Art and a Movie: A Brief History

Art and a Movie series partner Nan Brewer reflects on the program’s past 13 years as she prepares to retire this month. From us here at IU Cinema, thank you, Nan, for your contributions over the years and for helping to bring so many wonderful events to our theater!

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As I am about the retire at the end of February as both the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s Lucienne M. Glaubinger Curator of Works on Paper and the long-time organizer of the Art and a Movie series, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this successful collaboration with the IU Cinema.

The program started as an idea for combining films about artists and the creative process with presentations about related artworks in the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection in 2011 with the opening of the university’s new state-of the-art cinema. According to the Cinema staff, it is the only series that has been running continuously since its inception. It was the brainchild of Natasha Ritsma, a doctoral student in IU’s communications and media studies and interdisciplinary programs coordinator in the museum’s education department. The unique concept was to bring new perspectives on the films through pre-screening gallery talks by museum curators and occasionally other faculty members and to add new insights into the artworks through the films’ content. I cannot tell you how often someone when leaving the film would stop me to mention that they had noticed an artwork or point that was mentioned in the tour. By providing some background on the subject matter beforehand, the film viewers often felt more connected to, invested in, and/or challenged by the film’s narrative. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that great art looks fabulous on the IU Cinema’s big screen.

When Natasha took a curatorial position at the Gund Galley at Kenyon College in June 2013 (she is currently the director of the Schingoethe Center at Aurora University), she asked me to take over the program, which I formalized into the Art and a Movie series with generally four presentations per year. The future of the series received an added boost in 2016, when the program was generously endowed by Marsha Bradford and Harold Dumes. In the early years of the program, the related artworks were installed in the museum’s public galleries and attracted an attendance of upwards of sixty people. Later pre-screening talks have been a combination of works on view in the public galleries, in special exhibitions, or on view just for the Art and a Movie program in the Moore Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Study.

While it was sometimes challenging to find related artworks in the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection for corresponding films (we sadly had no works by Frida Kahlo or Jean-Michel Basquiat, both of whom are the subjects of wonderful films), I am always surprised by the depth of our holdings and the breadth of films on art and artists, particularly the plethora of artist documentaries in recent years. We have shown 60 films on artists ranging from Rembrandt and Vincent van Gogh to Utamaro and Diane Arbus, as well as on printmaking in the Midwest, the Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists, the art of letterpress, and art manifestos. While I’ve frequently mixed a documentary with a biopic each semester, I’ve also included experimental films, animation, foreign language films, shorts, artist-produced works, and even a few filmed at Indiana University. Several of the programs have included collaborations with other departments, including the Center for the Study of the Middle East; La Casa; Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design; Wells Library; IU Libraries Moving Image Archive; and the Kinsey Institute.

We have also been able to host nine post-screening Q&As with visiting directors, art professionals, or the subjects of the films. When the museum closed for three years for a major renovation and then the pandemic hit, I was able to expand the choice of films to include some movies without a direct reference to museum’s collection or use works like an Eames chair from the campus collection. Virtual programming also enabled me to invite out-of-town scholars or artists, like María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Audrey Flack, who would not have been able to participate otherwise. One of my favorite in-person visitors was the former librarian and noted art collector Dorothy Vogel, who was 82 at the time of her visit to Bloomington for the screening of the documentary Herb & Dorothy. I have sometimes tried to focus on lesser-recognized parts of the filmmaking process, such as the upcoming Art and a Movie presentation The Trouble with Harry, which includes a title sequence by Saul Steinberg, the subject of the museum’s current exhibition, Magic Ledger: The Drawings of Saul Steinberg. We have been able to expand the series’ blog presence over the years as well, including numerous contributions by museum curators, graduate students, local artists, and IU faculty or administrators. I’ve also tried to encourage more student engagement in recent years by having the film introductions written and delivered by the museum’s graduate assistants.

I look forward to seeing the Art and a Movie series continue and to enjoying many more movies about art and artists at the IU Cinema in my retirement.

Thank you to all the people who have supported this program for the past 13 years.

