Hi,
I am looking for ways to provide information about a new 3-part video
series on Contemporary Artists. Called ART CITY, these films premiered
in February at The National Gallery in Washington, with a full-page
review in the Washington Post.
Informative and entertaining, they are designed for use in University
Art departments, and Libraries.
• Libby Lumpkin, curator, The Bellagio Collection, Las Vegas writes:
“They're terrific. I'd like for the UNLV Library to buy them
and whatever other films you've produced.
ARTISTS: Richard Tuttle, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Mike Bidlo, Lari
Pittman, Michael Ray Charles, Agnes Martin, Louise Bourgeois, Elizabeth Peyton,
Amy Adler, Richmond Burton, David Deutsch, Joan Snyder, Robert Williams,
Dave Hickey...
MUSIC by Beck, Charles Mingus, Count Basie, Roy Ayers, Tom Waits,
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ted Greene, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Claude Thornhill,
Herbie Hancock...)
EARLY REVIEWS:
*The Washington Post writes: "ART CITY stands outside the polished
emptiness of most of what passes for cultural documentary on PBS.
ART CITY works as a primer on the dizzying artworld of the last
20 years."
* Robert Rosenblum, curator at the Guggenheim Museum writes:
"A perfect time-capsule of the American art world as it goes
into the 21st Century. This panoramic cross-section ranges from
New York to Los Angeles, capturing critics, curators, dealers
and artists of every stripe. Posterity should be grateful for
this vivid document."
* Peggy Parsons, film curator, National Gallery of Art writes:
"A superb cinematic experience. The artists, the images, the
music, the mood - it all blends so seamlessly, that I forgot
I was watching an art documentary.’"
* sculptor Louise Bourgeois just viewed and exclaimed:
"These are important pictures!"
* Mark Miller, National Geographic Traveller editor writes:
“A hell of a job. I mean, impeccable. Not one thing I would
change or delete. These films deliver the feeling of experien-
cing a perfect presentation.”
THE • FILMS
ART CITY #2: Simplicity (59 mins. VHS)
Travelling around the country, ART CITY: Simplicity takes viewers on a
revealing trip into the studios and lives of a group of singular
artists. On a desert mesa outside Santa Fe, Richard Tuttle invents his
mysterious and marvellously humble forms, made of wire, cardboard,
string, wood. In Taos, Agnes Martin rhythmically repeats extremely
simplified images. In his studio by the Santa Monica surf, John
Baldessari, a founding father of Conceptualism, aims for successful
juxtapositions combining photographs with text. The imaginative tableaux
of Robert Williams revel in surreal cartoon imagery, creations from his
living room in the San Fernando Valley. At a cabin in Woodstock, Joan
Snyder refines her sensuous art amid a lush birch forest. Mike
Bidlo salutes Duchamp at a Manhattan Gallery, while in a Brooklyn
brownstone, Carolyn Martin uses charcoal slabs to realize her visceral
abstractions. On Sunset Boulevard, Amy Adler reclaims personal history
through self-portraits, photographing her original drawings, then
destroying the traces. Through this group of memorable iconoclasts,
the creative “act” is there to see and study. Along with L.A. Times
art critic Christopher Knight, writer/curator Dave Hickey, publisher
Mat Gleason, and others, ART CITY: Simplicity touches on artists’
relations with the press, ambiguous feelings about showing one’s work,
distilling concepts into an essence, and what it means to succeed in the
artworld. (Music by Beck, Tom Waits, Charles Mingus, Count Basie, Ted
Greene, Antonio Carlos Jobim...)
ART CITY #3: A Ruling Passion (58 mins. VHS)
Many artists use the pain, exhilaration and resolution of private
desires to express themselves. ART CITY: A Ruling Passion focuses on
intense personalities who’ve used their art to explore the emotional
impact, or dark humor of psychological truths. Everything that Louise
Bourgeois creates - whether in wood, marble, fabric or bronze - comes
from memory of past experience. Michael Ray Charles investigates the
marketing of black memorabilia, using early American illustrations
and advertising imagery. Elizabeth Peyton reinvents portraiture,
using her friends as subjects, as well as historical, and pop
culture, royalty. Ed Ruscha’s literary landscapes burst from the
physical world around him - the world “right outside the window.”
The comic spirit of Lari Pittman contrasts with his graphic and
painterly declarations. Tucked away in a landmark house, Richmond
Burton remembers his dreams to build a “psychic field” of abstraction.
The telescopic vistas and Pantheon-like arrays of featureless
faces by David Deutsch are stimulated by sub-conscious sensations.
Along with writer/curator Dave Hickey, New Museum founder Marcia
Tucker, and others, ART CITY: A Ruling Passion plumbs issues that
affect artists - preoccupations of startling universality - like
community, motivation and controversy, finding one’s audience, and
just “getting it right.” (Music by Beck, Charles Mingus, Roy Ayers,
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Claude Thornhill, Piero Umiliani, Joey Altruda,
Herbie Hancock...)
ART CITY #1: Making it in Manhattan (59 mins. VHS)
Unlike any art movie you've ever seen, ART CITY is informed entertainment
about the people who make contemporary art. Artists, collectors, and
dealers bring to life the art capital of the world, New York, as it
plunges into the 21st Century. Presenting a cross-section of artists,
the filmdiscusses inspiration, aesthetic issues, and the meaning of
success. With Louise Bourgeois, Brice Marden, Chuck Close, Neil Jenney,
Elizabeth Murray, Pat Steir, Ashley Bickerton, Gary Simmons, Ursula von
Rydingsvard, Caio Fonseca, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Richmond Burton,
St. Clair Cemin, Emma Amos, George McNeil, Cletus Johnson, John
Torreano,
Ivan Karp, Jay Gorney, Matthew Marks, Jerry Saltz, Herb & Dorothy Vogel,
and others. From abstraction to figuration, from installation to
conceptual art, from the privacy of the doctor's office to the posh
gallery opening, the film captures the reality of a special world.
(Music by Tom Waits, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ronnie Jordan, George van Eps,
Piero Umiliani w/Chet Baker, & The Don Braden Quintet)
"...captures New York artists, dealers, and collectors at their
liveliest and most candid." -The Washington Post
"This remarkable film gives us the sense of seeing art today
with absolute clarity and truth" -Arthur C. Danto, The Nation
"Anyone who knows anything about the perils of talking heads and
flapping tongues on film must marvel at this insightful job."
-Andrew Sarris, Film Critic, New York Observer
Thanks for looking. I would appreciate any feedback or interest.
Best Regards,
Chris Maybach
tel 323/933-3028
fax 323/933-6420
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
|
