Narrated by Ethan Hawke, this film was made in conjunction with the exhibition George Bellows. Bellows arrived in New York City in 1904 and depicted an America on the move. In a twenty-year career cut short by his death at age 42, he painted the rapidly growing modern city—its bustling crowds, skyscrapers, and awe-inspiring construction projects, as well as its bruising boxers, street urchins, and New Yorkers both hard at work and enjoying their leisure. He also captured the rugged beauty of New York's rivers and the grandeur of costal Maine. This documentary includes original footage shot in New York City and Maine; examples of Bellows' paintings, drawings, and prints; and archival footage and photographs.

Narrated by Ethan Hawke, this film was made in conjunction with the exhibition George Bellows. Bellows arrived in New York City in 1904 and depicted an America on the move. In a twenty-year career cut short by his death at age 42, he painted the rapidly growing modern city—its bustling crowds, skyscrapers, and awe-inspiring construction projects, as well as its bruising boxers, street urchins, and New Yorkers both hard at work and enjoying their leisure. He also captured the rugged beauty of New York's rivers and the grandeur of costal Maine. This documentary includes original footage shot in New York City and Maine; examples of Bellows' paintings, drawings, and prints; and archival footage and photographs.

This short documentary, narrated by Ed Harris, was produced by the National Gallery of Art in conjunction with the exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape. Joan Miró was passionately committed to his native Catalonia and its struggle for independence from Spain. But he also longed to escape into artistic freedom. This tension drove his art in strange and beautiful ways. Miró was by turns influenced by Dada, surrealism, and abstract expressionism. His changes in styles and subjects also reflected the horrific events of the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the dictatorship of Franco. This documentary includes original footage shot in Barcelona and Catalonia, images of Miró's paintings and sculpture, and archival footage and photos.

David McCullough, a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author and recipient of the National Book Award, discusses his new book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. In this video recorded on September 26, 2011, at the National Gallery of Art, McCullough tells the story of America's longstanding love affair with Paris through vivid portraits of dozens of significant characters. Notably, artist Samuel F. B. Morse is depicted as he worked on his masterpiece Gallery of the Louvre. McCullough spoke at the Gallery in honor of the exhibition A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's "Gallery of the Louvre," on view from June 25, 2011 to July 8, 2012. The exhibition, program, and video were coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Narrated by Willem Dafoe and with Alfred Molina as the voice of Paul Gauguin, this film was made in conjunction with the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth. Gauguin (1848–1903) abandoned impressionism to create an art driven less by observation than by imagination. His gifts as an artist were matched by a talent for creating myths about places, cultures, and most of all, himself. This film explores his search for an authenticity he felt missing in modern Europe, a search that took him to ever more remote lands: Brittany, Martinique, and Polynesia. Never finding the paradise of his dreams, he recreated it in his paintings, sculpture, drawings, and prints. The film is available for sale at the National Gallery of Art. The film is made possible by the HRH Foundation.

Narrated by Willem Dafoe and with Alfred Molina as the voice of Paul Gauguin, this film was made in conjunction with the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth. Gauguin (1848–1903) abandoned impressionism to create an art driven less by observation than by imagination. His gifts as an artist were matched by a talent for creating myths about places, cultures, and most of all, himself. This film explores his search for an authenticity he felt missing in modern Europe, a search that took him to ever more remote lands: Brittany, Martinique, and Polynesia. Never finding the paradise of his dreams, he recreated it in his paintings, sculpture, drawings, and prints. The film is available for sale at the National Gallery of Art. The film is made possible by the HRH Foundation.

Narrated by Willem Dafoe and with Alfred Molina as the voice of Paul Gauguin, this film was made in conjunction with the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth. Gauguin (1848–1903) abandoned impressionism to create an art driven less by observation than by imagination. His gifts as an artist were matched by a talent for creating myths about places, cultures, and most of all, himself. This film explores his search for an authenticity he felt missing in modern Europe, a search that took him to ever more remote lands: Brittany, Martinique, and Polynesia. Never finding the paradise of his dreams, he recreated it in his paintings, sculpture, drawings, and prints. The film is available for sale at the National Gallery of Art. The film is made possible by the HRH Foundation.

