Art makes the world a more beautiful place.
Whether you’re an artist or not, everyone can benefit from the philosophy of leaving something better than you found it. Be it on a small scale, such as your daily fashion choices, or for the world’s biggest museums and stages, creating art is one way to make your mark.
The people featured in these documentaries weren’t afraid to create something and put it out there for everyone to see and experience. These art documentaries were made to inspire you to think creatively, nurture your passions, and approach the creative process without fear.
1. Beauty is Embarrassing
“My mission is to bring humor into fine art” – Wayne White
Who knew that art could be this much fun? Wayne White believed it could be, and this documentary covers the life and work of an influential illustrator and artist. It explores the life of a 3-time Emmy award winner who designed puppets, illustrations, set designs, characters, and campaigns.
For creatives looking for new ideas, sometimes the best way to get inspired is to look to those who see the world in a unique way.
From his thrift-store word art to larger-than-life celebrity caricatures, Wayne White proved that lowbrow art could be taken seriously – even if you’re not taking yourself too seriously.
Where to watch: Free on YouTube Movies or Apple TV
2. Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
“I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life.” – Jean-Michel Basquiat
When iconic artist Jean-Michel Basquiat passed away in 1988, he left behind a cult-like following. His legacy transcended his graffiti-style pop art creations. In his early twenties, Basquiat changed the face of the art world by bringing new life, color, and vibrancy to the stagnant industry.
In this documentary, directed by Tamra Davis, contemporary creatives and fans can witness the artist at work and speaking directly about his creative process.
The artist’s touching emotional connection to his work and community is evident. Anyone can feel inspired by not only Basquiat’s ambition but his remarkable way of seeing the world and its possibilities.
Where to watch: Free on Facebook or Curiosity Stream
3. Andy Warhol: An American Prophet
Where would pop art be today without Andy Warhol? Warhol saw potential in society’s commodities – and in its outcasts. The artist surrounded himself with different and interesting personalities to expand his pool of inspiration and knowledge.
There’s no better inspiration for those who want to practice thinking differently. Working like Warhol means exploring your creativity via new and unheard-of paths in various mediums.
This documentary is one of many that cover the life of Andy Warhol, but a great resource for first-hand interviews with artists who were inspired by his work and those who worked alongside him.
Where to watch: Free on YouTube
4. Bathtubs Over Broadway
“This stuff is bizarre and hilarious. And those are just the beginning layers.” – Bathtubs Over Broadway
When a comedy writer for the David Letterman show discovered a treasure trove of vintage records – he knew he’d found something interesting. Marketing combined with broadway musicals?
Marketers and advertisers often look to different artists’ mediums for inspiration when creating new projects. These teams thought beyond billboards and ads and created musicals to sell products.
The musicals were about bathtubs, cars, gas stations, and other commodities. And the results were not only hilarious, but they’re also a found piece of long-gone marketing and art history that everyone should know about.
Where to watch: Apple TV and YouTube Movies
5. Iris
“I don’t have any rules, because I would only be breaking them.” – Iris Apfel
With nearly eight decades of influence on the fashion industry and trends, Iris Apfel is style. The now 101-year-old has had a significant impact on the history of fashion, designs, and textiles, including a contract with the White House spanning the terms of nine presidencies.
In this film by documentarian Albert Maysles, Iris’s life and work are shown in all their colorful and eccentric glory. She takes self-expression to new heights. The designer’s philosophies on creativity are based on doing what you want and what feels right – regardless of trends or popular styles.
To Iris, fashion and style are like jazz – expect the unexpected. This icon is one to know for those wishing to create without fear.
Where to watch: Apple TV
6. McQueen
Integrating visceral inspirations and deep emotions into his work is what Alexander McQueen was well known for in the fashion world. McQueen’s work is known for its passion, genius, and (at times) controversy. Whatever your view on McQueen’s work, he took on new forms of creativity by digging into his personal darkness to create innovative designs.
This documentary explores how McQueen’s designs took on an element of performance art. He sought to not only engage viewers but affect them – whether that was positively or through shock or even repulsion.
Where to watch: YouTube and Apple TV
7. Yarn
Folk art? Kitschy? A metaphor for women’s practices and human connection? Yarn art encompasses many different things. In the film, the craftspeople and artists create installations, objects, and performances through knitting and yarn.
