Music Videos
At least in surrealist paintings a link can be seen to some music videos in the use both make of the free association of ideas and images. This section will look at the role paintings play in music videos. Let’s start by asking the question “How many paintings does it take to make a music […]
Inspirations and Speculations
The inspiration for this website was Susan Seidelman’s 1994 short film The Dutch Master (1994) where the dental hygienist Teresa becomes fascinated by a Dutch painting in MoMa. The painting’s characters suddenly take on a life of their own and Teresa enters an erotic fantasy world of luxurious colours and sensual costumes. As a result […]
More Films by Painters
The painters dealt with in the second section of this subject are Alexander Petrov, Hwang Ildong, Maria Lassnig,Yayoi Kusama, Len Lye and Banksy. Also worthy of consideration are Robert Smithson, James Scott, William Kentridge and Takeshi Kitano not to mention the Dalí/Disney collaboration Destino. Alexander Petrov (1957- Russia, animator and animation director). The below are […]
Films ‘inspired’ by Paintings
Popular paintings that may—or may not?—have been the inspiration behind films… Without denying the sheer enjoyability of such speculations it is sometimes a bit of a leap of faith to claim that not just one or a few sequences but a whole film or at the very least the whole ‘feel’ of a film has […]
Films by Painters
The painters dealt with range from Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol to less well-known ones like Joseph Cornell, Bruce Connor, Bruce Lacey and Derek Boshie. Walker (161—62) provides a list of 20th century “artists, designers and photographers” who “have made films at some point in their careers.” The painters on this […]
TV / Television
Miami Vice “The Lost Madonna”, season 5 episode 14 first broadcast 17 March 1989 Miami Vice’s film worthy televisual and aesthetic qualities can be perceived in the way it presents itself as a total work of art both aurally with its innovative deployment of music and visually with its use of Art Deco locations in […]
Individual Films
A selection of films plus one TV episode in which paintings play an important narrative role. What is decisive here is that the paintings featured in the films are crucial in driving the narrative forward and are not just used for background effect. The Impossible (Egypt 1965 Hussein Kamal) A domestic drama that employs painting […]
Individual Directors
Eight film directors will be considered whose films have been variously concerned with the art of painting. Five of the below developed an interest in painting at an early age two of who went on to study it—Jarman at the Slade, Greenaway at Walthamstow College of Art. Russell studied photography at Walthamstow Technical College and […]
Other Painter Biopics
Vincent Van Gogh has had the most films made about him followed by Rembrandt van Rijin and Pablo Picasso. The other painters come from Ireland, Argentina, Hungary, Estonia and Russia among many other countries. The order of the list down to Jackson Pollock has been determined by the number of films made about the painter. […]
East Asian Painting and Cinema
Biopics about Japanese, South Korean and Chinese painters among other films. The groundbreaking, seminal study edited by Ehrlich and Desser on Sino-Japanese paintings and film must be mentioned at the start (see bibliography). Donald Richie’s article from it on “Film and the Visual Arts in Japan” can serve as a brief introduction here where he […]