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Found
in the Making: Films about Self-Taught Artists
Co-presented
by the Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists
Most
self-taught American artists come from very humble backgrounds. Their
resonant stories demonstrate that artistic achievement can be
found in unexpected places. The Foundation for Self-Taught American
Artists aims to create a deeper understanding and broader appreciation
of self-taught art through the production, acquisition, promotion
and distribution of documentary films.
Thursday,
December 11 at 7pm
I
Build the Tower
dir.
Edward Landler and Brad Byer, US, 2006, DVD, 86 mins, color
Followed
by a conversation witharchitect/artist David Slovic and art
critic/curator Judith E Stein
 Watts
Towers, the monumental
Los Angeles landmark now recognized throughout the world as
an artistic and engineering masterpiece was built by Italian
immigrant Sam Rodia. Working alone from the 1920s to 1950s,
he created unique and majestic spires decorated with a mosaic
of tile, seashells, pottery, ceramics, rocks and glass rising
to a hundred feet. Slated for demolition in the late 50s, the
Towers transcend the category of “outsider” or “folk” art and
in 1990, listed as one of nine folk art sites on the National
Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic
Landmark.
Dr Judith E Stein is
a curator and writer. At the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
she organized the national touring exhibitions of “Red Grooms:
A Retrospective,” “The Figurative Fifties: New York School Figurative
Expressionism” and “I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin,”
which traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A 1994 recipient
of the Pew Fellowship in the Arts for her writings on art, Stein
is a frequent contributor to Art in America.
David Slovic was born
in Chicago, studied Art and Architecture at Cornell and the
University of Pennsylvania. worked for Louis Kahn before starting
his own experimental architectural practice, first as FRIDAY
Architects then as David Slovic Associates. Additionally, he
is an artist whose photographic constructions and architectural
works have been shown at the Venice Biennale, Lisbon Trienale,
PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, Yale University, and
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Free admission members
above Internationalist level; $5 Internationalist members, students
+ seniors; $7 general admission. In advance at TICKETWEB
and 866-468-7619 or 1/2 hour before showtime.
The
Foundation’s first documentary, James Castle: Portrait of
an Artist, was written and directed by Foundation trustee
and film editor Jeffrey Wolf. The Castle film is the catalyst
for this series and provides a forum for discussion about this
controversial area of contemporary art. Film curators and educators
at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bryn Mawr Film Institute,
Penn Humanities Forum and International House assembled an eclectic
roster of film screenings, panel discussions and talks about
a group of fascinating visual artists whose evocative work expands
our thinking, challenges our perceptions and stirs our passions.
"James
Castle: A Retrospective," an exhibition organized by Philadelphia
Museum of Art’s curator of drawings Ann Percy, is on view from
October 14 through January 4.
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