Tag: painting

Exhibition on Screen
James McNeill Whistler

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date September 14 2026
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James McNeill Whistler

Exhibition on Screen: James McNeill Whistler

Director – David Bickerstaff – 2026 – UK – Cert. U – 90m

*****

A look at the work of 19th Century painter Whistler, seen through the lens of the 2026 Tate Britain exhibition – out in UK cinemas from Tuesday, 15th September

Before watching this latest Exhibition on Screen feature, I was able to visit Tate Britain’s stunning James McNeill Whistler show, which sits very much at the film’s core. The film had the effect of making me want to go back for further visits.

Exhibition on Screen’s film opens with shots of a Victorian concert hall interior where the unseen Whistler (voice: Bret Jones) is addressing the room with his spoken lecture on art, something the film will return to towards its close. After a montage of brushes, painting surfaces and palettes, establishing shots of Tate Britain take us straight into the current Whistler show. “People sometimes think of Whistler as being based in French art, and sometimes as being based in British art,” explains Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art 1850-1915, Tate Britain, “whereas…he was very much an independent…and very much leading the avant-garde in both those countries.”

Susan Grace Galassi, Curator Emeritas, The Frick Collection, New York, who considers Whistler one of the greatest American artists, notes that he didn’t distinguish between fine or applied art, that he was as great a painter as he was a printmaker.… Read the rest

Tags 1855, 19th century, 2026, A. O. Koritskii, America, American, American South, aristocrats, Arrangement, art, Art Critic, art historian, art history, art lessons, artisan, avant-garde, backstreets, bars, birthplace, blue Japanese porcelain, bohemian, Boston, Bret Jones, British art, brushes, butterfly, Can-Can, Carol Jacobi, Charles Baudelaire, Charles Lang Freer, Chelsea, chief engineer, Coastal Survey, coastline, coin, collection, commission, common people, concert hall, Connecticut, countryside, critic, cult of personality, curator, dancer, dandy, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, David Bickerstaff, display, disreputable, draughtsmanship, draw, drawing, drawings of coastlines, East End, England, etch, etching, everyday life, exhibition, Exhibition On Screen, F.R. Leyland, fabric, falling out, family, feud, fine and applied art, Finette, France, freedom, French art, Gustave Courbet, Harmony, Henry Murger, house brushes, independent, interior, interior design, irascible, James McNeill Whistler, Japan, Japanese, Japanese porcelain, Kensington, La Vie Boheme, lecture on art, letters, life size photographs, London, Lowell, Manet, Massachusetts, military surveyor, Mme Gérard, modern life, Modernism, money and payment, monogram, moral, motif, New York, Nocturne, one good eye, ordinary, outsider, painter, painting, painting as painting, painting surfaces and palettes, panel, Paris, Patricia de Montfort, peacock, peasants, Phil Grabsky, poet, Pomfret, porcelain, Pre-Raphaelite, printmaker, printmaking, prostitutes, provocateur, Rachel Campbell-Johnston, railway construction, railway engineer, railways, Rembrandt, responsible male, river, river bridges, river painting, River Thames, Rotherhithe, rural and urban, Russia, Salon d’Exposition, self-portrait with a pipe, self-promotion, self-publishing, shelving, ships, smoking a cigarette, Southerner, Spanish wall coverings, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg to Moscow, Stephen Calloway, sting in the tail, story, struggling artist, studies, subject, surveyor, Susan Grace Galassi, Symphony, Tate Britain, temper, Thames, The Frick Collection, The Peacock Room, UK, upbringing, urban, Velázquez, Victorian, Wapping, West Point Military Academy, Whistler, Whistler’s mother, workmen

Art Features Live Action Movies

The Christophers

The Christophers

Director – Steven Soderbergh – 2025 – US, UK – Cert. 15 – 100m

Two siblings hire a young art restorer to forge some of their famous artist father’s unfinished paintings before he dies so they can collect on their posthumous sale – out exclusively on digital platforms from Monday, 20th July

Professional art restorer Lori Butler (Michaela Coel) runs a London fast food stall between painting restoration gigs. Then she gets a phone call and meets in a pub with Barnaby (James Corden) and Sallie (Jessica Guning), the son and daughter of ageing artist Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) who, worried that their father is about to die imminently from a medical condition, want to ensure he (for which read Lori) ‘completes’ (for which read ‘forges’) the third, unfinished series of paintings known as the Christophers after the model Julian used.

