Artists' Letters and Writings

"Go behind the scenes to meet today's most fascinating contemporary artists in Season Three of the Emmy-nominated ART:21--ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY documentary series. Unparalleled in its access to today's artists, this unique series takes viewers into artists' studios, homes, and communities to provide an intimate view of their lives, work, creative processes, and sources of inspiration. The four one-hour programs present 18 artists working in the United States ..."--Case.

The last episode in the series explores the fate of art in the machine and profit-driven world and asks: should art create a realm separate from the modern world, or should it plunge headlong into the chaos while transforming the way we see and live in it? Using the works of artists of the 20th and 21st Century, including Ai Weiwei, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol and Anselm Kiefer, we seek answers to these profound questions. The conclusion is imbued with the hope that art still offers civilization an insight into the incomprehensibility of the world and a way to transcend its horrors with the enduring creativity of the human spirit.

The fullest catalogue of the drawings by and after Michelangelo in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Michelangelo is considered by many art experts to be the greatest Renaissance artist, surpassing even Leonardo da Vinci. Not only was he an exceptional sculptor but also a formidable painter, architect, and poet. Michelangelo's primary material was marble and the results of his talent and work speak for themselves: Can anything compare to his statue of David or the Pietà he carved at the age of 24? Michelangelo lived to be 88 years old, and he worked until the very end of his life. His last project, inspired by the success of his fresco paintings on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo, like Leonardo, was a man of many talents; sculptor, architect, painter and poet, he made the apotheosis of muscular movement, which to him was the physical manifestation of passion. Thus This admirable sculptor became the creator, at the Vatican, of the most lyrical and epic decoration ever seen: the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo cared little for physical beauty, except in a few instances, such as his painting of Adam on the Sistine ceiling, and his sculptures of the Pieta. Though a master of anatomy and of the laws of composition, he dared to disregard both if it were necessary to express his concept: to exaggerate the muscles of his figures, and even put them in positions the human body could not naturally assume. Michelangelo was the first to make the human form express a variety of emotions. In his hands emotion became an instrument upon which he played, extracting themes and harmonies of infinite variety.

Unveiling the man behind the myth. Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo created three of the art world's greatest icons: the statue of David, the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and the dome of St. Peter's in Rome. This revealing drama documentary traces his development from angry young man to pride of Rome. His prodigious talent has led people to describe him as more divine than human. Modern experts reproduce elements of his work to discover the extent of his genius. His personal life is also examined.

Unveiling the man behind the myth. Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo created three of the art world's greatest icons: the statue of David, the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and the dome of St. Peter's in Rome. This revealing drama documentary traces his development from angry young man to pride of Rome. His prodigious talent has led people to describe him as more divine than human. Modern experts reproduce elements of his work to discover the extent of his genius. His personal life is also examined.

Michelangelo Buonarroti's career spanned almost seven decades, during which time he was instrumental in the development of an art style that represents the pinnacle of the Italian High Renaissance. His unrivaled genius, violent temper and singular determination to pursue his art meant that he often worked alone, undertaking great feats of physical and intellectual endurance. Michelangelo is the archetypal brooding artist, the romantic symbol of the creative spirit tortured by his own internal demons and antagonized by his influential patrons. As an architect he designed the dome of St. Peter's in the Vatican. As a sculptor he produced figures of unimaginable quality. As a painter he single-handedly undertook the decoration of the Sistine chapel's ceiling. Works featured in this program include David, Frescoes, Sistine Chapel, Bacchus, Pieta, Dying and Rebellious Slaves, and The Last Judgement.