Lines and volumes

A series of reflective vignettes on a range of art movements from Impressionism to 20th century urban architecture with a focus on a personal exploration of key artists in each period. The impact of cinema and photography on art is discussed at the opening of the program in the context of Impressionism and its quality of perception overriding senses of description followed by a brief analysis of the life and work of Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet. The program then moves to Montmatre in the early 1900s where Cubism began to be recognised and Picasso emerged as a key artist and then on to Surrealism and the artistic debates of the 1920s where Breton, Max Ernst, Giorgio De Chirico, Francis Picabia, Rene Magritte, Jean Cocteau, Manray and the celebrated Dadaist, Salvador Dali are explored. The emergence of the New Realists proclaiming the end of all art and all styles is then discussed with particular attention to the life and work of Yves Plant, Cezarre and Marc Chagall. This is followed by a focus on Urban landscapes and architecture from the Bauhaus School and detailed analysis of the work of Raymond Loewy to a study of urban postwar reconstruction and Skyrise buildings. Particular attention is directed here to the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and his successor Ieoh Ming Pei, dedicated to light and transparency in architecture most evident in his Louvre Museum entry redevelopment. The documentary closes with a symbolic meeting of the one of the oldest and one of the newest art forms, painting and cinema, in the form of Henri Georges Clouzot’s short film of Picasso at work on a backlit screen, “The Picasso Mystery”.