The Cool School: How L.A. Learned to Love Modern Art
What:
The Cool School: How L.A. Learned to Love Modern Art
When:
Thurs Apr 10 - Sat Apr 12, 7pm and Sun Apr 13, 5.30pm
Where:
ACMI “First Look”
Watch the trailer:
Here
Win:
Thanks to ACMI, we have double passes to the screening to give away. To enter, email win@threethousand.com.au with the subject line 'When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.'
Last time we suggested you see an art documentary at ACMI, it was a four-hour Andy Warhol epic. Fear not! The Cool School is a breezy 90 minutes. Maybe that’s the difference between New York and L.A.
The Lebowskiesque tones of narrator Jeff Bridges explain that the men of The Cool School created the Los Angeles art modern movement from scratch, without the necessary scaffolding of galleries and critics found in New York. We’re told L.A. was a cultural wasteland until that point, and if that’s a little simplistic? You know what they say: print the legend.
We follow the men of the Ferus Gallery, like Walter Hopps, who was the first to put together artists like Warhol and Lichtenstein into the same show, and local superstar Ed Kienholz, whose life-size sculptures were made from equal parts everyday junk and social commentary.
Without a single figure or strong narrative, however, this documentary drifts, unfocused and a little lightweight – but there’s plenty of deft editing and catchy jazz-tunes wrapped around the art as the era washes over you.
Format: Cinema
Mood: Nostalgic
Keywords: ACMI, Ed Kienholz, Walter Hopps, Jeff Bridges
Random Entries:
Search our guide to Melbourne
Browse our guide to Melbourne by interest
Browse our guide to Melbourne by keyword
Melbourne Events Calendar
Select a date to see what's on in Melbourne
Browse our guide to Melbourne by weekly issue
Working