Three Documentaries About Artists
Now Playing: HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY, MY ARCHITECT, and RIVERS AND TIDES
Through a happy bit of coincidence or a canny bit of programming (or maybe a little of both) three documentaries focusing on artists opened in Columbus in the course of one weekend. All three films are worth seeing, not only on their own separate merits, but also as being emblematic of the various approaches that can be taking when documenting an artist's life and work on film. The first of the three that I saw was HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY (2002, John Walter). This film focuses on the legacy of New York artist Ray Johnson and centers around the recollections of his life by those who knew him- almost invariably, not very well. As the officer who investigated Johnson's apparent suicide proclaims about calling his old friends, "everyone had a story about Ray Johnson," and such friends included Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, and Christo. The film makes the case that Johnson was first and foremost a performance artist in his life, a self-styled Character who left an impression on those around him but didn't let them get to know him especially well. Much of the film is highly entertaining, never more so when examining Johnson's witty and original take on his art, such as when a buyer gets Johnson to agree to sell a work at a 25% discount, only to find when he receives the work that Johnson removed 1/4 of it.

If Johnson's life was an enigma, so to was that of Louis I. Kahn, whose legacy forms the backbone of MY ARCHITECT (2003). The Oscar?-nominated documentary was directed by his illegitimate son Nathaniel, and unlike BUNNY this film has a much more specific perspective on its artistic inspiration. Nathaniel and his mother occupied a very small space in Louis' life, divorced almost entirely from the architect's greatest work except for the few instances when the mother collaborated on a project, and at Louis' funeral they were sectioned off from the family proper. This film is subtitled "A Son's Journey", and we follow Nathaniel as he talks with a number of his father's associates both famous (Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry) and less so (such as Anne Tyng, Louis' other lover). Nathaniel also tours his father's major works, including the Salk Museum, the Exeter Library, the Kimbell Art Museum, and finally the Capital Building in Bangladesh. As Nathaniel comes to a greater appreciation of his father's work both completed and abandoned (there were many projects of Kahn's that were never realized), he also grows in his understanding of his father as a man rather than simply as an artist. With all the wonders on display here, it's somewhat ironic that two of the film's most effective scenes center around "lesser" works- the first being a tour with Anne Tyng through a bath house in New Jersey that she and Louis designed, the other taking place on a touring "musical" boat with its own orchestra.

Unlike the other two documentaries I saw, RIVERS AND TIDES (2000, Thomas Riedelsheimer) focuses on a still-living artist and places him front and center. While this eliminates the inherent element of mystery that the other two films have, Andy Goldsworthy is such an interesting guy that I didn't mind. Maybe it's just that I enjoy films about artists creating, but this was my favorite of the three. Goldsworthy's work is the polar opposite of Louis Kahn's, committed to the idea of transience rather than permanence, and Goldsworthy creates art in fascinating ways, by taking his cue from nature. His materials tend to be natural (stones, wood, clay, leaves) he sculpts and shapes them with the aim of being eventually swept away by wind or water. "The very thing that brought the thing the be is the thing that will cause its death," says Goldsworthy, and while in some respects this flies in the face of most people's conceptions of art as enduring work, it also reminded me of the point that was brought up in MY ARCHITECT of the artist's need to embrace something larger than himself, which Goldsworthy certainly has.

Ratings:
HOW TO DRAW A BUNNY: **1/2.
MY ARCHITECT: **1/2.
RIVERS AND TIDES: ***.