Series Site
December 8–22, 2024
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition To Exalt the Ephemeral: The (Im)permanent Collection, these programs offer insight on some of the exceptional artists whose works are currently on view in BAMPFA’s galleries.
Marion Cajori’s recently restored documentary portrait of the painter Joan Mitchell includes illuminating interviews with the artist as she reflects on the inspiration for her work—from her childhood in Chicago to her time in New York and later life in France. (One of Mitchell’s works is also on view in Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection.)
Pioneering photographer Imogen Cunningham is the subject of an outstanding, Academy Award–nominated documentary made by her granddaughter Meg Partridge. In Bruce Conner’s The White Rose, Jay DeFeo wistfully watches the extraction of her monumental masterpiece from the San Francisco studio where it was created. Eva Hesse’s extensive diaries provide the basis for Marcie Begleiter’s discerning profile of the groundbreaking sculptor. Commissioned by the National Parks Service, Obata’s Yosemite considers the impact that visits to Yosemite National Park had on the influential Japanese American artist and educator Chiura Obata. Best known for her sublime abstract paintings, Agnes Martin bought a 16mm film camera in the 1970s, with funds from a successful exhibition at Pace Gallery, to make Gabriel, a film about innocence and happiness set in the landscapes that inspired her. Entirely without dialogue, the film nonetheless communicates volumes about the artist’s approach to observing and being in the world.
—Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator