Art21

Watch Art21 Season 4
Episode 4
Paradox
aired: Sun, Nov 18, 2007
Contemporary artists address contradiction, ambiguity, and truth. Featuring artists Mark Bradford, Catherine Sullivan, Robert Ryman, and Allora & Calzadilla.
Episode 3
Ecology
aired: Sun, Nov 11, 2007
Artists explore how our understanding of the natural world becomes deeply cultural. Featuring artists Ursula von Rydingsvard, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Robert Adams, and Mark Dion.
Episode 2
Protest
aired: Sun, Nov 4, 2007
Artists engage politics, inequality, and the many conflicts that besiege the world today. Featuring artists Nancy Spero, An-My Le, Alfredo Jaar, and Jenny Holzer.
Watch Art21 Season 3
Episode 4
Play
aired: Fri, Sep 30, 2005
Spontaneous and joyful, subversive or amusing, play can take many forms in daily life as well as in contemporary art. Featuring artists Jessica Stockholder, Ellen Gallagher, Arturo Herrera, and Oliver Herring, with an introduction by Grant Hill and an original video artwork by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler.
Episode 2
Memory
aired: Fri, Sep 16, 2005
Artists explore how memory functions and how to frame the past in their work. Featuring artists Susan Rothenberg, Mike Kelley, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Josiah McElheny, with an introduction by Isabella Rossellini and an original video artwork by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler.
Episode 1
Power
aired: Fri, Sep 16, 2005
From politics to mass media, the theme of power pervades daily life and is reflected in the ideas and concerns of contemporary artists. Featuring artists Cai Guo-Qiang, Laylah Ali, Krzysztof Wodiczko, and Ida Applebroog, with an introduction by David Alan Grier and an original video artwork by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler.
Watch Art21 Season 2
Episode 4
Humor
aired: Wed, Oct 1, 2003
Artists use irony, goofiness, satire, and sarcasm in their work, being funny and critical at the same time. Featuring artists Eleanor Antin, Raymond Pettibon, Elizabeth Murray, and Walton Ford, with an introduction by Charles Atlas and Margaret Cho.
Episode 2
Loss & Desire
aired: Wed, Sep 17, 2003
Artists express longing, love, and human experience in contemporary work. Featuring artists Collier Schorr, Gabriel Orozco, and Janine Antoni, with an introduction by Charles Atlas and Jane Alexander.
Watch Art21 Season 1
Episode 4
Consumption
aired: Thu, Feb 7, 2002
Artists address the idea of consumption by questioning commonly held assumptions about commerce, mass media, and consumer society. Featuring artists Michael Ray Charles, Matthew Barney, Andrea Zittel, and Mel Chin, with an introduction by Barbara Kruger and John McEnroe.
Episodes
Episode
ART:21: Balance
aired: Sat, May 5, 2012
This episode features artists whose works explore the distinctions between balance and imbalance, and demonstrate that the smallest change in a line, a formal element, or a structure can be a radical proposition. Featuring artists Rackstraw Downes, Robert Mangold, and Sarah Sze.
Episode
ART:21: History
aired: Sat, Apr 28, 2012
In this episode, artists play with historical events, explore and expose commonly held assumptions about historic ‘truth’, and create narratives based on personal experiences. Featuring artists Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelley, and Marina Abramović.
Episode
ART:21: Boundaries
aired: Sat, Apr 21, 2012
This episode features artists who synthesize disparate aesthetic traditions, present taboo subject matter, discover innovative uses of media, and explore the shape-shifting potential of the human figure. Featuring artists David Altmejd, Tabaimo, assume vivd astro focus, and Lynda Benglis.
Episode
ART:21: Change
aired: Mon, Apr 2, 2012
How do artists respond to a world in flux? In what ways do artists act as agents of change, and what kinds of aesthetic choices do they make to express it? This episode features artists who bear witness, through their work, to transformation--cultural, material, and aesthetic--and actively engage communities as collaborators and subjects.
Episode
ART:21: Compassion
aired: Tue, Dec 20, 2011
Artists explore conscience and reconcile the past and present while exposing injustice and expressing tolerance for others. Featuring artists William Kentridge, Carrie Mae Weems, and Doris Salcedo.
Episode
ART:21: William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible
aired: Fri, Oct 22, 2010
Rich in visual imagery and music, this program gives viewers an intimate look into the mind and process of William Kentridge, the South African artist whose acclaimed charcoal drawings, animations, video installations, shadow plays, mechanical puppets, tapestries, sculptures, live performance pieces, and operas have made him one of the most dynamic and exciting contemporary artists working today.
Episode
ART:21: Place
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists explore the idea of place by questioning commonly held assumptions about land, home and national identity. Featuring artists Richard Serra, Sally Mann, Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, and Pepon Osorio, with an introduction by Laurie Anderson.
Episode
ART:21: Spirituality
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists address the idea of spirituality by questioning commonly held assumptions about faith, belief, meditation, and religious symbols. Featuring artists Ann Hamilton, John Feodorov, Shahzia Sikander, and James Turrell, with an introduction by Beryl Korot and S. Epatha Merkerson.
Episode
ART:21: Identity
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists address the idea of identity by questioning commonly held assumptions about stereotypes, self-awareness, portraiture, and what it means to be an artist. Featuring artists Bruce Nauman, Kerry James Marshall, Maya Lin, and Louise Bourgeois, with an introduction by William Wegman and Steve Martin.
Episode
ART:21: Stories
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists tell stories in their work, reveal narrative traditions, and record and describe the world around us. Featuring artists Kara Walker, Kiki Smith, Do-Ho Suh, and Trenton Doyle Hancock, with an introduction by Charles Atlas and John Waters.
Episode
ART:21: Time
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists evoke and transform time in their work, relating to art of the ancient past, to nature, and to the rhythms of the life. Featuring artists Martin Puryear, Paul Pfeiffer, Vija Celmins, and Tim Hawkinson, with an introduction by Charles Atlas and Merce Cunningham.
Episode
ART:21: Structures
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists explore how we organize life and the ways in which we capture knowledge and attempt greater understanding. Featuring artists Matthew Ritchie, Fred Wilson, Richard Tuttle, and Roni Horn, with an introduction by Sam Waterson and an original video artwork by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler.
Episode
ART:21: Romance
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists explore the roles that intuition, emotion, fantasy, and escapism play in contemporary art. Featuring artists Laurie Simmons, Lari Pittman, Judy Pfaff, and Pierre Huyghe.
Episode
ART:21: Fantasy
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists transport us to imaginary worlds and altered states of consciousness with hallucinatory, irreverent, and sublime works. Featuring artists Jeff Koons, Mary Heilmann, Florian Maier-Aichen, and Cao Fei.
Episode
ART:21: Systems
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists invent new grammars, systems, and logics in today's supercharged, information-based society. Featuring artists Julie Mehretu, John Baldessari, Kimsooja, and Allan McCollum.
Episode
ART:21: Transformation
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
Artists capture the sensibility of our age by satirizing society and reinventing icons of literature, art history, and popular culture. Featuring artists Yinka Shonibare MBE, Cindy Sherman, and Paul McCarthy.
Episode
ART:21: The Present Perfect with Art21: June 23, 2010
aired: Tue, Sep 14, 2010
The Present Perfect with Art21 featured artists Oliver Herring and Laurie Simmons in conversation with Robert MacNeil (formerly of the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour), as well as with live and online audiences, about the role of collaboration and performance in contemporary art and everyday life.
