Video Documentaries

Journalist Alastair Sooke sets out to discover just how much the artist Henri Matisse has influenced our modern lives. Tracing the biography of this fascinating artist, and travelling through France, America and Russia, the programme explores some of the painter's greatest works. Sooke explains why Matisse's art is considered so great and also looks at how Matisse's brilliant use of colour and simplification of form continues to inspire illustrators, designers and of course artists today. Acknowledging the debt the famous couturier Yves St Laurent owed the painter, Sooke also talks to British designers Sir Paul Smith and Tricia Guild about their passion for Matisse, he travels to Utrecht to discover how even children's character Miffy the rabbit owes its origin to art, and reveals how logos and images as diverse as Apple's iPod advertising and even the 2012 Olympic logo are inspired by the modern master. Modern Masters - Matisse episode 2 Henri Émile Benoît Matisse

The first in a four-part series exploring the life and works of the 20th century's most important artists: Matisse; Picasso; Dali and Warhol. Art critic Alastair Sooke sets out to discover why these artists are considered so great and how they still influence our lives today. He begins with Andy Warhol, the king of Pop Art. On his journey he parties with Dennis Hopper, has a brush with Carla Bruni and gets to grips with Marilyn. Along the way he uncovers just how brilliantly Andy Warhol pinpointed and portrayed our obsessions with consumerism, celebrity and the media, and then went on to re-invent them. Modern Masters - Andy Warhol episode 1 Andy Warhol was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertising that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sc

In the final episode of their entertaining series of cultural city breaks, Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke explore St Petersburg through its dazzling art and architecture. They want to see how art has been used to enhance prestige and power in this city, ever since it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great. Surrounded by vast palaces, gilded domes and imposing Soviet monuments, Janina and Alastair make a flying visit to their personal selection of imperial, communist and modern-day sights. They discover a city where art has always taken centre stage. [caption id="attachment_5297" align="alignnone" width="600"] An Art Lovers' Guide episode 6[/caption] From the intoxicating beauty of the state rooms at the Winter Palace to the bejewelled confections of Faberge; from the dark tunnels where curators guarded precious artefacts during the deadly siege of the city in the Second World War, to the apartment piled high with protest art painted by the outspoke

In this episode, Janina Ramirez and Alastair are on a mission to get to know one of the most popular cities in the world through its art and architecture. Although Barcelona is famous for its exuberant modernista buildings, the Gothic Quarter and artistic superstars such as Picasso, Janina and Alastair are determined to discover some less well-known cultural treats.  Escaping the crowds on the Ramblas, they seek out the designs of an engineer who arguably put more of a stamp on the city than its star architect, Antoni Gaudi. Alastair marvels at the Romanesque frescoes that inspired a young Miro, whilst Janina discovers a surprising collection of vintage fans in the Mares, one of the city's most remarkable but rarely visited museums. An Art Lovers' Guide episode 5 - Barcelona With a behind-the-scenes visit to Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, a session of impromptu Catalan dance and Alastair adding the finishing touches to some Barcelona street art, it is a fast-paced and colourful

In this episode, they head to Amsterdam, a city that pioneered so much of modern life, from multinational trade to the way we design our homes. To find out how, Alastair and Janina take us on a fast paced tour of the city's cultural hotspots. Picking their way through the crowds queuing to see Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum, they also introduce us to the paintings of Jan Steen, a Dutch legend whose paintings capture the city's freewheeling lifestyle.  With sumptuous palaces, exquisite artworks and stunning architecture, every great city offers a dizzying multitude of artistic highlights. In this series, art historians Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three cultural citybreaks, hunting for off-the-beaten-track artistic treats - and finding new ways of enjoying some very famous sights. [caption id="attachment_5268" align="alignnone" width="600"] An Art Lovers' Guide episode 4[/caption]

Nina and Alastair set off to Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. A former Soviet state, bordering the Caspian Sea, Baku offers a tantalising mix of the ancient and modern - at the crossroads of east meets west, on the ancient silk trading route. It is also an authoritarian state, where cultural life is tightly controlled. So, not their regular city break...  An Art Lovers' Guide episode 3 - Baku But it is a city looking westwards, eager to turn itself into a tourist destination. They discover a city for which oil has been both a blessing and a curse. The profits from oil transformed its architecture twice - first in the late nineteenth century, and again in the twentieth. As a result, Baku is full of buildings that feel like 19th-century Paris, but also gleaming new structures by architectural stars like Zaha Hadid. And all around, the traces of Soviet rule offer other surprising clashes of art and architecture. Nina and Alastair pick their way through this maze of influences and travel

Nina and Alastair explore Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon. This fascinating crossroads between east and west has a rich history, and a troubled recent past. It's the most diverse city in the Arab world, with 18 recognised religious sects. Its French influence gave it the reputation as the Paris of the east during the mid 20th century. But this diversity turned to division in 1975 when the city became embroiled in a 15-year civil war.    An Art Lovers' Guide episode 2 - Beirut In a place of so many identities and memories, art plays a unique role - as Janina and Alastair discover at the start of their journey, taking a cable car to the mountains that ring the city. Here, a stunning brutalist Christian cathedral of the Maronite Church overlooks the city's suburbs. It's an impressive expression of both the city's unique demographic mix, and of the identity of the Maronite community - one of Beirut's biggest minorities. On their travels around the city they dis

Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three entertaining and revealing cultural city breaks. Nina and Alastair head to Lisbon, rapidly becoming one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations. Winding through the city's cobbled streets, from its steep hills to the picturesque shore line, the cultural riches they encounter reveal the city's fascinating history.  From a spectacular monument to the maritime globetrotting of Portugal's 'golden age' to the work of a photographer documenting the city's large African population, they discover a complex history of past glories and a darker, slave-trading past. Their journey also uncovers the impact of twentieth-century dictatorship on the city's artistic and cultural life, through the work of contemporary artists Paula Rego and Joana Vasconcelos. An Art Lovers' Guide episode 1 - Lisbon Along the way, Alistair also takes a boat trip on the River Tagus to discover how Portuguese sailors establishe

Art experts attempt to recreate Caravaggio's 17th century masterpiece The Adoration, which was stolen from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Italy, on 18 October 1969.     Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 7 - Mystery of the Lost Caravaggio The Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (also known as The Adoration) is a painting believed to have been created in 1609 by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio. Recent discoveries link the painting to that commissioned by Fabio Nuti in April 1600, and thus sent from Rome to Palermo. It was stolen on October 18, 1969 from the Oratorio di San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily. The painting, which hung above the altar, was large, measuring almost six square metres (actual size 268 cm x 197 cm). Probably because of its size, it was removed from its frame by the thief or thieves (two suspected) before being taken out of the church. After it was stolen, the Oratory was pillaged of other art, along with choir stalls of carved and gilded wood

Art experts attempt to make a perfect replica of Franz Marc's expressionist work The Tower of Blue Horses, which disappeared following the collapse of Nazi Germany.   Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 7 - Mystery of the Lost Marc The Tower of Blue Horses was a large work, 200 by 130 centimetres. Most of the picture is occupied by a frontal view of four primarily blue horses, arranged in a tier to the right of centre, facing the viewer but with their heads turned to the left; the foremost horse seemed "only a little less than life size" to at least one writer. To the left of their rumps, which form the centre of the picture, is an abstract landscape; above it is an orange rainbow on a yellow background. The foremost horse has a crescent moon on its chest, and crosses on its body which suggest stars. The Tower of Blue Horses Marc created the painting in summer 1913. A preliminary sketch in ink and gouache survives in the form of a new year's postcard for that year to

A team of art experts attempt to recreate Medicine, a painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, which was destroyed in 1945 by the retreating German army.     Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 6 - Mystery of the Lost Klimt Medicine was the second of University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings, presented in March 1901 at the tenth Secession Exhibition. It featured a column of nude figures on the right hand side of the painting, representing the river of life. Beside it was a young nude female who floated in space, with a newborn infant at her feet, representing life. A skeleton represented death in the river of life. The only link between the floating woman and the river of bodies is two arms, the woman's and a man's as seen from behind. Figure of Hygeia, the mythological daughter of the god of medicine is shown at the bottom of the painting. Hygieia stood with the Aesculapian snake around her arm and the cup of Lethe in her hand, turning her back to mankind. Klimt conveyed an ambi

Follow the ingenious recreation of Tamara de Lempicka's Myrto, the priceless painting that was stolen during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.    Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 5 - Mystery of the Lost Lempicka Most probably, it was with this painting that Lempicka captivated the physician Boucard, who immediately acquired it for his collection. It contains the basic luminist formulas invented by this artist, which represent her originality. The face of a sleeping woman in the background resembles photos of Lempicka at the time. During World War II, a member of the German occupation troops in France was so attracted by the work's power of seduction that he could not resist snatching it up; to date (1998), it has never resurfaced. Tamara de Lempicka Tamara Lempicka was a Polish painter active in the 1920s and 1930s, who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best known for her polished Art Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealthy,

A team of ingenious art experts recreate The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, which was stolen from a Boston museum in 1990 in the biggest art heist of modern times.     Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 4 - Mystery of the Lost Vermeer The Concert (c. 1664) is a painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer which depicts a man and two women performing music. It belonged to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, but was stolen in 1990 and remains missing. On account of this circumstance, it has been the subject of a large number of popular allusions. The picture measures 72.5 by 64.7 centimetres and shows three musicians: a young woman sitting at a harpsichord, a man playing the lute, and a woman who is singing. The harpsichord's upturned lid is decorated with an Arcadian landscape; its bright coloring stands in contrast to the two paintings hanging on the wall to the right and left. A viola da gamba can be seen lying on the floor. The musicians are identified by their clothing a

