Product Description featuring: Brice Marden, Chuck Close, Neil Jenney, Louise Bourgeois, Agnes Martin, Richard Tuttle, John Baldessari, Robert Williams, Elizabeth Murray, Michael Ray Charles, Elizabeth Peyton, Ed Ruscha, Lari Pittman, Ashley Bickerton, Gary Simmons, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Rirkrit Tiravanija, John Torreano, Pat Steir, St. Clair Cemin, Joan Snyder,Mike Bidlo, Amy Adler, David Deutsch, Richmond Burton, Carolyn Martin, David Alan Grier, Mat Gleason, Ivan Karp, Jay Gorney, Matthew Marks, Jerry Saltz, Herb & Dorothy Vogel, Marcia Tucker, Dave Hickey. ART CITY: Making it in Manhattan Unlike any art movie you've ever seen, Making it in Manhattan is informed 'entertainmentí about the people who make contemporary art. Artists, collectors, and dealers bring to life the art capital of the world, New York, as it plunges into the 21st Century. Presenting a cross-section of artists, the film discusses inspiration, aesthetics, and the meaning of success. With Louise Bourgeois, Brice Marden, Chuck Close, Neil Jenney, Elizabeth Murray, Ashley Bickerton, Gary Simmons, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Rirkrit Tiravanija, St. Clair Cemin, Ivan Karp, Jay Gorney, Matthew Marks, Jerry Saltz, Herb & Dorothy Vogel, and others. From abstraction to figuration, from installation to conceptual art, from the privacy of the doctor's office to the posh gallery opening, Making it in Manhattan captures the reality of a special world. Music by Tom Waits, Don Braden Ryuichi Sakamoto, George van Eps, Piero Umiliani with Chet Baker. ART CITY: Simplicity Travelling around the country, Art City: Simplicity takes viewers on a revealing trip into the studios and lives of a group of singular artists. On a desert mesa outside Santa Fe, Richard Tuttle invents his mysterious and marvellously humble forms, made of wire, cardboard, wood. In Taos, Agnes Martin rhythmically repeats extremely simplified images. Near the Santa Monica surf, John Baldessari, aims for successful juxtapositions of photographs and text. In his North Hollywood living room, Robert Williams revels in surreal cartoon imagery. At a cabin in Woodstock, Joan Snyder refines her sensuous art amid a lush forest. Mike Bidlo salutes Duchamp in a SoHo Gallery, while on Sunset Boulevard, Amy Adler reclaims personal history through self-portraits. Through this group of memorable iconoclasts, the creative ìactî is there to see and study. Along with writer Dave Hickey, and others, Simplicity addresses artistsí relations with the press, feelings about showing oneís work, distilling concepts into an essence, and what it means to succeed in the artworld. Music by Beck, Tom Waits, Charles Mingus, Count Basie, Ted Greene, Antonio Carlos Jobim. ART CITY: A Ruling Passion Many artists use the pain, exhilaration and resolution of private desires to express themselves. Art City: A Ruling Passion focuses on intense personalities whoíve used their art to explore the emotional impact of psychological truths. Everything that Louise Bourgeois creates - whether in marble, fabric or bronze - comes from memory. Michael Ray Charles investigates the marketing of black memorabilia, using early American advertising imagery. Elizabeth Peyton reinvents portraiture, using her friends as subjects, as well as pop culture royalty. Ed Ruschaís literary landscapes burst from the physical world ìright outside the window.î The comic spirit of Lari Pittman contrasts with his graphic declarations. In a landmark house, Richmond Burton remembers his dreams to build ìpsychic fieldsî of abstraction. The arrays of featureless faces by David Deutsch are stimulated by sub-conscious sensations. Along with writer Dave Hickey and others, A Ruling Passion plumbs issues that affect artists - preoccupations of startling universality - like community, motivation and controversy, finding oneís audience, and just ìgetting it right.î Music by Beck, Roy Ayers, Sakamoto, Claude Thornhill, Joey Altruda, Herbie Hancock Review "...captures New York artists, dealers, and collectors at their liveliest and most candid." -- The Washington Post"4 Stars! Highly recommended!" -- Video Librarian"A fascinating series" -- Booklist"A hell of a job. I mean, impeccable. These films deliver the feeling of experiencing a perfect presentation.î -- Mark Miller, San Francisco Examiner"A perfect time-capsule of the American art world as it goes into the 21st Century. Posterity should be grateful for this vivid document." -- Robert Rosenblum, Guggenheim Museum"A superb cinematic experience. I forgot I was watching an art documentary." -- Peggy Parsons, National Gallery of Art"Anyone who knows anything about the perils of talking heads and flapping tongues on film must marvel at this insightful job." -- Andrew Sarris, New York Observer"Precise, accurate and engrossing" -- Sydney Pollack"Terrific" -- Libby Lumpkin, Bellagio Collection"These remarkable films give us the sense of seeing art today with absolute clarity and truth." -- Arthur C. Danto, The Nation
L**D
Interesting, worth watching, and enjoyable, but...
