screening room | The Art:21 Film Series
by: Matthew Hundley
ART:21—ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
This series of films provides a direct, accessible and unfiltered look into the realm of more than 16 artists as they explain their vision and their craft.
Contemporary art breaks out of the confines of museums and art galleries shattering the myth of the artist as an isolated genius.
Art:21 introduces audiences to artists working in America today. Visiting them where they live and work, the series demystifies America’s artists and reveals them to be articulate, thoughtful, disciplined and hard-working people who are accessible and direct.
“They are surprisingly like you or me,” says Executive Producer Susan Sollins, “but with heightened sensibilities and sensitivities that enable them to vault over the mundane.”
From well-known artists including Kiki Smith, Martin Puryear and Vija Celmins to lesser-known artists such as Tim Hawkinson, Collier Schorr and Paul Pfeiffer, the series includes painters, photographers, sculptors, performance and video artists.
Regardless of the tools they employ – from traditional techniques like printmaking or carving to digitally-manipulated images or computer-created art works – the artists explore their own rich psyches, react to the stimulus of historical and natural inspirations, and respond to the complex external world of the twenty-first century in which they live.
The artwork they labor to produce, with often profound diligence and exacting craft, is startling in its beauty and form, as well as its diversity and depth.
Each program is structured around a broad category or theme that provides a connective thread through separate segments on three to four artists.
The artist and filmmaker Charles Atlas collaborated with guest hosts who are passionate and knowledgeable about contemporary art, including filmmaker John Waters, actress Jane Alexander, comedian Margaret Cho, and choreographer Merce Cunningham, to create mini-videos that comprise the opening segment that introduces each program.
Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century kicked off it's run at the Hearst Center on February 5th and continues with a different topic each Thursday night at 7:30. The last installment will be presented on March 25.
Art in the Twenty-First Century is the only series to focus exclusively on contemporary art, and it uses the medium to provide an experience of the visual arts that goes far beyond a gallery visit.
Fascinating and intimate footage allows the viewer to observe the artists at work, watch their process as they transform inspiration into art, and hear their thoughts as they grapple with the physical and visual challenges of achieving their artistic visions.
Familial, religious and cultural roots are also often present in the art, acknowledged by many of the artists as key influences in both how they express themselves and the ideas and images that excite them.
The Yiddishkeit performance tradition of Eleanor Antin’s eastern European Jewish cultural background shapes the sensibility for her political satire, while a resonance of the Virgin Mary echoes through pieces of both Kiki Smith’s and Janine Antoni’s work. For Gabriel Orozco, the simple act of walking through the streets as a child in Mexico ignited a vivid awareness of the spontaneity of a visual moment.
As Art:21 encourages the artists to reflect on their own inspirations, these seminal perspectives emerge and inform an understanding of their work.
Currents of art history ripple through the contemporary work, as many of the artists discuss the inspiration of a particular pictorial tradition or the legacy of another artist. Kara Walker’s Antebellum nightmares are rendered in grotesque caricature using the silhouette technique of 19th-century popular art, while Raymond Pettibon taps 20th-century comic strip art to skewer social injustice and portray political truths. Walton Ford finds mentors in artists across the centuries and the continents from Bosch to Goya to John James Audubon.
“There is no equivalent in this series to the didactic wall-text that serves in the museum context to mediate between the art work and viewer,” says Sollins. “There are, instead, the artists, up close and unfiltered.”
A rich companion Web site at www.pbs.org/art21 is available with in-depth information on the artists in .
Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century was produced for PBS by the independent production company Art21, Inc. Executive Producer and Curator: Susan Sollins; Series Producer: Eve Moros Ortega; Associate Producer: Migs Wright; Consulting Director (“Stories” and “Loss & Desire”): Charles Atlas; Producer (“Time” and “Humor”): Catherine Tatge; Series Co-Creators: Susan Sollins and Susan Dowling.
Posted: February 26, 2004  
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