Yayoi Kusama - her life and art

I watched a documentary film about Yayoi Kusama this last week which I found fascinating.  

She's exhibited internationally all over the world and her artwork has achieved both the highest turnover at auction in one year and the highest price paid for a female artist. 

Her current exhibition at Tate Modern is sold out until it finishes in October 2021 - but if you'd like to see more of her work and find out about her as an individual and as an artist It's a programme worth watching.

Yayoi Kusama

Kusama: Infinity

Kusama: Infinity (1 hour 20 minutes) is a documentary made by director Heather Lenz in 2017, published in 2018 and broadcast by Arena in 2019 - and repeated last Monday on BBC4. 

It's available for the next 24 days on BBC iPlayer. I'm going to be rewatching it before time is up!.

It provides an insight into the extraordinary life and world of this internationally renowned artist.

Kusama: Infinity - the Life and Art of Yayoi Kusama

Films, documentaries and programmes about art and artists

In the current context, a lot of art is being consumed online - and some of that it is in the form of films documentaries and programmes about art and artists.

Below are some references to what you can find online or via your television screen.

The Royal Academy of Arts has done us all a favour and come up with a list of films and documentaries to watch - all about artists

You can find the listing here 10 artist movies and docs to watch on Netflix, Amazon Prime and more

To which I would add

British Film Institute

• National Gallery - available from BFI

Over a mesmerising three hours, Wiseman follows the intricate inner workings of a hugely complex organisation, from finance board meetings to the meticulous work of restorers and educators (most memorably in a scene of an art appreciation class for blind people). The rich, absorbing tapestry that unfolds ranks as one of Wiseman’s finest achievements and is required viewing for anyone with an interest in British cultural life.

Museums in quarantine

BBC iPlayer

• Museums in Quarantine (2020):
• Warhol - a last look at the Warhol exhibition at Tate Modern
• Rembrandt - the Young Rembrandt exhibition at the Ashmolean
• Tate Britain
• British Museum
• Titian: behind closed doors - Titian at the National Gallery
• The Billion Dollar Art Hunt (2020) - about the hunt for the Vermeer considered to be the most valuable stolen painting in the world. The art was taken from the walls of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in the early hours of 18 March 1990. It kept me rivited...
• Age of the Image (4 episodes - 2020) - James Fox examines how images have become more powerful – and less trusted – than ever before, from hyper-real paintings to movie special effects and deepfakes
• The Abstract Art Collection (various dates) - programmes about abstract artists
• Beardsley and his work (1982) - The life and work of Aubrey Beardsley, one of the world's most exciting graphic artists, whose drawings still retain their power to fascinate, to amuse and to shock.
• Bob Ross: The Happy Painter (2020) - Documentary that takes a behind-the-scenes look at American painter Bob Ross’s journey from humble beginnings to pop culture icon. I enjoyed this and I'm not a big Bob Ross fan!
• Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait (1966) - Francis Bacon's paintings have been called sick and corrupt. He has also been hailed as the greatest British painter since Turner...
• The Visual Scene: Playing it Cool (1969) - new methods of making art - in 1969
• Whoever heard of a black artist: Britain's Hidden Art History (2018) - finding examples of black art in public collections 

and for those needing some Life drawing you can still Draw along with BBC Four's Life Drawing Live! (2020) as Pose Cam remains on the models throughout each session

I'll add more in as I find them.......

NOTE

I'm currently preoccupied with an essential project - hence why fewer posts than normal.