Who Gets to Call it Art? (2006)
Runtime: 80 mins
Theatrical Release: Feb 1, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: The 1960s art scene was a hive of creative activity, and Henry Geldzahler, the first curator of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was a pivotal figure around which the movement revolved. This documentary takes a look at his life and work. His influential exhibit titled "New... The 1960s art scene was a hive of creative activity, and Henry Geldzahler, the first curator of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was a pivotal figure around which the movement revolved. This documentary takes a look at his life and work. His influential exhibit titled "New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970" comes under particular scrutiny, as it contained 400 works by artists with whom Geldzahler was particularly enamored. [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
DVD Info
Release:
May 23, 2006
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- Stereo - English
Additional Release Material:
- Featurette - Q&A with Peter Rosen, James Rosenquist, Larry Poons
- Production Interviews - (unspecified)
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Trailers
Interactive Features:
- Interactive Menus
- Scene Access
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
You are likely to enjoy this bio-pic to the extent that you buy into the idea that one effete snob ought to define an aesthetic for the rest of us slobs.
Can be enjoyed as a quick overview of the contemporary American art scene.
Shot with a Peter Greenaway-like austere impudence and edited brilliantly (by Jed Parker), this is an entertaining movie, and a moving one -- even if, like me, you're not especially fond of these paintings or that scene.
With its snappy, even hectic editing and great archival footage, Who Gets to Call It Art? is loads of fun to watch.
Rosen covers a lot of ground in 80 minutes, and he's picked the right subject to focus on.
The film's flippant style ultimately undermines its material -- and, ironically, makes the American art scene of the '60s appear as shallow and trendy as its detractors always claimed it was.
Peter Rosen's documentary Who Gets to Call It Art? paints an entertaining picture of the cherubic gentleman, who as the first curator of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Clocking in at 80 minutes, this glib, largely uninformative and poorly organized précis of the post-World War II art scene succeeds neither as history nor as art history.
Surely a figure as crucial as Geldzahler deserves more incisive treatment.
Through his use of green screen and montage, Rosen seems to want to position his film as its own work of Pop Art.

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