While most would argue that creating art is more about doing rather watching or reading, it wouldn’t be a fair to discount the value that art films have brought to the world. Aside from being entertaining, movies about art demonstrate the genius of the most acclaimed artists of our time and can inspire you to create great works yourself.

Below are examples of such movies:

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams - Akira Kurosawa, the brilliant film maker behind Rashomon, The Seven Samurai and Ran produced this film with the help of other brilliant film makers, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Dreams features eight stories and delves into the many issues of war and people's need to be one with their environment.

Artemisia - Based on a true story, this film is about Artemisia Gentileschi, a brave woman who went after physical desire and artistic freedom, thus shaking up the powerful entities of her time. In the film, Artemisia was a painter who wasn’t able to express herself fully through art. But under the tutilage of an unconventional artist, Artemisia was able to emerge and liberate herself not just in terms of art, but also in the relams of love and sex.

The Art of the Steal - Dubbed the “greatest theft of art since the Second World War,” The Art of Steal is all about how a private art collection caught the envious eyes of prominent art institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, and more. The collection was owned by the Barnes Foundation (founded by Albert C Barnes) and contains works by masters such as Van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse, Renoir, and more. The collection is estimated to be worth more than $25 billion. When Barnes passed away, various entities have started fighting over the collection.

Image credit: Maura Teague on Flickr