Pop Art

The Title says it all. I will be uploading bundles of art-related videos regularly, so there should be something to please everyone.

Ric Burns' Andy Warhol is a four-hour pop-culture extravaganza that will retool what you think you know about the famed and oft-parodied soup-can painter. Delving deep into Andy's impoverished upbringing in Pittsburgh, the greatest success of Burns' film is its ability to delve deep behind the façade of Andy Warhol, Pop Celebrity. Featuring interviews with an array of confidants from art dealers to artists (but, alas, no Lou Reed), Burns' film portrays an extremely insecure man who lived with his mother through much of the Factory years and constantly seeked a measure of fame akin to the Hollywood starlets whose photographs he tore out of the pages of Depression-era movie mags. Andy Warhol succeeded in achieving that fame, and along the way redefined how we think of art and culture. This film may very well redefine what you think of the man.

Jasper Johns made history when his painting "White Flag" sold for $7 million in 1988. The next day he broke his own record when a second painting sold for $17 million. But this 56-minute 1989 PBS documentary makes it clear that Johns's work is not about commerce; it's about the expression of his brand of intellectualism. A series of art critics (including one who despises Johns's brand of pop art), curators, and good friends (choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage) mull over the beginnings of his career and his place in the art world. Johns himself speaks at length about his influences and his method against the backdrop of footage showing him at work in various media: etching, lithography, and painting. Little personal information is included; a cousin reminisces briefly about their shared childhood during a quick trip to his South Carolina hometown. The most personal touch is when his buddy Cage reads some of his writings about art as if they were poetry. And some could no doubt argue that they are.

In Open Score, Robert Rauschenberg derived the content of his performance from the characteristics of the performance venue. The tennis racquet suggested both the idea of the ready-made (at other times tennis was played at the Armory) and that of a dance improvised in accordance with specific rules. The lighting, however, which dimmed each time a racquet hit a ball, conferred on the player’s actions a function bound up with a complex technological system. During the second part of the performance, which took place in total darkness, a crowd on stage, which was filmed with infrared cameras, appeared to mirror the viewers assembled on the bleachers that served as seats. As close as the onstage crowd was, it could be seen, paradoxically, only on the screens.

Roy Lichtenstein:

The most remarkable thing about this 49-minute interview is the pop artist's candor in describing his process, both his search for subjects and his painting techniques. His openness makes this video a treat for the Lichtenstein aficionado and a valuable lesson for any art student. In keeping with his lifelong investigation of what constitutes art, the controversial painter willingly discusses criticism suggesting his work does not meet the criteria. Meanwhile a cartoonist whose work he copied weighs in on Lichtenstein, as well as a gallery owner and museum curator. The program looks at the pop art movement for context and takes viewers through each of Lichtenstein's stages from his large-dot reproductions of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse to his cartoon versions of Picasso through to his work of and for the New York City subway system. Whether or not one views him as a serious artist, it's clear that this painter has spent a lifetime being serious about art.

THE UNIVERSE OF KEITH HARING by director Christina Clausen is an intimate portrait of world-renowned artist Keith Haring whose mantra was that "Art is for everyone!" The film is a thorough and intimate exploration of the background and career of one of the most popular and significant artists of the 20th century. The film features interviews and archival footage of Fab 5 Freddy, Jeffrey Deitch, Kim Hastreiter, Grace Jones, Madonna, Yoko Ono, David LaChapelle, Kenny Scharf, Carlo McCormick, Andy Warhol, Ann Magnuson, Tony Shafrazi, and Junior Vasquez, among many others.