The Rules of Art

BBC - The Rules of Abstraction (2014)
HDTV | 1280x720 | .MKV/AVC @ 2300 Kbps | 1h 28mn | Audio: English AAC 132 kbps, 2 channels | Subs: English | 1.54 GiB
Genre: Documentary

Documentary in which painter and critic Matthew Collings charts the rise of abstract art over the last 100 years, whilst trying to answer a set of basic questions that many people have about this often-baffling art form. How do we respond to abstract art when we see it? Is it supposed to be hard or easy? When abstract artists chuck paint about with abandon, what does it mean? Does abstract art stand for something or is it supposed to be understood as just itself? These might be thought of as unanswerable questions, but by looking at key historical figures and exploring the private world of abstract artists today, Collings shows that there are, in fact, answers. Living artists in the programme create art in front of the camera using techniques that seem outrageously free, but through his friendly-yet-probing interview style Collings immediately establishes that the work always has a firm rationale. When Collings visits 92-year-old Bert Irvin in his studio in Stepney, east London he finds that the colourful works continue experiments in perceptual ideas about colour and space first established by abstract art pioneers such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky in the 1910s.

Alastair Sooke takes an in-depth look at the art of the Roman Empire.

Bauhaus: The face of the twentieth century - by Frank Whitford (1994)

Bauhaus - The Face of the 20th Century, written and narrated by Frank Whitford, is an art documentary depicting the visual science generated from the outpouring of avant-garde ideas of this innovative educational undertaking. Great teachers such as Swiss artists Paul Klee and Johannes Itten, together with Russian-born Wassily Kandinsky (the inventor of abstract art), taught the Bauhaus Foundations course concentrating on color, form and geometry. These skills sharpened students' perceptions and allowed the exploration of personal feelings and senses with an application to abstract art. Itten utilized Froebel's theory of education by play that is commonly used in many schools today.