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Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh
September 7 at 6:00 pm
Dir. Paul Cox (Australia, 1988) 95 min.
Forgoing a conventional biographical approach, the gifted director Paul Cox opts for pure evocation; as though trying to dream his way into the artist's mindset. Meanwhile, the beautiful voice of John Hurt reads from Vincent's amazingly searching letters to his brother, Theo. The most profound exploration of an artist's soul ever to be put on film (Village Voice).
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Gauguin: The Full Story
September 21 at 6:00 pm
Dir. Waldemar Januszczak (Poland, 2010) 120 min.
Waldemar Januszczak’s epic biography of Gauguin follows the painter through countless twists and turns in a remarkable life that takes him from an idyllic and forgotten childhood in Peru to a horrific and notorious death on the Marquesas Islands. The Gauguin who emerges from this radical re-telling of his story was not only a great painter but also a sculptor, musician, print maker, journalist and ceramicist. |
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Paris: The Luminous Years
September 28 at 6:00 pm
Dir. Miller Adato/PBS (USA, 2010) 120 min.
This is the fascinating story of Paris as the explosive crucible of modernity and modern art. The film spotlights now-famous key figures in the art world's first international avant-garde, tracing who came to Paris and how Paris transformed them and their work. Paris became the magnetic center for radical innovation and experimentation in music, film, literature, dance, theater and the visual arts. |
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Painters Painting
October 12 at 6:00 pm
Dir. Emile de Antonio (USA, 1972) 116 min.
A vibrant collective portrait of the legendary figures who powered the tumultuous post-war New York art scene. Immediate and irreverent, the film has the feeling of an intimate conversation. De Antonio shows artists (and their critics and patrons) gossiping, drinking and talking about life and art, and in the process illuminates the genesis of Abstract Expressionism and brilliantly captures a turning point in art and culture. |
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Rothko's Rooms: The Life and Works of an American Artist
October 19 at 6:00 pm
Dir. David Thompson (USA, 2008) 60 min.
In the late 1940’s and 50’s, Mark Rothko was one of the leading American artists who created wall-scale abstract paintings that filled the viewer's field of vision and became a form of environment. Rothko spoke of wanting the spectator to feel inside the pictorial space, enveloped in his canvases' color and surfaces. |
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Joan Mitchell: Portrait of an Abstract Painter
October 26 at 6:00 pm
Dir. Marion Cajori (USA, 1993) 58 min.
One of the great abstract painters of the 20th century, Mitchell was part of New York's dynamic Abstract Expressionist scene along with fellow painters Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Philip Guston, as well as poets Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler and John Ashbery. This elegant documentary is a powerful and intimate portrait that captures Mitchell's independent spirit and testifies eloquently to her art. |
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Pollock
November 9 at 6:00 pm
Dir. Ed Harris (USA, 2001) 122 min. 
Ed Harris directs and stars in an impressive film biography of singular integrity, honoring the artist's achievement in abstract expressionism while acknowledging that Pollock was a tormented, manic-depressive alcoholic. As Pollock rises from obscurity to international acclaim, Harris brings careful balance to his portrayal of a driven creator who found peace when art brought release from his inner demons. |
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David Hockney: A Bigger Picture
November 16 at 6:00 pm
Dir. Bruno Wollheim (UK, 2009) 60 min.
Filmed over three years this documentary follows David Hockney as he returns to England after 25 years in Hollywood. As Hockney approaches the age of 70, he revitalizes his painting, capturing the beautiful Yorkshire countryside in all weathers and seasons, and finally creates the largest picture ever made outdoors. |
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Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
November 30 at 6:00 pm
Dir. Tamra Davis (USA, 2010) 80 min.
The Radiant Child is a vivid and entertaining homage to a painter who led a radical life and left an ambitious body of work behind after his premature death. This feature-length film charts Basquiat's move out of Brooklyn to Manhattan, his beginnings as an itinerant street artist named Samo, his rise to gallery stardom, and his struggles at the end. Essential viewing to flesh out an understanding of downtown New York's art scene in the 1980’s. |
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