Lesson 6 - Painters Painting

"If one finally had to say what it was that made American art great, it was that the American painters took hold of the issue of abstraction art with a freedom they could get from no other subject matter and finally made art out out it". This documentary by Emile de Antonio tells about New York and its upbringing as the hub of American art and the people who made it so.

I liked the introduction to this documentary. It starts off on a zoomed in object with a voice over of the narrator's opening line, "Painting kept getting entangled in the contradiction of America itself. We made portraits of ourselves when we had no idea who we were...". The narrator continues his monologue for the next minute and the camera then slowly begins to pan out until you realize that it was zoomed in on a wall of a building. The camera than slides its focus to scene beside the wall and we are looking at New York City in what seems to be post WWII, during about the 1960's. I liked that you didn't know where the scene was taking place until about 2 or 3 minutes into the video or you were left guessing as to what the zoomed in image in front of you really was.

artwork by Robert Rauschenburg

The purpose of the documentary was pretty much de Antonio going around talking to the artists in New York, from Robert Rauschenburg, to Andy Warhol, to even the art dealer Leo Castelli and asking them what abstract art means. Ironically the documentary is called Painters Painting, but you don't see too much painting being done in it but rather the artists being interviewed. This made the film very interesting because de Antonio produces a study of the postwar era when American painting was a total eclipse of art history and how abstraction came to be an important part of the art timeline, establishing its role in the evolution of yet another art style.

artwork by Andy Warhol 

I found Emile de Antonio for his strategy with this documentary. Rather than just interview a few super well-know artists, he included most of the major names in New York during the 60's and not just artists, but art dealers and critics as well. Rather than gain one perspective, he gained every perspective and insight on the artists who were impacting the art world in America and who revolved it all in the city of New York during that time. It helped get a sense of the transformation from abstract art to pop culture from the 1940s (postwar) to the 1980s.