In decades past, Native-American artists who wanted to sell to mainstream collectors had little choice but to create predictable, Hollywood-style western scenes. Then came a generation of painters and sculptors led by Allan Houser (or Hazous), a Chiricahua Apache artist with no interest in stereotyped imagery and a belief that his own rich heritage was compatible with Modernist ideas and techniques. Narrated by actor Val Kilmer and originally commissioned...

Albert Paley is world-renowned for his metal work in jewelry and large-scale sculpture. This program provides a comprehensive overview of his life and work, including his studies at Temple University's Tyler School of Art, his early work in jewelry design, and more contemporary works such as the Renwick Gates and his decorative architectural sculpture for Bausch & Lomb. Commentary from Elizabeth Broun, director of the National Museum of American Art,...

Sculptor Allan Houser won international recognition for his depiction of the stoic, powerful figures of his Chiricahua Apache and Navajo families in wood, stone, and metal. This program follows Houser-also acclaimed for his murals and paintings-from quarry to studio, where he sculpts a face in marble, and to the Shidoni Foundry, where he casts a bronze head. The art of Houser, whose father was with Geronimo in 1886, blends his people's heritage with...

This program examines the pottery of Grace Medicine Flower and her brother Joseph Lone Wolf, members of the renowned Tafoya family of Santa Clara Pueblo. They revived and expanded the traditional forms and techniques of their pre-Columbian ancestors, the Mimbres, to create exquisite works featuring abstract designs and emphasizing sgraffito and polychrome techniques. Together with their father, Camilio Sunflower Tafoya, Medicine Flower and Lone Wolf...

Charles Loloma was one of the first Native American jewelers to use gold instead of silver and diamonds and other precious gems in addition to turquoise, coral, and shell. His innovative designs, so sculptural in quality, were internationally acclaimed. And his clients included celebrities, monarchs, and presidents. This program examines the work of Charles Loloma-and how the visionary behind the enchanting jewelry managed to break the barriers that...

Glass and ceramic are some of the oldest man-made materials. This program demonstrates two traditional glass-making techniques: glass blowing and the art of stained glass windows. It also follows the production of industrial ceramics, explaining that this material is constantly being used in new applications. Finally, we are shown the expanded use of glass in architecture, where it is increasingly replacing wood and stone.

Renowned for her extraordinary pottery and highly respected as a teacher, Toshiko Takaezu is one of the most significant ceramic artists of the 20th century-and the 21st. This program, filmed both in New Jersey and the artist's native Hawaii, presents the life story of the internationally acclaimed potter. Film clips of Ms. Takaezu at work-shaping clay in her studio, demonstrating pottery techniques at Princeton University, and overseeing raku-firing-provide...

Produced in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's exhibition of the same name, this lively program explores the evolution of late-20th-century ceramics. Using interviews and myriad examples of their works, leading figures in the field, including Ruth Duckworth, Wayne Higby, John Mason, Ron Nagle, Otto Natzler, Richard Shaw, and Peter Voulkos, discuss such major themes as Abstract Expressionism, Funk, vessels, form and function, and...

This beautifully filmed program by Richard L. Harrison explores the work, creative process, and philosophical perspective of award-winning ceramist Paul Mathieu, whose multilayered works in porcelain defy conventional boundaries of craft, sculpture, and representation. Different stages of the ceramics-making process are spotlighted as Mathieu creates an intricate stacking dinner service called The Arrows of Time inspired by physicist Stephen Hawking's...

Henry Moore's work is so representative of mid-20th-century modernist concerns that a generation of art viewers may be unfamiliar with it. This program facilitates a rediscovery of the brilliant sculptor and draftsman by freshly examining many of his drawings, graphics, and monuments. From his most iconic pieces to his lesser-known works, including the amazingly relevant WWII-era tube shelter sketches, Moore's sensitive vision emerges with startling...