In a quiet, tucked away house in Urbana, Jonathan Fineberg, the University Gutgsell Professor of Art History, leaned back in a tan leather chair, touched his fingertips in front of his chest and began to speak on subjects ranging from Andy Warhol to computer science. But when asked why he began his latest project, a documentary called Imagining America: Icons of 20th Century American Art, the very first thing he said was that he wasn’t sure.

“It just came along,” Fineberg said.

A free preview of the two-hour documentary, which will air nationally on PBS in September, will be held at 7:30 p.m. today in the Colwell Playhouse at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts.

Fineberg, a renowned art historian and author, is excited to be debuting Imagining America in Champaign not only because he is a University professor, but because the film features many University faculty members.

“It’s a U of I event in many ways,” Fineberg said. “I wanted to show it here before anyone else gets to see it.”

Fineberg and John Carlin, Fineberg’s former teaching assistant and CEO of Funny Garbage, a New York production company, spent the last four years collaborating on the film. It was a process Fineberg called “a dream collaboration” because of the quality of the film produced as well as its role in strengthening their 25-year friendship.

The film explores 20th century art in three chapters, each focusing on a different theme and with a different famous artist as the key figure. While the film sheds light on a variety of artists, Fineberg said he and Carlin chose the well-known artists Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol as focal points in order to attract a wider audience.

“It’s important to get people who don’t really know anything about art interested in this,” Fineberg said. “The way to do that is to choose core artists for the show that everybody knows.

“I’d like people to walk away and feel that they have a better understanding of how artists help us see the world.”

The first chapter of the film focuses on O’Keeffe, nature and what American nature specifically is.

“What we have that Europe doesn’t have are beautiful natural wonders,” Fineberg said, citing Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon as two of them. “We have a vast landscape, which is mostly filled with nothing but nature.”

The second chapter centers on Pollock and the theme of identity. Because of America’s rich blend of ethnicities and languages, Fineberg said much of America’s identity has been about self-invention and coming to terms with other points of view. Americans have a very different perspective of identity, and Fineberg believes not enough Americans realize how unique that perspective is.

“Jackson Pollock went so far in forging a new individual identity,” Fineberg said. “In a way he licensed everybody who came after him to forge their own identity.”

Media is the focus of the third and final section, with Andy Warhol as the highlighted artist.

“One of the people who really taught us how to understand media more than anybody else was Andy Warhol,” Fineberg said. “He makes us much more aware of how the media has shaped our experience.”

Along with enticing visual images and commentaries by art historians, curators and artists, the film’s soundtrack plays a key role in the viewing experience. An eclectic mix of carefully chosen songs, it includes well-known artists such as Beck, DJ Shadow and the Beach Boys.

“The music track is very important,” Fineberg said. “We told the story in sound as much as we did in text.”

Mike Ross, the director of Krannert, said in an e-mail that he believes Imagining America is a natural culmination of Fineberg’s reflective processing of input and exploration. Ross said he has enormous respect for Fineberg and Carlin’s works.

“I applaud them both for taking such an ambitious subject and approaching it in such an original manner,” Ross said.

So far, applause is all Fineberg has heard in response to his film. He said he hasn’t gotten any negative feedback.

Sara Stephenson, senior in LAS, saw a sneak preview advertising the film on the Krannert Web site and said it sparked her interest.

“It seemed like a fresh addition to the Krannert program,” Stephenson said. “I think it will appeal not only to myself, who is very interested in the arts, but also to my friends who aren’t so into the arts.”

When the audience leaves Colwell Theatre tonight Fineberg hopes they will have come to the realization that artists are not the only ones capable of creating artwork.

“I hope people will also go away feeling more enabled as creative individuals,” Fineberg said.

He also hopes they leave feeling proud to be Americans despite “some of the horrible things that we do.”

“I’m not very proud of our government,” Fineberg said. “But I’m very proud of our culture.”