This documentary looks at these artists expressing themselves through yarn. Knitting and crocheting are traditional crafts being redefined in the last couple of decades.
Expressing creative ideas may not always be about inventing new mediums and methods – but reinventing old ones.
Where to watch: Free on Plex
8. Kusama: Infinity
Though Yayoi Kusama’s work and visions weren’t celebrated in her early days as an artist, the world caught up to her. In more recent years, Kusama’s unique way of seeing the world has inspired artists and creatives everywhere.
Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. –Yayoi Kusama
The 2018 documentary is both a retrospective of Kusama’s earlier, lesser-known works, as well as her contemporary installations and projects. Her affinity for dots and shapes creates striking tableaus that swallow the spaces they fill. Kusama’s ideas, as she says in the film, come quickly and without warning so that the canvas can barely keep up.
Where to watch: Free on TVO Today
9. Instant Dreams
Edwin Herbert Land had a vision that photography could be something instant. Through his revolutionary thinking, Land brought the idea to life with Polaroid cameras hitting shelves for consumers in the late 1940s.
Polaroid offered professional and amateur photographers an opportunity to create something completely unique with each snap of the camera; a photograph with no digital file or negative. Though the technology was temporarily lost, the 2010s saw a comeback of instant photography, with new methods of creating these unique one-off shots.
In this documentary, director William Baptist examines the history and impact of instant photography and the art it inspired.
Where to watch: Free on Plex
10. Cameraperson
When you get behind a camera and aim to capture the people around you, you take on a sort of power. The one with the lens obtains a unique perspective on what it is to be human.
“It’s always a question of who is choosing to tell it and for what purpose.”- Kirsten Johnson
This 2016 documentary made a splash at Sundance when (cameraperson) Kirsten Johnson revealed her masterpiece made of years of footage from all over the world. The collected shots showed humans at their most raw. Johnson’s documentary is a masterclass on revealing the potential of the creative process and an artist’s capacity to show humans as they are.
Cameraperson is a memoir of the artist’s work, travels, interviews, and experiences. Though she said it was meant to show the things she seeks to understand, it’s also a memoir of all the people shown, as well as the cultures and communities represented.
Where to watch: Apple TV
11. Banksy Does New York
Some New Yorkers will remember the moment when Banksy stopped being an anonymous artist in England and became a worldwide phenomenon. It was when his artwork popped up in the Big Apple.
Banksy committed to creating a series of public artworks in Manhattan. But how does one paint a mural or put up an installation in “the city that never sleeps” without anyone seeing?
This documentary – crafted as an extension of the performance art from his series – talks about how Banksy evaded the city police while wowing residents with his string of evocative and thought-provoking works of art.
Where to watch: Buy or Rent on YouTube
12. The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski
“If you want to create new things in this world, never listen to anybody.” – Stanislaw Szukalski
After his life’s work was destroyed during the war in Europe, sculptor Stanislaw Szukalski fell into obscurity. Decades later, his self-proclaimed genius was rediscovered in Los Angeles. His tormented and mythological-inspired ideas and figures were once again admired.
In this documentary produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, we see the lost and found creative process of the prolific Polish artist. His creations range from dark to disturbing, and as the film’s tagline puts it, make him one of the “greatest artists you’ve never heard of”.
Where to watch: Netflix
13. The Making of Boyhood
When filmmaker Richard Linklater set out to make an epic tale of growing up, he committed to a 12-year-long production. Filming a little bit in vignette style each year, he managed to show the passing of time for a small family and the challenges and joys of character Mason’s childhood.
This short behind-the-scenes documentary covers the making of the film. Interviews with the cast explain how the actors formed a family-like unit while portraying the on-screen family for over a decade.
In his award-winning project, Linklater showed that even seemingly insurmountable creative concepts are worth pursuing; and that patience, time, and ideas can come together to create something beautiful.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV
14. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
“If we don’t push, there’s nothing happening.” – Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Fans of the Chinese artist and activist, Ai Wei Wei, appreciate the immense depth of his work. It questions authority, which caused a stir in Beijing, even getting his blogs, websites, and installations shut down. He was censored and silenced for questioning the country’s leaders.
