Category Archives: art

surprising Renoir (documentary: Exhibition on Screen: Renoir – Reviled and Revered – Phil Grabsky, 2016)

Posted on October 18, 2019 by admin

We have the chance to see the films from the ‘Exhibition on Screen’ series at our local cinematheque. Yesterday we had the pleasure not only of watching the documentary ‘Exhibition on Screen: Renoir – Reviled and Revered‘, but also of … Continue reading →

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Leonardo, the painter (Film: Leonardo Live – Phil Grabsky, 2012)

Posted on September 13, 2019 by admin

I saw last night at the local cinematheque one of the oldest art documentaries of the series ‘Exhibition on Screen’, dedicated to Leonardo Da Vinci’s paintings and made in 2012 by Phil Grabsky, on the occasion of the exhibition that … Continue reading →

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like being there … or better (Documentary: Exhibition on Screen: David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts – Phil Grabsky, 2017)

Posted on August 16, 2019 by admin

Often, when we want to tell or write appreciatively about an art documentary film that describes an exhibition or a museum, we use the expression – ‘watching the film is similar / second best to the experience of visiting the … Continue reading →

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Clouzot films Picasso (Film: Le mystère Picasso – Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1956)

Posted on June 13, 2019 by admin

Pablo Picasso and a few other important artists of the 20th century (Constantin Brancusi is another example) had a love affair mixed with fascination with the photographic and film cameras. They recognized them as a means of artistic expression and … Continue reading →

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youth of a genius (Film: Young Picasso – Phil Grabsky, 2019)

Posted on May 17, 2019 by admin

1907 was an ‘annus mirabilis’ (a wonderful year) in the history of art and in the life of Pablo Picasso. It was the year when Picasso painted ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’, a painting that overturned all the traditional conceptions of composition, … Continue reading →

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nothing new about Vincent (Film: At Eternity’s Gate – Willem Dafoe, 2018)

Posted on April 28, 2019 by admin

I believe that Vincent van Gogh would have been very pleased if he could get some royalties from the films that were made about him. The “damned” artist of the generation of post-impressionists, the unrecognized genius who did not sell … Continue reading →

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the greatest anti-Impressionist (Film: Degas: Passion for Perfection – David Bickerstaff)

Posted on April 27, 2019 by admin

I had the chance to visit last month the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, a respectable institution, designed as a place of spiritual recollection and of discovery of a selection of treasures of art and civilization, modeled (keeping the proportions) after … Continue reading →

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portraits and letters (Film: Cézanne, Portraits of a Life – Phil Grabsky, 2018)

Posted on March 15, 2019 by admin

Paul Cezanne’s life can be divided into two very different periods. Born in 1839 in a prosperous family, with a banker father, he chose a life and artistic career very different from the expectations of the bourgeois environment. All his … Continue reading →

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the final cuts (documentary: Matisse Live – Phil Grabsky, 2014)

Posted on February 15, 2019 by admin

The ‘Exhibition on Screen‘ series gave us yesterday the opportunity to watch at the local cinematheque the great exhibition of Matisse’s works in the final decade of his life, organized five years ago by Tate Modern in London and MoMA … Continue reading →

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beautiful documentary about one of the greatest artists ever (Michelangelo: Love and Death – David Bickerstaff, 2017)

Posted on February 2, 2019 by admin

Can anything new be said, in writing or on the screen, about Michelangelo Buonarroti? Unlike many other unlucky genius or valued artists, the sculptor, painter, architect, Renaissance man born in Tuscany in 1475 was recognized during his life as a … Continue reading →

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