Whitney to host Film as Art event

The Whitney Museum is hosting a near two month long event celebrating art on film, featuring works by Matthew Barney, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, Chantal Ankerman, Chris Marker, David Salle, Larry Clark, Jean-Luc Godard, Yoko Ono with John Lennon and many more. The line-up is incredible, frankly, including some seminal films and must sees. I for one can't wait to catch Marker's La Jetée and Godard's Breathless back to back. You can check the full schedule here.



Press Release:

Since the invention of film, cinema has been an inspiration for artists, and moving image installations have become a major part of the fabric of contemporary art. In recent years, artists primarily known for their works in other media--sculpture, photography, drawing, painting--have also begun to produce films meant to be viewed on the cinema’s single screen.

The exhibition’s program ranges from classic early films by Samuel Beckett, and Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie; to key narrative works of the 1960s and 1970s by Babette Mangolte, Yvonne Rainer, and Andy Warhol; to rare screenings of films by artists who first came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s such as Robert Longo, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, and Cindy Sherman.

The show also features films by a generation of artists who emerged in the 1990s and pursued a dual approach, making both films specifically for the cinema, and installations using the moving image. These include Matthew Barney, Tacita Dean, Tracey Emin, Douglas Gordon, Johan Grimonprez, Sharon Lockhart, and Clemens von Wedemeyer. Also on view are works by a small group of independent filmmakers who have not only influenced artists moving into film but also explored the gallery context themselves: Chantal Ackerman, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Isaac Julien, and Chris Marker.

Lights, Camera, Action brings many of these films together for the first time, allowing us to see the variety of ways in which artists have interpreted the language of cinema and to appreciate the specific qualities of cinema that artists have passionately recognized, and made their own.