No doubt about it, this DVD collection is wonderful addition to any lover of modern art.The first DVD, Making it in Manhattan, showed how artists were going back and forth about the issue of how artists should focus on working and not promoting their work vs. others who believed that artists should do both. Yes one gets to see them showing their work and explaining their concepts, but the tempo was a bit slow for me.The 2nd & 3rd DVDs from the set were more alive. At some points one might feel that the number of in-and-out comments by artist Louise Bourgeois was a little too much, but still the lady has a charming character and insight into art and life. Seeing Chcuk Close in action and how he fixes his brushes on a glove to paint since he's physically challenged was inspiring.I took 1 star out for making Art City focused on New York in particular and a few other US cities. Everyone knows how great New York is as an art hub; yet it would be interesting if a European version or an Asian version would follow this collection.Bottom line: Is it worth buying? If you saw any of Art:21 episodes or DVDs and you enjoyed it, then the answer is YES. Go ahead!
S**R
so-so
This is edited totally in weirdo, director-wants-to-be-best-friends-with-the-subject fashion! For example, one of the discs becomes "The Richard Tuttle Show"...we are introduced briefly to a couple artists and then we never see them again, however, most of the 53 or so minutes are spent watching Tuttle wander around his house with bizarrrrrro country-esque musak in the background (well, mostly foreground). What happened to all the other great artists we saw for a minute? I want to show these pieces to my BFA and MFA students, but they have turned into "How to Critique This Video" assignment instead. Watch Art21 if you want better and more scope for contemporary artists. Oh, and there is something really boring about watching it and the extra interview section. Why? How?
U**R
Art City dvd's - well worth the bucks.
I lovelovelove this series, and I wish Chris would do more. As a digital artist who (ahem) is doing supposed 'cutting edge' work it would be great to have someone cover this method of production as well.Bottom line: I've viewed these three cd's many times, and will enjoy them over and over probably for years. Highly recommended. Can't find any flaws with them, love them all. Worth the bucks? Definitely!!!
S**N
painful
You know, if I see one more stuffy, poorly directed/edited/produced art dvd....I'm going to scream. No wonder people who aren't artists want to slit their wrists when their new boyfriend/girlfriend suggests they "get cultured" and watch this DVD on artists' and their lives. The artists seem bored in the video (overall) and the questions are the same top 10 questions you always hear. Save the money and buy some nice whiskey.
S**L
Very thoughtful and entertaining!!
The most revealing films about artists I've ever seen. If you want to meet artists who have been making the news and get to see what they are REALLY like, in their private moments as well as at gallery openings, these films are for you. Incredibly intimate. I mean that look on Amy Adler's face when she tears up her paintings... Wow.I saw one of these films in Paris a few years ago on a double bill with Andy Goldsworthy: Rivers & Tides - another favorite of mine. Since then, I have seen all of the Art City films and just love them. The reviewer heckling below is either drunk, or high on crack... or must work for Art 21, a show which is pale and soulless in comparison. I have friends who are art educators and they all prefer the Art City films in their classes. Not only are they informative, but entertaining as hell!
P**Y
plunged into the art pool
Frequently in New York, I'm lucky that there's plenty of art to see. It's out there, which is good because TV still doesn't know how to present contemporary artists. Most art films are listless and painfully routine, however I fould these DVDs full of detail and never dull. It doesn't make any difference in what order they're screened, there is always something interesting to look at, or a personal moment that's shared. Several dozen artists are profiled and although all might not always be of interest to me, like in a good group show, the 'mix' of artists is what makes the experience unique. From the vulnerability of Elizabeth Peyton to the cool of Brice Marden, and with critics like Dave Hickey and Jerry Saltz pondering the rules of the art game, this series gives plenty to think about while also being unexpectedly entertaining. The liner notes indicate an `Altmanesque' filmmaking approach, moving from studios, to dinners, to back offices --and the structure works. Ready or not, you're plunged into the art pool.
M**R
An impeccable and unique addition to a superb series
Chris Maybach documents art and artist in the actual and intellectual worlds they inhabit. His films are not tricky, not sycophantic, not celebrity worshipping; they are reportage of a unique kind. There is a certain aura around a commercially and/or critically successful artist, and that cannot be avoided. It should not be avoided; it is the working reality of the artist. But the subjects' prominence might obscure Maybach's straightforward working method, one that makes his films sought after by educators and musuem curators, among others in the art world, which is to ask each to address fundamental issues of making art, and after that's done letting each say what he or she wants to say. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes less than you'd like. But these are honest films, and as such they are valuable -- as well as entertaining and intriguing -- works of cultural history.
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