Narrated by Willem Dafoe and with Alfred Molina as the voice of Paul Gauguin, this film was made in conjunction with the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth. Gauguin (1848–1903) abandoned impressionism to create an art driven less by observation than by imagination. His gifts as an artist were matched by a talent for creating myths about places, cultures, and most of all, himself. This film explores his search for an authenticity he felt missing in modern Europe, a search that took him to ever more remote lands: Brittany, Martinique, and Polynesia. Never finding the paradise of his dreams, he recreated it in his paintings, sculpture, drawings, and prints. The film is available for sale at the National Gallery of Art. The film is made possible by the HRH Foundation.

Narrated by Isabella Rossellini and produced by the National Gallery of Art, this film traces the career of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an artist whose work thrilled and delighted the Habsburg courts of the later 16th century. Arcimboldo was best known for his "composite heads"—faces composed of fruits, vegetables, fish, flowers, and beasts of all kinds. The film explores the connection between his paintings and the burgeoning natural sciences, the voyages of discovery, and the atmosphere of intellectual curiosity at the courts of Europe. The film is made possible by the HRH Foundation. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Arcimboldo, 1526–1593: Nature and Fantasy.

This short documentary, narrated by curator Harry Cooper, was produced by the National Gallery of Art in conjunction with the exhibition In the Tower: Mark Rothko. The film considers Rothko's style, which infused abstract painting with emotional significance. Recognized in the 1950s for his use of brilliant colors, Rothko changed direction in the 1960s and produced a series of canvases known as the black-form paintings. Critics and artists often associated the darkness of these works with Rothko's bouts of illness and depression, but Cooper argues that the paintings are a continuation of the painter's lifelong exploration of light.

This film explains the process of creating a polychrome sculpture using the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Saint Ginés de la Jara (about 1692) by Luisa Roldán as an example. Seventeenth-century Spanish polychrome sculpture was intended to appear as lifelike as possible and artists frequently achieved remarkable effects of realism. The film is divided into four short chapters: "The Structural Elements," "Carving the Figure," "Saints’ Garments: Estofado Technique," and "Flesh Tones: Painting the Encarnaciones." Digital animations highlight the construction of the Saint Ginés sculpture. Footage of sculptor Marcelo Moreira Santos and painter Sylvana Barrett demonstrates techniques current in seventeenth-century Spain. Narration provided by Zahira Véliz. The film was produced by the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Over the course of nearly half a century, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff acquired works by some of the most influential American artists in the postwar era, building a collection that bridges the divide between abstract and figurative painting. More than 40 artists are represented, with special focus on Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Harry Cooper, the National Gallery's curator of modern and contemporary art, gives a tour of the exhibition, which includes 126 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture. By discussing the works according to themes such as Line, Drip, Gesture, and Concentricity, he presents the collection in new and often unexpected ways. The Meyerhoffs have donated 47 works to the National Gallery of Art since 1987, and their entire collection will eventually be given to the museum.

Over the course of nearly half a century, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff acquired works by some of the most influential American artists in the postwar era, building a collection that bridges the divide between abstract and figurative painting. More than 40 artists are represented, with special focus on Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella. Harry Cooper, the National Gallery's curator of modern and contemporary art, gives a tour of the exhibition, which includes 126 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture. By discussing the works according to themes such as Line, Drip, Gesture, and Concentricity, he presents the collection in new and often unexpected ways. The Meyerhoffs have donated 47 works to the National Gallery of Art since 1987, and their entire collection will eventually be given to the museum.

Late 19th–century art is usually identified with airy and colorful impressionist paintings and the radiant atmosphere of Paris. But in the shadowy recesses an art of a very different kind thrived. Prints, drawings, and small sculpture from the period present an alternative vision in depictions of the inner worlds of emotions, anxieties, and fantasies. Mainly stored away rather than openly displayed by their owners, the works in this exhibition appealed to artists and audiences devoted to a private aesthetic experience. Peter Parshall, the Gallery's curator of old master prints, talks about the works in the exhibition and their subtle and complex depictions of human psychology decades before the publication of Sigmund Freud's theories on the unconscious.

