Top 10 Favourite Movies on Artists and Paintings

We often find artists, their paintings and works of art, in galleries and museums. But there have been wonderful and worthwhile movies made about them, their personal lives and works of art.

Here is our Top 10 Favourite Movies on Artists and Paintings:

1. Camille Claudel (1989). The film captures the artist’s inner struggles through her bold sculptures. Camille Claudel was an independent minded artists of the late 19th century in Paris, who became a mistress of renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin (his famous sculpture, The Thinker).

2. 2. Vincent & Theo (1990). This is a story of Van Gogh’s brief history, how he made his art, and the person who was (as it’s said) “the wind beneath his wings”, his younger brother Theo.
4. 3. Basquiat (1996). An American graffiti artist who became popular in the 1980’s using the name SAMO. Jean-Michel Basquiat was half-Haitian, half-Puerto Rican by race. His wall graffiti was vivid, lively, and detailed, and became highly prized by art collectors.
6. 4. Surviving Picasso (1996). Pablo Picasso’s name is most often associated to cubism, an abstract art form where reality is seen relatively. But he was also known to be a womanizer, because women were strongly attracted to him. The film exploits this.
8. 5. Pollock (2001). Excellent story about the troubled life and skilful workmanship of American post-war abstract impressionist Jackson Pollock, how he met his wife Lee Krasner, and how she changed the future for him.
10. 6. Frida (2002). The movie revolves around the relationships that Mexican artist Frida Kahlo works herself into, especially her affair and marriage to the famed muralist Diego Rivera. After she survived a trolley accident that almost killed her, she lives in pain and finds relief in her art.
12. 7. Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003). This 16 year old girl, Griet, appears in Johannes Vermeer’s 17th century painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was hired as a maid by the artist to care for his 6 children. The earring’s however belonged to Vermeer’s wife, who suspects that Vermeer was having an affair with the girl.
14. 8. Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010). This is the work of graffiti artist Bansky on video tapes filmed by Frenchman Thierry Guetta. A documentary type film that takes the viewer to the illegal art world of vandals and political activists.
16. 9. Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012). This documentary highlights the unconventional art of Abramovic. She is a warm person, and a seriously gifted and inventive artist.
18. 10. Mr. Turner (2014). A biography of Cockney landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner. He was known as a “painter of lights” and belonged to the school of Romantics.