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Art and a Movie programs*:

2024
Film: The Trouble with Harry; Pre-Screening Talk: Steinberg in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

2023
Film: White Balls on Walls; Pre-screening Talk: DEAI in Focus (Danielle Johnson, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: Manifesto; Pre-Screening Talk: Manifestos in Focus (Sarah Carter, Fine Arts Collection, Wells Library, and graduate assistant Taylor Zartman, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: Exposing Muybridge; Pre-screening Talk: Muybridge in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art), in partnership with Kinsey Institute

Film: Mapplethorpe: The Director’s Cut; Pre-Screening Talk: Mapplethorpe in Focus (Rebecca Fasman, Kinsey Institute), in partnership with Kinsey Institute

2022
Film: Swoon: fearless; Pre-screening Talk: Swoon in Focus (Elliot Reichert, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Films: AB: The Life and Work of Albert Bloch / Abstract Movies; Pre-screening Talk: Bloch in Focus (Jenny McComas, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

2021
Films: When We Gather / When We Gather: Together; Pre-screening Introduction: Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art; Post-screening Q&A: Anke Birkenmaier, Spanish and Portuguese, with artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Vanderbilt University

Films: Capturing Lee Miller / Le Sang d’un Poète (The Blood of a Poet); Pre-screening Talk: Miller in Focus (Lauren Richman, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack; Pre-Screening Talk: Flack in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art); Post-screening Q&A: Sarah Edmonds Martin, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, with artist Audrey Flack

Film: Alice Rahon, l’abeille noire (Alice Rahon: The Black Bee); Pre-screening Talk: Rahon in Focus (Jenny McComas, Eskenazi Museum of Art); Post-screening Q&A: Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art, with gallerist Wendi Norris

2020
Film: The Painter and the Thief; Post-screening Q&A: Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art, with Dean Otto, Curator of Film, Speed Art Museum

Film: Marcel Duchamp: The Art of the Possible; Post-screening Q&A: Jeffrey Saletnik, Art History, with director Matthew Taylor

Film: Never Look Away; Pre-screening Talk: Richter in Focus (Nan Brewer and graduate assistant Leah Chizek, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case; Pre-screening Talk: Ai in Focus (Elliot Reichert, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

2019
Film: Pinocchio; Pre-screening Talk: Dine and Pinocchio in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: At Eternity’s Gate; Pre-screening Talk: Schnabel in Focus (Elliot Reichert, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: Pressing On: The Letterpress Film; Pre-screening Talk: Jenny El-Shamy, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture & Design, with graduate students Alexander Landerman and Bethany Rahn, IU’s Typography Studio; Post-screening Q&A: Peg Faimon, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, with directors Erin Beckloff and Andrew Quinn, in partnership with Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design and Friends of the Lilly Library

Film: Miss Hokusai; Pre-screening Talk: Hokusai in Focus (Judy Stubbs, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

2018
Films: Eames: The Architect and the Painter / Toccata for Toy Trains; Pre-screening Talk: Eames in Focus (T. Kelly Wilson, Center for Art and Design Columbus, School of Art, Architecture + Design)

Film: Loving Vincent; Pre-screening Talk: Van Gogh in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Films: Thomas Hart Benton / The Indiana Murals of Thomas Hart Benton: Visions of the Past, Lessons for the Present, and Treasures for the Future; Pre-screening Talk: Benton’s Indiana Murals in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: La belle noiseuse (The Beautiful Troublemaker)

2017
Films: Red Grooms: Sunflower in a Hothouse / Fat Feet / Tappy Toes; Pre-screening Talk: Grooms in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: Herb & Dorothy; Post-screening Q&A: David Brenneman, Eskenazi Museum of Art, with collector Dorothy Vogel

Film: The Destruction of Memory; Pre-screening Talk: Raqqa Ceramics in Focus (Margaret Graves, Art History); Post-screening Q&A: Ambassador Feisal Amin Rasoul Istrabodi, Center for the Study of the Middle East, with director Tim Slade, in partnership with the Center for the Study of the Middle East

Film: Pollock; Pre-screening Talk: Pollock in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

2016
Film: Les Amants de Montparnasse (Modigliani of Montparnasse); Pre-screening Talk: Modigliani in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: Waste Land; Pre-screening Talk: Muniz in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Films: Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies / Ballet mécanique; Pre-screening Talk: Cubism in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

Film: Oviri (The Wolf at the Door); Pre-screening Talk: Gauguin in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art)

2015
Film: The Agony and the Ecstasy; Pre-screening Talk: Michelangelo in Focus (Giles Knox, Art History)

Film: Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists; Pre-screening Talk: Chicago Imagists in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