In Never Sorry, we can see the events and circumstances that inspired his rallying creative projects. From Chinese history to natural disasters, the documentary by Alison Klayman takes us into the mind and process of the artist who wasn’t afraid to go against the grain and the system itself.
Where to watch: Buy or Rent on YouTube, Free on Tubi
15. Museum Town
Like the economic decline of the small Massachusetts city, contemporary art faced a great challenge: how to expand on the expectations of how things should be.
Museum Town, directed by journalist Jennifer Trainer, chronicles the exploration of whether a town can also be a contemporary art museum. Formerly made up of abandoned buildings and warehouses, the town of North Adams, MA, was transformed into a display of modern art called MASS MoCA. More than 26 buildings and 250,000 square feet were adopted for the project, making it one of the largest contemporary art exhibition spaces in America.
The documentary shows how an innovative idea came to be. It’s also about how the unique exhibition space challenged and informed the creative process of the artists involved. Museum Town takes “thinking outside the (white) box” to the next level.
Where to watch: Google Movies, Apple TV
16. Between the Folds
Creativity isn’t always about the outcome or the destination. The process itself can be just as important, if not more so, for developing a more creative mindset. Leaning into the process teaches us to trust our instincts. We can benefit from the creative journey without worrying about the end.
Between the Folds, a 2008 documentary by Vanessa Gould, explores the art of origami and the way folds and pleats can express creative ideas. Art doesn’t always need to depict things exactly as they are, and origami is a medium that shows us the optimism and beauty in folded impressions.
A simple piece of paper. Infinite possibilities.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
17. Advanced Style
Everyday fashion, for some, is a daily performance. Clothing can be more than a necessity – it can be art and personal expression. It’s possible to use a wardrobe to portray creative ideas, concepts, emotions, and more.
Advanced Style builds on Ari Seth Cohen’s fashion blog and book. It’s about the life and style choices of women in New York between the ages of 65 and 96. Style has no age limit. In a world where youth is praised, these people are being unapologetically themselves. Trends come and go (and aim to break the bank), but adventurous style is priceless, timeless, and ageless.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
18. Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang
For contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, his use of fire and explosives changed the game in installation and performance art. His body of work, following studies in stage design, tested the limits of artistic mediums, materials, and processes. He created Sky Ladder in an attempt to “connect the earth to the universe”.
This documentary, produced by Netflix, explores the artist’s process and ideation methods. He pushed the limits of his own creative practice and the limits of materials. Guo-Qiang resisted the idea of conforming to what the world saw as “art”, endeavoring to create his own style.
Where to watch: Netflix
19. Herb and Dorothy
With an annual income of less than $30,000 and living in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, the Vogels (postal worker Herb and librarian Dorothy) become one the most prominent collectors of art in New York. The couple amassed a collection of over 4,000 pieces of art in their tiny apartment.
For years, they never sold a piece. And they had a collection worth millions, including Warhols, Schnabels, Tuttles, and so on. They eventually donated some 2,000 works of art to the National Gallery of Art.
This is what a love for the arts looks like.
Where to watch: Free on YouTube
20. Eames, the Architect and the Painter
Charles and Ray Eames created a chair that defined an era of design – but that wasn’t all. Their multi-disciplinary careers were a culmination of their perspectives on creativity.
Is being creative simply a job, or is it also a “way of looking at the world”? The biggest brands of the time trusted the Eames office with their designs. And the Eames secret? Finding the joy and fun in life and design.
This documentary on the architecture, art, and filmmaking of the husband and wife team looks at the pair’s interesting take on inspiration. Their passion wasn’t just for producing, it was for harnessing a feeling and turning it into something tangible.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
Bonus – Art and Craft
That eternal question of what makes great art… (Banksy has a lot to say here). The case of Mark Landis is another challenging perspective. Landis’ work was duping the works of others.
For decades, Landis forged artwork and donated it to museums. Not for the fame or fortune but for the satisfaction of seeing works by his hand in renowned institutions – and perhaps for the satisfaction of fooling the art world’s greatest eyes. This documentary follows the infamous art forger and the registrar tracking his moves.
Artists steal, right? Mark Landis just takes his performance to a whole new (and arguably unethical) level.
Where to watch: Free on Amazon Prime
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