Great Art Explained Season 3, Episode 3: The Scream

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli’s poetic sense of beauty captivated the Florentine court. But it was his subject matter which distinguished him from other artists. He was one of the first western artist since classical times to depict non-religious scenes, and Botticelli’s inclusion of a near life size female nude was revolutionary.

19 min

Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama lives in a psychiatric institution, which she entered voluntarily in 1977. She is now in her nineties and still works every single day. Known for her repeated dot patterns, her work has been marked with obsessiveness and a desire to escape from trauma. In this video, I show that despite her quirky personality and her status as the most popular artist in the world, she is one of the most radical artists of all time. This is not a film about a specific artwork. This is a film about the simple polka dot. A dot that has obsessed Kusama for nine decades, from her struggle for recognition, to her later years as an art world sensation.

17 min

The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer

By the mid 17th century, the art being produced in Catholic countries had become a powerful tool of propaganda, characterized by a heightened sense of drama, movement, and theatricality that had never been seen before. But in the Protestant Netherlands, a new wave of realism was sweeping across the country. Johannes Vermeer was producing simple domestic interiors of middle-class life. His paintings were quiet, private, and unassuming. Secular works that contained stories of real human relationships.

Episode 5