Who Gets to Call it Art?
USA, 2005, 80 minutes, English
World Premiere

Cast: David Hockney, Frank Stella, James Rosenquist

Producer/Director: Peter RosenBR>
Executive Producers: Karl Katz and Cathy Price>
Co-Producer: Sara Lukinson>
Editor: Jed Parker

WHO GETS TO CALL IT ART? The consensus in this kaleidoscopic ride through the ragged, jagged art scene of post-war America is that the late Metropolitan Museum of Art curator and historian Henry Geldzahler fills the bill. A legend in his own mind but also in the hearts of the artists whose works he championed, Geldzahler was instrumental in raising consciousness about the vibrancy of contemporary American art. As this documentary attests, his landmark and somewhat controversial exhibition New York Painting and Sculpture 1940-1970 shaped not only the Met’s future but the art world’s as well. The works from Henry’s Show, as it came to be known, are now considered masterpieces of twentieth century art. For Geldzahler, there was no mold or idea that art needed to fit into, and he maintained a lifelong interest in—and affection for—the new and unfamiliar. Offering testimony to his exuberant nature and discerning eye are artists who participated in creating that brash creative style, like David Hockney, Frank Stella, Larry Poons, James Rosenquist and Mark di Suvero. - Herma M. Rosenthal