If there is one genre of art that seems to have played a greater role than any other, it is the nude. For at least 30,000 years, humans have represented the naked form in a variety of ways. From the ideal to the real, the romantic to the surrealist, there have been almost no end of works devoted to the unclothed human body. This series - presented by writer and broadcaster Tim Marlow - will examine those artworks, the societies that produced them...

Hans Haacke visits his retrospectives taking place simultaneously in Berlin and Hamburg with art historian Jon Bird. The work in these long awaited, non-chronologically arranged exhibitions reveals Haacke's strong convictions and desire for justice for all. Haacke is a key figure in contemporary art whose work intersects with conceptual, pop, minimal and land art. The artist is particularly known for his research into the hidden economies and politics...

Elizabeth Murray has been moving forward fearlessly during more than 4 decades constantly inventing new shapes for the unique style of painting for which she is known. Her decision to become an artist was the result of an encounter with a still life by Cezanne at the Art Institute of Chicago as a student. Subsequently many artists had an impact on her thinking, the Surrealists, deKooning, and Guston, just to name a few. Earlier influences were the...

Christo’s Wrapped Walk Ways is a stunning work dedicated to public interaction and communal observation. As we follow Christo down his path, he shows us exactly what those who lend themselves to the piece experience. Covering a total of 2.8 miles of walkway in Kansas City’s Loose Park, Christo’s golden nylon morphs and molds with each step, touch, and breeze. By encouraging visitors of the park to interact with the piece, the artists makes them...

Brice Marden's paintings and drawings have long been at the forefront of contemporary abstract art. Marden’s much acclaimed retrospective at MoMA in November 2006, provided an opportunity to accompany the artist and the curator Gary Garrels on a tour of the exhibition to discuss his key works of the last forty years. Marden speaks frankly about his approach, his beginnings and influences. At the time of the retrospective, Peter Schjeldahl named...

BLACK IS THE COLOR highlights key moments in the history of African-American visual art, from Edmonia Lewis’s 1867 sculpture Forever Free, to the work of contemporary artists such as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, Ellen Gallagher, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Both comprehensive and lively, BLACK IS THE COLOR is a much-needed survey of great work by artists whose contributions were neglected by the mainstream art world for far too long.

One of the contemporary art world’s most acclaimed mixed-media and performance artists, the masked Narcissister is the subject of this smart, sassy documentary that showcases her spectacle-rich approach to explorations of gender, racial identity and sexuality. Directed by the enigmatic artist herself, the film deconstructs her celebrated stage shows which combine dance, elaborate costumes, pop music hits, unabashed eroticism and heavy doses of humor....

A deeply personal portrait of acclaimed New York-based artist, Ida Applebroog. Now in her 80s, she looks back at how she expressed herself through decades of drawings, paintings and journals; and how she found psychological and sexual liberation through art. *"Beth B achieves a vivid snapshot of a still-vital artist late in a still-purposeful life."* - Glenn Kenny, ***The New York Times*** *"The film is brilliant…. Applebroog’s art is intimate...

The purposeful dismantling of the modernist myth has been the central issue of contemporary art making and art criticism. Since the 1960s, other disciplines, cultures, and artists previously excluded from modernism's privileged canons have become absorbed into an ever expanding field of activity and influence. Younger artists are a new breed of cultural scavengers -- anything or anyone is fair game for appropriation or reinterpretation. Meaning is...