Black, White & Gray Trailer
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After serving in the Navy during World War II, Sam Wagstaff came home to New York City and pursued a career in advertising, and through his work in the ad game he developed a keen interest in photography. Reflecting his own personal evolution as he came to accept his homosexuality, Wagstaff became an enthusiastic collector of art photography and gained a reputation as a curator, organizing a number of important museum shows of new photographers and becoming a friend and confidante of artists such as Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Richard Tuttle and Tony Smith. In the early Seventies, Wagstaff met a young photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe, who shared a loft with his best friend, a poet and aspiring musician named Patti Smith. Wagstaff and Mapplethorpe became first friends and then lovers, and as enthusiastic supporters of Smith’s work they traveled between New York’s upscale art community and the punk rock scene which was emerging on the Bowery. Passionate allies in art and life who explored the edges of human experience, Wagstaff and Mapplethorpe were partners for life, but their lives were cut short by AIDS — the disease claimed Wagstaff in 1987, and Mapplethorpe in 1989. Black, White and Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe is a documentary by filmmaker James Crump which explores the lives of two remarkable people, their circle of talented friends, and the community and times which surrounded them. Black White + Gray received its world premiere at the …
read comments (0)Marcel Duchamp
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Marcel Duchamp(July 28, 1887 — October 2, 1968) was a French artist (he became an American citizen in 1955) whose work and ideas had considerable influence on the development of post-World War II Western art, and whose advice to modern art collectors helped shape the tastes of the Western art world. While he is most often associated with the Dada and Surrealism movements, his participation in Surrealism was largely behind the scenes, and after being involved in New York Dada, he barely participated in Paris Dada. Thousands of books and articles attempt to interpret Duchamp’s artwork and philosophy, but in interviews and his writing, Duchamp only added to the mystery. The interpretations interested him as creations of their own, and as reflections of the interpreter. A playful man, Duchamp prodded thought about artistic processes and art marketing, not so much with words, but with actions such as dubbing a urinal “art” and naming it Fountain. He produced relatively few artworks as he quickly moved through the avant-garde rhythms of his time. Duchamp’s early art works align with Post-Impressionist styles. He experimented with classical techniques and subjects, as well as Cubism and Fauvism. When he was later asked about what influenced him at the time, Duchamp cited the work of Symbolist painter Odilon Redon, whose approach to art was not outwardly anti-academic, but quietly individual. He studied art at Académie Julian (1904 to 1905), but preferred playing billiards to …
Abstract Expressionist, Edward Gilmore discusses his inspiration and passion for Expressionist Art. Inspired by Jackson Pollock, Ed talks about his views on Modern Art and Abstract Expressionism. “Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and also the one that put New York City at the center of the art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. Although the term “abstract expressionism” was first applied to American art in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates, it had been first used in Germany in 1919 in the magazine Der Sturm, regarding German Expressionism. In the USA, Alfred Barr was the first to use this term in 1929 in relation to works by Wassily Kandinsky.” Quote from; Hess, Barbara; “Abstract Expressionism”, 2005
Excerpt from Mr. Hoover and I by Emile de Antonio, writer, director and producer of documentary films, usually detailing political or social events circa 1960s – 1980s. He was born in 1919 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He attended Harvard with John F. Kennedy and would later go on to make a film about Kennedy’s assassination called Rush to Judgment. After serving in the military during World War II, de Antonio frequented the art crowd, often associating with such Pop artists as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, in whose film Drink de Antonio appears. De Antonio chronicled this art scene in his documentary Painters Painting (1972). In 1959 de Antonio developed G-String Productions in order to distribute the Beat Generation film Pull My Daisy. It was at this time that de Antonio discovered filmmaking. His first film, Point of Order, a compilation film made in 1964, regards Joseph mccarthy and the Army-mccarthy hearings. De Antonio went on to make many politically motivated films that attracted a substantial amount of controversy and also tended to align himself with Marxist thought. Most, if not all, of his films criticize aspects of American culture or politics or reflect a certain degree of political dissension, because of which, along with his Marxist affiliation, the FBI documented 10000 pages of de Antonio’s activities. Camera: Morgan Wesson, Mathew Mindlin. 2nd Unit: William Rexer. Editor: George Spyros. Assoc. Producer: Michael Thomas. Special Thanks: Ron Mann
Excerpt from Mr. Hoover and I by Emile de Antonio, writer, director and producer of documentary films, usually detailing political or social events circa 1960s – 1980s. He was born in 1919 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He attended Harvard with John F. Kennedy and would later go on to make a film about Kennedy’s assassination called Rush to Judgment. After serving in the military during World War II, de Antonio frequented the art crowd, often associating with such Pop artists as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, in whose film Drink de Antonio appears. De Antonio chronicled this art scene in his documentary Painters Painting (1972). In 1959 de Antonio developed G-String Productions in order to distribute the Beat Generation film Pull My Daisy. It was at this time that de Antonio discovered filmmaking. His first film, Point of Order, a compilation film made in 1964, regards Joseph mccarthy and the Army-mccarthy hearings. De Antonio went on to make many politically motivated films that attracted a substantial amount of controversy and also tended to align himself with Marxist thought. Most, if not all, of his films criticize aspects of American culture or politics or reflect a certain degree of political dissension, because of which, along with his Marxist affiliation, the FBI documented 10000 pages of de Antonio’s activities. Camera: Morgan Wesson, Mathew Mindlin. 2nd Unit: William Rexer. Editor: George Spyros. Assoc. Producer: Michael Thomas. Special Thanks: Ron Mann