ARTA: Fine Art & Art History: Videos

Manifesto pays homage to the moving tradition and literary beauty of artistic manifestos, ultimately questioning the role of the artist in society today. Performing these "new manifestos" as a contemporary call to action, while inhabiting 13 different personas, Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett imbues new dramatic life into both famous and lesser-known words in unexpected contexts. The film is based on a multi-screen video installation produced in 2015.

Chinsei Hachiro Tametomo was a powerful historical figure of the 12th century A.D., to whom many legendary feats were attributed. His political enemies cut the sinews of his arms to end his skill in archery and exiled him to the island of Oshima in the west of Japan. There, according to legend, he repelled the demon of smallpox who was preparing to enter the island: in response to his ferocious threats, the demon, on the left of the picture, is said to have shrunk to the size of a pea and floated out to sea. The story reflects the wishful thinking of the smallpox-ravaged centuries before the disease was finally eradicated in the late 1970s with the aid of Jennerian vaccination.

A variety of films may be viewed online through Films on Demand. If you are using any database from off-campus, you will be asked to log in with the same username and password that you use to enter your "MyNCC" account.

You may watch the programs listed here by clicking on each title, or you may search the database to find videos about your choice of topics. This list is just a small sample of the numerous art-related films offered by this database!

• Basquiat: Rage to Riches -- Jean-Michel Basquiat went from anonymous graffiti writer to epoch-defining art star, and emerged as one of the most important artists of his generation, exhibiting in museums all over the world.
• Decoding da Vinci -- Segments of this program examine the Mona Lisa, as well as Leonardo da Vinci's use of science (such as human dissection) to make his drawings and paintings more true to life.
• Delacroix: From Paris to Morocco -- This biography of Eugène Delacroix, one of the best-known of the French Romantic painters, reveals the inspiration behind the artist’s most famous works.
• Drawings of Michelangelo -- This program closely juxtaposes the artist’s preparatory pencil and charcoal works with the paintings, sculpture, and architecture that ultimately grew out of them. Featured works include the Pieta, the colossal David, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Last Judgment, the Medici tomb, and St. Peter’s Basilica.
• Frida Kahlo: Portrait of a Woman -- This Mexican painter lived a life of physical and spiritual torment. Best known for her self-portraits and folk art depictions of nature, her work exemplifies her struggle with society's restrictive gender boundaries.
• Hudson River School -- This two-part series introduces the work of Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt and Jasper Cropsey, who pioneered landscape painting in America.
• Lucian Freud -- The grandson of Sigmund Freud, this artist is one of Great Britain's best-known painters. This film reviews more than 70 of his works, mostly portraits dating from 1944 to 2005.
• Norman Rockwell: An American Portrait -- This program from the television series Biography profiles the artist whose realistic illustrations graced the covers of magazines like the Saturday Evening Post  for nearly 60 years.
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Bright Summer Sundays -- This program examines technical aspects of Renoir's painting Moulin de la Galette, including his depiction of sunlight, use of nuanced color, subtly overlapping brushstrokes, and artful blurring of the figures.
• Rembrandt -- This film discusses how the Dutch Master's work evolved as he faced the difficulties of growing older. Far from diminishing as he aged, his creativity gathered new energy in the final years of his life. Despite being dismissed at the time as substandard, even grotesque, the artist's late works were full of passion, innovation, and deep self-reflection.