[2] In the first line, there is a near continuous stream of images (drawings, engravings, lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts) by a large number of artists from the past matched by music that expresses their political subject matter.

[2] The second line consists of interviews with four artists as they practice their art to create a politically inspired product.

[6] Writing for The Village Voice, Michelle Orange wrote that taken together in the film "these images, produced across centuries, form a larger, contiguous critique of who we are and what we do to one another".

[7] David Noh, writing for Film Journal International states that the "entire history of politically inspired printmaking unfolds in Manfred Kirchheimer's admirably serious, hands-on documentary".

[4] Writing for Time Out, Andrew Schenker concludes that "Art Is... does offer up compelling portraits of practicing artists intelligently probing their status as socially conscious image makers".