There has been a lot of coverage here at AFC on the film Who Gets To Call It Art, primarily because the movie has the potential to be useful for those who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the developement of art through the sixties. In addition, it discusses the impact of arguably one of the most important exhibitions of the twentieth century, New York Painting and Sculpture 1940-1970. The movie is not without flaws, but that doesn’t have to negate discussion. I recently wrote a review of this movie for FANZINE which you can read below.
Henry Geldzahler once said: “The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.”
If the film, Who Gets to Call It Art, is about the debate over what makes something “art,” then Geldzahler——a curator and critic who played a key role in articulating the objectives of art made during his lifetime——is important to center out. The movie vacillates on this point, situating itself somewhere between a biography of Geldzahler (focussing on his life between 1960 and 1970) and an overview of the New York art world in the 1960's. For better, though probably for worse, the film is not always entirely clear what its objectives are.
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