Free Films on Saturdays at 2:00 pm in the Clark Auditorium
Surrounding artists and their work, many others contribute to the business of culture. This film series looks at collectors and curators, the way the art market assigns value, the responsibility of museums and other holders of our common cultural legacy. Each film, whether documentary or feature, stands on its own merits, but collectively they present an engrossing series of questions about the art world in the context of the wider economy and society.
September 25: Herb & Dorothy. (2009, 87 min.) He’s a postal clerk; she’s a librarian. Together the Vogels amass a world-class collection of contemporary art. When the collection goes to the National Gallery in Washington, it takes five moving vans to carry all the art that had been crammed into their tiny Manhattan apartment. Early on they befriended -- and collected in depth -- the starving young artists of the Minimalist and Conceptual schools, who went on to become an all-star roster of names such as Sol LeWitt, Christo, Robert Mangold, and many others. Now this charming couple, looking like outer-borough senior citizens, are the toast of the New York art crowd, in Megumi Sasaki’s delightful documentary.
October 2: My Kid Could Paint That. (2007, 83 min.) A precocious preschool girl turns out Jackson Pollock-like canvases that begin to sell for prices that escalate as her media exposure grows, until celebrity turns against her and her parents in a profile on “60 Minutes,” which questions the authenticity of her work. Questions about what makes art valuable, with commentary by Michael Kimmelman and others, blend into a familial mystery, which Amir Bar-Lev’s documentary leaves tantalizingly open.
October 16: Who Gets to Call it Art? (2006, 80 min.) One answer to the question posed by the title of Peter Rosen’s documentary is provided by his subject, Henry Geldzahler, the first curator of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the center of the Manhattan art scene in the 60s, Geldzahler mounted his signature exhibition, “New York Painting and Sculpture 1940-1970” at the Met, and many of the participants comment on their relation to him in this lively group portrait.
November 6: The Art of the Steal. (2010, 101 min.) This documentary explores the controversy over the Barnes Foundation and the move of the celebrated collection -- unrivalled for its depth of masters such as Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse -- from its quirky but beloved installation in a residential suburb, mandated by the founder’s will, to a new museum in downtown Philadelphia. The passionate advocacy of director Don Argott demands argument, while raising important questions of cultural patrimony.
November 20: Summer Hours. (2009, 103 min., in French with subtitles) In Olivier Assayas’ widely-acclaimed feature film, three far-flung siblings (including Juliet Binoche) gather at their mother’s country house to decide on the disposition of her uncle’s collection of art, raising in a fraught familial situation a host of issues regarding the value and ultimate purpose of an artistic legacy. The involvement of the Musée d’Orsay in this project might seem self-interested, but is certainly a favor to viewers of this quietly profound film.
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