NEW YORK – To engage with an artwork, especially contemporary works, can be a daunting task.

Beyond the surface beauty and intrigue, we are often left with ambiguous meanings and chaotic combinations that leave the rationale for the work hidden. The result? We are left yearning for a glimpse into the mind of the artist.

On Sunday night, PBS gives exactly this glimpse with the premiere episode of “Art:21 – Art in the Twenty-First Century,” airing Sunday, 10 p.m. EDT. (Check local listings.)

The art series, entering its fourth season, began in 2001 with the idea of presenting contemporary art on public television free from historical and critical interpretation.

Susan Sollins, who helped conceive the series and functions as its executive producer and curator, wanted the viewer to see the “processes of an artist in the studio, a private arena that is almost never accessible to the public.”

The four episodes are loosely centered on a single theme, beginning with “Romance.” The episode opens with photographer and filmmaker Laurie Simmons, who has created a musical reality with a cast of dummies, dancers and a wistful Meryl Streep portraying a “live” puppet. Simmons’ story leads into painter Lari Pittman, sculptor Judy Pfaff and artist Pierre Huyghe’s puppet theater.

Episode 2, “Protest,” begins with Nancy Spero, whose work is politically based, and builds to Jenny Holzer, whose large projections are also political. In between are An-My Le, whose photographs of military equipment and maneuvers reveal a surprising serenity, and Alfredo Jaar, a Chilean artist whose work responds directly to political atrocities.

The most artistically diverse of the four episodes is “Ecology.” Episode 3 highlights Ursula von Rydingsvard’s beautiful, complex cedar sculptures; Inigo Manglano-Ovalle’s varied works, which strive to “capture ephemera”; Robert Adams and his photographs of altered landscapes; and Mark Dion’s organic installations.

In terms of art, “Paradox” is the most difficult of the four episodes and a fitting end to the series. The profiled works center on creating a tangible “real” experience, often out of absurd juxtapositions.

Mark Bradford uses flyers advertising everything from debt relief to weight loss for his collage-decollage pieces. Catherine Sullivan choreographs performance pieces and installations, creating specific types of behavior. Robert Ryhman produces ethereal white paintings.

Ending the series are Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, whose public installations utilize the absurd and chaotic to formulate relevant meanings.

At first, the themes of the program are distracting. Titles tend to invite the viewer to search for something specific when much of the art is meant to be ambiguous. But by the end of the first episode, Sollins’ method becomes clear: All four parts, “Protest” and “Ecology” in particular, build beautifully to their theme. Not only do we get a sense of the wide variation on particular ideas, but we learn how different artists choose to express their commitment to an idea.

The episodes allow us a brief look into the creative cycle, connecting a person to the process, a process to the work and the work to its place in our culture.

For those interested in technical processes, the show might not be all that illuminating. Though we do see the artists and their assistants at work, the interviews with the artists are heavy on the motivation behind the work and light on the nuts and bolts of the craft.

Still, this fourth season of “Art:21” is a remarkably well-conceived, affecting and, for its time limit, comprehensive look at the artists and types of art impacting the art world today.

The series is accompanied by the companion book, “Art:21 – Art in the Twenty-First Century 4,” published by Harry N. Abrams. An educators’ guide is also available.