This anthology is intended as a significant and relevant academic reappraisal of cinematographic portraits of artists as a specific form of artist biography. More than ten articles investigate the problems of the biopic as a subgenre, and the forms of transformation between the media of the recorded image, the written résumé and cinematographic narratives. Added to which, questions about the significance of art in social discourse and about the position of arts in the mass media are posed from an art-sociological perspective, primarily in relation to the role of the artist as an individual in contemporary culture.
The relationship between the still relatively young medium of film and traditional art is one that is fraught with tension. Furthermore, the artistic potential of the biopic, with its heroization and mythologization of the respective artist portrayed, is analyzed as a unique cinematographic format with a specific aesthetic.