Who Gets to Call It Art [DVD] [2006] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

A fascination with influence may draw you to this documentary of art appreciation. Henry Geldzahler was the first contemporary art curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his "New York Painting and Sculpture 1940-1970" exhibit is said to be the largest exhibit of modern art by living artists at the Met.

Through this journey into the life of Henry Geldzahler we discover the depths of the friendship between Henry and Andy Warhol and how at the height of their friendship they talked on the phone daily. It seemed they supported each other's artistic visions.

Henry Geldzahler loved to be photographed, was a natural in front of a camera and also loved to sit for portraits. David Hockney's painting of Henry sitting on a couch is shown in reality and then as the painting. These types of contrasts show reality vs. the artist's vision and perhaps explain "in a subtle way" how Henry's presence changed the world of art.

Since I had just arrived in the world in the 60s, this is all pretty much new to me and it helps to explain the rise of contemporary art in a positive way. It is likely that you will recognize very few artists featured if you are under 40 and not an art student, but this doesn't detract from the human-interest story.

Artists interviewed include: Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, David Hockney, John Chamberlain, Francesco Clemente, Mark di Suvero, Ellsworth Kelly, Larry Poons and James Rosenquist. This gives a fascinating inside view of what was happening in the art world during the 60s.

After viewing this DVD, you can't help but recognize the influence of the artists featured while visiting today's art museums.

~The Rebecca Review

Henry Geldzahler came from a well-to-do family and always wanted to be a curator. After interning at the Whitney at 15 he fell in love with modern art. He got a degree from Yale and after a couple of years of doctoral studies at Harvard he accepted a position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was hardly known for its support of the latest directions in art.

This movie is about Geldzahler and what he did to support the pop art movement that included artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, and many others. The story is told with tapes and films of Geldzahler, as well as period and contemporary interviews with the artists concerned (whether supportive or contrary to the movement).

The culmination of the film is the famous and hugely controversial show Geldzahler put on in 1970 at the Metropolitan. "New York Painting 1940-1970". It was a blockbuster and still resonates to this day. I loved the comment about how he selected what to put in the show (because no matter how large an exhibition, so much had to be left out). Geldzahler said that he picked those works that he had seen and than left him wanting to see it again. Whatever you think about the "seriousness" or "worth" of the art, much of it is certainly beautiful and all of it is full of cheer, optimism, fun, and some downright silliness. Isn't that refreshing from being dour all the time?

Henry Geldzahler died far too young at 59 in 1994. We even get to see inside his home and the beautiful objects with which he had surrounded himself. They are stunning.

This is a fine short film to get some background about this interesting and influential patron on modern art and the artists who did all that work. It is quite charmingly done and never gets sidetracked in the side arguments.

Recommended.

I've purchased this DVD to find out what's behind pop art who are its main protagonists and indeed who gets to call it art? The feature is made up by a series of interviews with prominent artists from the 50s and 60s who weren't so well known back then. In fact is a film about Henry Geldzahler who went to the art school with Andy Warhol and became curator at Met during the 60s, Henry introduced artists like Larry Poons, Mark Di Suvero, Andy Warhol, etc to the general public thus enlarging and challenging the established view of what's art. The movie also answered my question - pop art social effect is simply to reconcile us to a world of commodities...banalities and vulgarities which is to say in effect indistinguishable from advertising art.