Film: National Gallery; Pre-screening Talk: IU Art Museum in Focus (Adelheid Gealt, Indiana University Art Museum)

Film: Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Pre-screening Talk: Arbus in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

2014
Film: Utamaro o meguru gonin no onna (Utamaro and His Five Women); Pre-screening Talk: Utamaro in Focus (Judy Stubbs, Indiana University Art Museum)

Film: Midwest Matrix; Pre-screening Talk: Midwest Printmakers in Focus (Nan Brewer, Eskenazi Museum of Art); Post-screening Q & A: Tracy Templeton and Rudy Pozzatti, Hope School of Fine Arts, with director Susan Goldman, in conjunction with Midwest Matrix: Continuum, A Symposium Celebrating the History and Present of Midwest Printmaking and College Arts & Humanities Institute

Film: Rembrandt; Pre-screening Talk: Rembrandt in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

Films: A Model for Matisse / Henri Matisse (with new subtitles by Brett Bowles, French); Pre-screening Talk: Matisse in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

2013
Film: Goya in Bordeaux; Pre-screening Talk: Goya in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

Films: Rufino Tamayo: The Sources of His Art / Diego Rivera: I Paint What I See; Pre-screening Talk: Tamayo and Rivera in Focus (Jenny McComas, Indiana University Art Museum), in conjunction with National Hispanic Heritage Month and 40th Anniversary of La Casa, IU’s Latino Cultural Center

Film: Moulin Rouge; Pre-screening Talk: Toulouse-Lautrec in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

Films: Mystery of Picasso / Visit to Picasso; Pre-screening Talk: Picasso in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

2012
Film: David Hockney: The Bigger Picture; Pre-screening Talk: Hockney in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

2011
Film: The Train; Pre-screening Talk: The Spoils of War (Jenny McComas, Indiana University Art Museum), in conjunction with Themester: Making War, Making Peace

Film: The Rape of Europa; Pre-screening Talk: The Spoils of War (Jenny McComas, Indiana University Art Museum), in conjunction with Themester: Making War, Making Peace

Film: Lust for Life; Pre-screening Talk: Van Gogh in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

Film: Absolut Warhola; Pre-screening Talk: Warhol in Focus (Nan Brewer, Indiana University Art Museum)

Film: Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?; Pre-screening Talk: Pollock in Focus (Jenny McComas, Indiana University Art Museum)

*This list does not include some other artist-related films that were shown as part of other IU Cinema series, a few with additional museum components. Some of the Art and a Movie programs were also cross-listed with other IU Cinema series like CINEkids and International Art House.

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The Trouble with Harry, this semester’s Art and a Movie selection, will be screened at IU Cinema on February 4 at 1pm. Prior to the screening, there will be a free gallery talk at 12pm entitled “Steinberg in Focus” at the Eskenazi Museum in the Moravec Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Gallery on the third floor.

Nan Brewer, the Lucienne M. Glaubinger Curator of Works on Paper, has worked in the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s curatorial department for more than 37 years. During that time, she organized or managed more than 90 exhibitions and at least 120 in-gallery installations. Many of her shows had accompanying catalogues and/or traveled nationally, notably a major retrospective of photographer Art Sinsabaugh, which traveled to seven venues—opening at the Art Institute of Chicago—and featured a PBS-aired documentary. Nan’s research interests are wide-ranging, and while at the museum she has published on Art Sinsabaugh, the Morton C. Bradley American art collection, photography of religious architecture, chiaroscuro woodcuts, FSA photography, Vincent Price’s drawing collection, Rudy Pozzatti, Robert Barnes, and Jeffrey A. Wolin, among other topics. She has had a particular interest in Indiana University’s artistic legacy and has published and presented on the history of the museum; the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture & Design; IU’s early Fine Arts teaching collection; Echo Press; and the John D. Pusey murals at the Lilly House. Also, Nan is a recognized authority on Thomas Hart Benton’s Indiana Murals. As Curator of Works on Paper, Nan has overseen the preservation, research, growth, and use of a collection of more than 22,000 works on paper, and received grants from the NEA and NEH. She has contributed significantly to academic engagement and the integration of the museum across academic disciplines, organizing more than 450 museum programs, providing course instruction for as many as 100 viewing room visits in a year, and teaching the History of Photography course in Art History. She is also known for curating the popular Art and a Movie series in partnership with IU Cinema.