A pioneering team of art experts attempt to recreate van Gogh's 1888 painting Six Sunflowers, which was destroyed in Japan during World War II.    Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 3 - Mystery of the Lost Van Gogh Sunflowers is the name of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The first series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, executed a year later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase. In the artist's mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions. About eight months later van Gogh hoped to welcome and to impress Gauguin again with Sunflowers, now part of the painted Décoration for the Yellow House that he prepared for the guestroom of his home in Arles, where Gauguin was supposed to stay. After Gauguin's departure, van Gogh imagined the two major versions as wings of the Berceuse Triptych, and finally he inclu

Art experts attempt to digitally reconstruct Monet's Water Lilies, a much beloved painting that was destroyed in a fire at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1958.   Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 2 - Mystery of the Lost Monet On April 15, 1958, a fire on the second floor destroyed an 18 foot long Monet Water Lilies painting (the current Monet water lilies was acquired shortly after the fire as a replacement). The fire started when workmen installing air conditioning were smoking near paint cans, sawdust, and a canvas dropcloth. One worker was killed in the fire and several firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation. Most of the paintings on the floor had been moved for the construction although large paintings including the Monet were left. Art work on the 3rd and 4th floors were evacuated to the Whitney Museum of American Art which abutted it on the 54th Street side. Among the paintings that were moved was A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which had b

This documentary series tells the stories of a host of historic paintings that have been tragically lost, stolen or destroyed over the decades and centuries. This series kicks off with Graham Sutherland's controversial portrait of Winston Churchill.   Mystery of the Lost Paintings ep. 1 - Sutherland's Portrait of Winston Churchill In 1954 the English artist Graham Sutherland was commissioned to paint a full-length portrait of Sir Winston Churchill. The 1,000 guinea fee for the painting was funded by donations from members of the House of Commons and House of Lords. The painting was presented to Churchill by both Houses of Parliament at a public ceremony in Westminster Hall on his 80th birthday on 30 November 1954. Churchill hated the portrait. After the public presentation, the painting was taken to his country home at Chartwell but was not put on display. After the death of Lady Churchill in 1977, it became clear that she had the painting destroyed some months after it was del

Andrew Graham-Dixon confronts the worlds of high art and seriously organised crime to uncover the true story behind the greatest art heist of the 21st century. In December 2002, two priceless and historically important paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, in a brutal and audacious robbery by experienced, professional thieves.     But what happened to the masterpieces, and what is their use to criminals who can never sell or display them on the open market? Andrew travels across Europe, moving between the worlds of high art and low crime and meeting policemen, prosecutors and art experts to uncover just how the world of violent and organised crime makes extensive use of stolen art - and how lost masterpieces like these can be successfully recovered. Stealing Van Gogh - Art thefts at Van Gogh Museum In 1991, twenty paintings were stolen from the museum, among them Van Gogh's early painting The Potato Eaters. Although the thieves escaped from the building,

Andrew Graham-Dixon unravels the mysteries of the art of the pre-perspective era. He traces the beginnings of Christian art in Rome, Egypt and medieval France. How should art depict the relationship between man and God? How can art best express eternal values? Can you and should you portray the face of Christ? For over 1,000 years these were some of the questions which taxed the minds of the greatest artists of the early West. Art of Eternity part 1 - Painting Paradise How should art depict the relationship between man and God? How can art best express eternal values? Can you, and should you, portray the face of Christ? For over a thousand years these were some of the questions which taxed the minds of the greatest artists of the early West. In this three-part series, art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon sets out to unravel the mysteries of the art of the pre-perspective era. Why has this world been so frequently misunderstood and underrated? His journey takes him from the mysterious cata

Inspired by the great French masters, including Renoir and Monet, the American Impressionist movement followed its own path which over a forty-year period reveals as much about America as a nation as it does about its art.  It’s a story closely tied to a love of gardens and a desire to preserve nature in a rapidly urbanizing nation. These gardens provided unlimited inspiration for artists and a never-ending oasis for the growing middle class. As America forged its economic world domination, the pioneering American impressionists crafted a sumptuous visual language that told their story of the era. Travelling to studios, gardens and iconic locations throughout the United States, UK and France – including the sell-out exhibition that began at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and ended at the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut – this mesmerising documentary from director Phil Grabsky is a feast for the eyes. Narrated by Gillian Anderson The Artist’s Garden: American

Edouard Manet This acclaimed documentary, focussing on the sell-out exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts, depicts the craft of one of the all-time great artists, the ‘father of modern art’, Edouard Manet. Spanning this enigmatic and, at times, controversial artist’s career Manet gives a fascinating exploration and detailed biography of the momentous painter and his environment in a rapidly changing 19th-century Paris.  Presented by Tim Marlow, and with special guests including art historians and contemporary painters, this documentary reveals Manet’s forward-thinking and modern approach to portraiture. Despite Manet’s portraits comprising around half of his artistic output, they have never been explored in a retrospective exhibition. The Royal Acadmey’s landmark show consisted of more than 50 works, including portraits of his most frequent sitter his wife Suzanne Leenhoff and luminaries of the period such as Antonin Proust, Émile Zola and Stéphane Mallarmé. Displaying exclusive beh