In the Avant-Guardian Musings "Bonus Assignment" series, I will occasionally post creative prompts for students to explore and expand their understanding around a range of art history and visual culture studies topics. These assignments will be collected under the Resources section of my website, hashtagged #bonusassignment under Search, and available as an Open Education Resource for educators.
Few things fall inside my wheelhouse better than a well executed documentary film about artists and/or the art world. Art docs satisfy my love of filmic representation and analysis while allowing me to unpack the myriad ways in which art historical subject matter is presented, shaped, and deployed as its own unique form of narrative and visual discourse. Most recently, I’ve been researching and analyzing a whole series of art documentaries for a paper I am working on that will be part of an edited book collection on the broader topic of cinema and art. One of my core arguments is that since at least around the time of the 2007-8 financial crisis, the documentary film format has been strategically deployed by a new generation of non-fiction filmmakers working to reveal, through filmic devices, the notion of problematic aesthetics, disjuncture, and black humour that permeates the contours of the contemporary art world.
Of these select films, The Price of Everything (2018) has become arguably one of the more provocative and popular documentaries that I often screen in my contemporary art hIstory courses. Directed by Nathaniel Kahn, a filmmaker who’s famous father architect Louis Kahn was the subject of another of his excellent art docs My Architect (2003), the film is a searing and no-holds-barred look at the contemporary art world from a number of key perspectives— from artists, art collectors, gallerists, art critics, curators, auctioneers, and art historians to name just a few. The film also provides for provocative discussion and contemplation, at many levels, for emerging artists. Perhaps most importantly, the film tackles the thorny subject of art and money, and the subjective assessment of art’s “value,” a taboo or avoided topic in many art schools (and one that I LOVE).
The bonus assignment is based in part on a set of final exam questions and also draws on discussion prompts that I have created to allow students an engagement with the film before, during, and after viewing. The film is currently available for download through iTunes and HBO.
INSTRUCTIONS:
PART A) Before you watch the film, you will choose FOUR individuals to pay closer attention to when watching the film. TWO of the individuals must come from the “Artists” listed below, and TWO from the “Art World Insiders” listed below.
A) ARTISTS: Choose TWO artists to pay closer attention to when watching the film from among:
Larry Poons, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter, Marilyn Minter, George Condo, Njideka Akunyili Crosby
For the two artists you pick from the above list, please do a quick and simple online search (use Google Image search to see a range of works) and choose one work of art from each of the artists that catches your eye and that you are drawn to purely for aesthetics or taste. Please do this without looking too closely at context related information (we will look more closely at this once you finish watching the film). I want your first impressions, and this will work better if you do a blind reading.
Record your findings and offer a FORM and CONTENT analysis in 100-150 words for each of the two chosen artworks (in complete sentences using your own words and ideas). Cut and paste the artworks into your final document so that I can see what you chose.
B) ART WORLD INSIDERS: Choose TWO art world insiders to pay closer attention to when watching the film from among:
Amy Cappellazzo, Jerry Saltz, Simon de Pury, Stefan Edlis, Holly Peterson, Jeffrey Deitch
For the two art world insiders you pick from the above list, please do a quick Google search to understand what their profession is and how their significance to the art world comes across in their web presence. Record your findings in 100-150 words for each individual, offering a quick analysis of what you think their influence and importance is to art world is (in complete sentences and using your own words and ideas).
PART B) While watching the film, keep the following question constantly in mind:
What ideas or information in the film were new or surprising to you?
Take notes and/or pause the film and record your honest and thoughtful reflections one sheet of paper (handwritten point form notes are perfectly ok for this question). There is no word limit on this, but I expect to see at least 350 words.
PART C) After watching the film, please answer the following FOUR questions:
QUESTION 1: How does watching this film influence you or potential audiences about “What is art?” or “What makes art valuable?” Have these ideas evolved for you since taking first taking an art history course? If so, how? If not, why not? Please answer in a rich paragraph below (aiming for 200-350 words).
QUESTION 2: This film is in part about the process of artists making art, and capturing this process on film is notoriously difficult. Yet, this film has won awards based on the filmmaker’s ability to represent aspects of art-making that few people will ever see. Select 1-2 scenes that particularly illuminated this process of successfully showing how art is made, and describe how the filmmaker revealed subtle and non-verbal processes that heighten audience experience. Please answer in a rich paragraph below (aiming for 200-350 words).
QUESTION 3: Go back to the two artists you were drawn to look at before the film screening. All of the artists quoted in the film have varying opinions on whether they should make art they believe will sell, regardless of whether that is the art they want to make. Describe what the attitude of your two chosen artists was, and reflect on whether what you learned about them changed your opinion about their art practice. Would you want to change the artist you are drawn to learning more about their practice and beliefs? If so, why? If not, what did you learn to reinforce your first blind reading. Please answer in a rich paragraph below (aiming for 200-350 words).
QUESTION 4: Go back to the two art world insiders you were drawn to look at for this film in Question #1. For each individual, reflect on why you think the filmmaker chose to focus on them for the purposes of the film, and describe what perspective, attitude, and/or statement(s) you strongly agreed with for each one and/or which perspective, attitude, and/or statement(s) you had a strong reaction against? Please answer in a rich paragraph below (aiming for 200-350 words).