Painter With No Colors

Daniel Richter

February 2023 •German

Few artist portraits give us the privilege of getting as close to the painter as if we had free access to his studio. Over a period of three years, Pepe Danquart got to accompany the painter Daniel Richter, watching him paint, negotiate with his gallerist, talk to his publisher and joke with fellow artist Jonathan Meese. Danquart interviews collectors, attends auctions and even visits record shops.

James Ensor: Demons Teasing Me

October 2010 •English

This film explains what James Ensor (1860-1949) meant for the development of art and makes palpable where he got his inspiration from.

The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution

April 2013 •English

A film that looks at the genius of JMW Turner in a new light. There is more to Turner than his sublime landscapes - he also painted machines, science, technology and industry. Turner's life spans the Industrial Revolution, he witnessed it as it unfolded and he painted it. In the process he created a whole new kind of art. The programme examines nine key Turner paintings and shows how we should re-think them in the light of the scientific and Industrial Revolution. Includes interviews with historian Simon Schama and artist Tracey Emin.

Egon Schiele: Between Love and Hate

November 2018 •German

An account of the short life and the astonishing and provocative work of the Austrian painter Egon Schiele (1890-1918), seen through the peculiar point of view and the critic voices of the women who defined the paramount milestones of his existence: Gerti, his sister; Wally, his main model and lover; and Edith, his wife. A brief story of love, hate, betrayal and misfortune.

Folon

January 2021 •French

One of the 20th century Belgian artists who was the most idolized, exhibited, published, sold... Yet the artist himself, Jean-Michel Folon (1934-2005), whose work became controversial because deemed insipid, with its mannerisms, pastel tones and colors, remains little-known. Through previously unseen archive footage, Gaëtan de Saint-Rémy offers him a voice.

Live from art or die trying

Invalid date •Spanish

This documentary explores the perspectives of three Venezuelan artists from three different generations on what it means to be an artist in Venezuela.

Drew Friedman: Vermeer of the Borscht Belt

April 2024 •English

For years, artist Drew Friedman has chronicled a strange, alternate universe populated by forgotten Hollywood stars, old Jewish comedians and liver-spotted elevator operators. Drew Friedman: Vermeer of the Borscht Belt is an in-depth documentary tracing artist Friedman's evolution from underground comics to the cover of The New Yorker. The film, directed by Kevin Dougherty, features interviews with Friedman's friends and colleagues, including Gilbert Gottfried, Patton Oswalt, Richard Kind, Mike Judge, Merrill Markoe and many others.

Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist

December 2017 •English

British surrealist Leonora Carrington was a key part of the surrealist movement during its heyday in Paris and yet, until recently, remained a virtual unknown in the country of her birth. This film explores her dramatic evolution from British debutante to artist in exile, living out her days in Mexico City, and takes us on a journey into her darkly strange and cinematic world.

As Cores e Amores de Lore

February 2025 •Portuguese

Directed by Jorge Bodanzky, As Cores e Amores de Lore tells the story of German painter Eleonore Koch, Volpi's only disciple who, having settled in Brazil since World War II, lived freely and intensely, always dedicated to her art. Based on a series of meetings that the director had with the painter, the film portrays the last years of her life.

Dark Star: H. R. Giger's World

October 2014 •German

An account of the life and work of Swiss painter, sculptor, architect and designer H. R. Giger (1940-2014), tormented father of creatures as fearsome as they are fascinating, inhabitants of nightmarish biomechanical worlds.

Mucha: The Story of an Artist Who Created a Style

October 2020 •Czech

Czech painter and illustrator Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) ranks among the pioneers of the Art Nouveau movement at the end of the 19th century. Virtually overnight, he becomes famous in Paris thanks to the posters that he designs to announce actress Sarah Bernhardt’s plays. But at the height of his fame, Mucha decides to leave Paris to realize his lifetime project.

The Rembrandt Century: How Art Became Big Business

January 2022 •German

In the 17th century, the Netherlands experienced an unprecedented artistic explosion: painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals were so prolific that they were able to make a living from their talent alone; so much so that, within a prosperous society, thanks to wealth from overseas colonies and financial speculation, collecting works of art became a status symbol.

Picasso's Last Stand

March 2018 •English

Biographer Sir John Richardson and Picasso’s granddaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso, are the star witnesses in a documentary that reassesses the artist’s output in the years before his death in 1973. The story is of a creative spirit finding new impetus in response to both death’s approach and the censure of contemporaries and critics. Those who were members of Picasso’s private inner circle – gossip about his lifestyle also helped to fire him back up – put the later work forward as some of his frankest, wittiest and most profound.

A Revolution on Canvas

December 2023 •English

In this hybrid political thriller and verité portrait documentary, Sara Nodjoumi, working with co-director and husband, Till Schauder, makes her directorial debut with this personal film, diving into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of more than 100 “treasonous” paintings by her father, seminal Iranian modern artist Nickzad Nodjoumi.

The Greatest Painters of the World: Van Gogh

December 2016 •French

M. C. Escher: Journey to Infinity

April 2018 •Dutch

A portrait of the visionary Dutch artist M. C. Escher (1898-1972), according to his own words, taken from his diary, his correspondence and the texts of his lectures.

Bacon-Freud, face à face

March 2025 •French

Ocaña: An Intermittent Portrait

June 1978 •Spanish

A sincere portrait, and in first person, of the multifaceted Andalusian artist José Pérez Ocaña.

Hanging from a Dream

February 2013 •Spanish

The history of how the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art of Cuenca was created. In the mid-1950s, the Spanish collector and painter Fernando Zóbel de Ayala (1924-84) becomes fascinated by the young generation of Spanish abstract artists, so he begins to collect their works to show them to the public in Toledo. Until Gustavo Torner, a young forest engineer interested in art, proposes him to visit his city, Cuenca.

Les plus grands peintres du monde : Henri Matisse

June 2016 •French