The armor, paintings, and tapestries in the exhibition were made for the Spanish royal family—the nobles, kings, and Holy Roman Emperors who expanded Spain’s influence throughout Europe and the New World. These objects reveal the exquisite work of artists and craftsmen who served the Spanish ruling class from the 15th to the 18th century. In the intricate and finely wrought details on shields, portraits, and tapestries, something quite different is also revealed: an attempt to link the Spanish monarchy with the pieties of the Catholic Church, the power of the ancient Roman empire, and the cultural glories of ancient Greece. David Brown, curator of Italian and Spanish paintings at the National Gallery of Art, describes this subtle advertising campaign waged by the Spanish throne to advance its goals and reputation.

Narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi and produced by the National Gallery, this excerpt is from a new documentary film that examines the explosion of artistic activity around the Bay of Naples beginning in the first century BC. The film includes original footage of houses in Pompeii and of the seaside villas that dotted the coastline of the Bay of Naples. The 30-minute version of the film is on view and for sale at the National Gallery of Art. The film is made possible by the HRH Foundation. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples.

Over the course of seven hours, on June 5, 2008, Martin Puryear and 12 art handlers installed Ladder for Booker T. Washington at the National Gallery of Art in the East Building, Rotunda. This time-lapse movie demonstrates the process of hoisting the 36-foot-long ash and maple sculpture into the Rotunda in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Martin Puryear.

This two-minute trailer of the new documentary produced by Blue Bear Films for the National Geographic Society on the occasion of the traveling exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul features footage of the 2003 rediscovery of the collections from the National Museum, Kabul, which had been hidden in the vaults of the Central Bank in the Presidential Palace in 1988. National Geographic archaeologist Fredrik T. Hiebert and museum director Omara Massoudi give their personal accounts of this dramatic story. A ten-minute version will be shown in the exhibition and the full-length 28-minute film will be available in the Gallery Shops this summer. The exhibition begins a 17-month tour of the United States at the National Gallery of Art, on view May 25–September 7, 2008.

This excerpt is from a new documentary chronicling the rise of one of the greatest landscape painters of all time, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), who rendered the subtle effects of light and atmosphere in revolutionary ways. A barber's son, he entered the Royal Academy art school at age fourteen and became, over the course of six decades, the leading British artist of his era. This overview of Turner's career and influences includes footage of locations important to him in Wales, Switzerland, and England, and readings from writers and artists of the era, including John Ruskin and Lord Byron. A 30-minute version of the film may be purchased at the National Gallery of Art. Narrated by Jeremy Irons and produced by the Gallery in conjunction with the exhibition J.M.W. Turner, the film is made possible by the HRH Foundation.

Edward Hopper's paintings often show people and places in states of enigmatic isolation, loneliness, and contemplation.  These are among the fabled Hopper themes-so fabled it would hardly seem possible to go beyond them to give another account of his art. Focusing on one Hopper painting, Ground Swell of 1939, this lecture tries to provide a thicker, denser, more surprising story of what it meant for Hopper to make a painting, especially in the year 1939. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Edward Hopper.

The National Gallery of Art has released a new video podcast about the artist and his work and influence. In the podcast, which features more than 50 of Hopper's paintings and watercolors, Senior Curator Franklin Kelly discusses New York City, New England, and the cinema as Hopper saw and portrayed them—and as we view them today through his work. The filming of the pod cast was made possible by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Music composed and performed by Scott Silbert of the US Navy Band. Music engineered by David Morse of the US Navy Band.

This excerpt is from a new documentary produced by the National Gallery of Art that includes archival footage of Edward Hopper (1882–1967), new footage of places that inspired him in New York and New England, including his boyhood home in Nyack and his studio on Washington Square, where he lived and worked for more than 50 years. Narrated by actor and art collector Steve Martin, this film traces Hopper's varied influences, from French impressionism to the gangster films of the 1930s. Artists Red Grooms and Eric Fischl discuss Hopper's influence on their careers. Curators discuss recent and diverse perspectives on Hopper's art. The 30-minute version of the film is on view and for sale at the National Gallery of Art. The film is made possible by the HRH Foundation. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Edward Hopper.