Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Pbs (Direct)
• VHS Release Date: October 16, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005QC1J
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,537 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary Art for Anybody, January 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Art In The Twenty-First Century (Art 21) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As a new century dawns the international public is confronted by an ever more complex artistic culture. Never content to cover old ground, today's artists are experimenting with increasingly diverse media, engaging a wider variety of issues and flooding their work with more ambiguity then ever before. We exit museums, galleries and public spaces questioning the nature of the new and unfamiliar objects we encounter, daunted by the challenge of understanding how they relate to the society in which we live.

Art in the Twenty-First Century brings us closer to the understanding we're looking for. The series shows us today's top artists (e.g. Richard Serra, Matthew Barney and others) discussing their own work, giving us the opportunity to begin to comprehend their art as the outcome of their personal experiences and interaction with the world at large. We witness the artists in their studios, on site, AS WELL AS in their homes and with their families, leading lives not disimilar from our own - extracting fodder for their artistic visions from everyday observations and occurences.

Set in four epsiodes, the series groups the artists loosely according to themes (i.e. Place, Spirituality, Identity and Consumption). In such a way, we are offered a point of departure for considering a given artist's priorities and concerns, as well as a method for realizing relationships which may exist between two or more artists working in vastly different styles.

After watching Art in the Twenty-First Century you will feel equipped to embrace the ambiguity of contemporary art, to assess the integrity and thoughtfulness of work you may not even like, and to appreciate the wide array of perspectives and processes by which today's artists dissect and reassemble the modern world.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My students like this documentary. That's HUGE!, November 16, 2009

By 

readerrocker "bookworm & an old-time rock n r... (Wine Country, Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Art: 21 - Art in the 21st Century: Seasons One & Two (DVD)

I teach high school art (and science) to students are "at-risk" for a lot of bad things, not the least of which is never graduating from high school.

For two years now, my students--most of who have never been to an art museum or thought too much about art--have responded positively to a number of the artists and their stories portrayed here. It's an eye-opener for many of them, all the different ways people can be good at art.

I'll continue to show this DVD, and those from other seasons, to my students.

32 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too Pretentious And Too Myopic To Give A Clear View, August 28, 2007

By 

allismile0 "allismile0" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art: 21 - Art in the 21st Century: Seasons One & Two (DVD)

The artists that are interviewed in these videos give a very myopic view of what modern artists are doing these days and what is on their minds. The focus is entirely on art stars who basically run in the same circles of galleries and therefore have a very similar sense of aesthetics regardless of medium, with very few exceptions.

There are times that a few of the artists included say some interesting things but often times enough, it's hard to see what they are saying has to do with the actual art that they are showing. Richard Sierra (1st season) and Elizabeth Murray(2nd season) are the high points of this series as I see it. They both give honest looks into their thought processes as artists, and without the pretensions of self-importance that most of the artists portray.

It's unfortunate that the producers couldn't find at least a few artists off the beaten path who are doing interesting things that aren't so main-stream for the art world. Perhaps that's too high-minded, but I think it would have made for a way more fascinating view into what is really happening in art in the 21 century!