gaze

— is one of the most prominent artists in the United States during the 1900s. Neel’s work,
which became most famous for her nude portraits of women, would be ignored and

scrutinized in her era due to how she broke the conventions and expectations of women at

the time. The 2007 documentary, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was

directed by her grandson Andrew Neel.

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3 The Woodmans

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Francesca Woodman puts head against table
C. Scott Films

Francesca Woodman is a photographer who left her mark despite her youth. She died at 22

due to her depression, but left behind an incredible body of work while in Italy and

attending RISD. The 2010 documentary The Woodmans shows the tragedy of her suicide

and its impact on her family. The daughter of artists, the Woodman family confronted the

reality of the situation by making art about it, continuing Francesca s legacy in a completely ’
different way than expected.

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2 Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the

Tangerine

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Louise Bourgeois holds spider sculpture
Art Kaleidoscope Foundation

Louise Bourgeois, the French-American artist, was known for her installations and

sculptures during her lifetime. In Louis Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the

Tangerine, the filmmakers hone in on Bourgeois ’ creative process and what led her to
create the kind of art she did. The first woman to get her retrospective at the MoMA in New

York City, the documentary specifically focuses on her spider sculptures and what inspired

her. One of the iconic figures of feminist art, Bourgeois ’ story is not to be missed.

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1 Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film

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Andy Warhol and Basquiat wear boxing gloves
American Masters

Artist, filmmaker, and businessman Andy Warhol is the biggest artist known today, as his

works, ranging from taking soup cans and celebrities ’ faces, have permeated into popular
culture. His art now adorns shirts, prints, posters, and cellphone cases all over the world. A

Jewish boy from Pittsburgh, Warhol tore his way to the top of New York City s art scene to ’
establish himself as one of the leading artists of his era –a legacy that lives on to this day.
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film is a four-hour documentary that follows his journey

from an average art student to a savvy businessman who knows what he's doing to get his

name out there.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashley Hajimirsadeghi
(411 Articles Published)

Ashley Hajimirsadeghi is an Iranian American multimedia artist, journalist, and writer from Baltimore, Maryland. Her
creative poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in print and digital magazines, and she is the recipient of awards...

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