Against her better judgement, she accepts the gig, and finds herself playing the ruse of working as Julian’s assistant, basically an excuse for getting into his studio and forging the completed works on canvas as a nest egg for his children who, it later transpires, have already sold the as yet unpainted works to a buyer for a tidy sum.… Read the rest

Art Features Live Action Movies

Leonora
in the Morning Light
(Leonora
im Morgenlicht)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date May 29 2026
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in the Morning Light
(Leonora
im Morgenlicht)

©Mirjam Kluka, Dragonfly films, Alamode Film

Leonora in the Morning Light (Leonora im Morgenlicht)

Directors – Thor Klein, Lena Vurma – 2025 – Germany, Romania, Mexico, UK – Cert. 15 – 103m

In Mexico, France, Spain and the England of her childhood, Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington must confront her personal demons – out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, May 29th

Deserted hillsides, a sliver of a road, eventually a tiny red car moving along it, to the accompaniment of a pulsating electronic score suggesting the present day. Another stretch of road: the car drops off the woman, in stylish trousers and blouse, who smokes observing the landscape. The driver gets out to photograph her, much to her displeasure, but he’s run out of film.

An illustrated title card: Death. Xilitla, Mexico, 1951. The man takes her to the rooming house of Edward (Ryan Gage), leaving her as he promises to look after their son. Outside the window, she can hear the two men discuss all that has happened to her. Her madness.

She and Edward are riding with others in the back of a lorry on a road. In Spanish, she asks a woman on the lorry (Yasmira Escárrega) about her amulet – “a sacred stone that illuminated the path through the underworld”.… Read the rest

Tags 1938, 1939, 1940, 1951, adaptation, Alexander Scheer, amulet, André Breton, animal spirit, arrested, art, art history, artist, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Cat Jugravu, Chiki Weisz, consulting room, Dali, death. Xilitla, delirium, Denis Eyrley, doctor, drawing, drawing room, electric shock therapy, Elena Poniatowska, England. childhood, family, fathers and daughters, field, France, Garden of Eden on Earth, gates of hell, gendarme, German alien, German invasion of France, Germany, Heaven, holocaust survivor, horse, hospital, hunt, hyena, Irish, journey, jungle, key, lake, Las Pozas Gardens, Lena Vurma, Leonora Carrington, Leonora in the Morning Light, locked door, lorry, lover, Luis Gerardo Méndez, madness, marketplace, Max Ernst, memory, Mercedes Bahleda, Mexico, mural painter, nanny, novel, Olivia Vinall), painter, painting, paradise, Paris, path through the underworld, Peggy Guggenheim, photography her, Remedios Varo, Romania, Ryan Gage, sacred stone, San Martin D’ardeche, Santander, shoot, South Of France, spider’s web, sprite, staircase, Surrealism, Surrealist, Surrealist gathering, Thor Klein, title cards, UK, viewing platform, Vivienne Soan, Wren Stembridge, writing, Yasmira Escárrega

Art Documentary Exhibitions Features Live Action Movies

Exhibition on Screen
Frida Kahlo
Special Edition
with new material from
the making of an icon

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date May 19 2026
No Comments on Exhibition on Screen
Frida Kahlo
Special Edition
with new material from
the making of an icon

Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939 © EXHIBITION ON SCREEN

Exhibition on Screen: Frida Kahlo – Special Edition
with new material from the making of an icon

Director – Ali Ray – 2020, 2026 – UK – Cert. U – 93m, 101m

*****

The tragic yet resonant life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and her transformation into a modern, cultural icon – out in UK cinemas from Tuesday, May 19th

As dour piano chords play, a title announces that Frida Kahlo held only three solo exhibitions in her lifetime. This is contrasted with an auction where “one of her most complex self portraits” The Dream (The Bed) / El Sueño (La Cama) (1940) auctions for a starting price of $22m and selling for $47m. As of November 2025, this was the highest ever value for a work by a female artist achieved at an auction.

Now, in 2026, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Tate Modern, London collaborate on a major exhibition entitled Frida: the making of an icon, opening on Friday, June 19th at the Tate. Exhibition on Screen’s Special Edition of their 2020 film concludes with ten minutes of newly shot footage of that exhibition.

Frida works at a writing desk as she (voice: Diana Bermudez) reads the latter she is composing.… Read the rest

Tags 1910 Mexican Revolution, a German immigrant, abortion, activist, advertising, affair, Alfredo Vichis Roque, Ali Ray, Amelia Mesa-Bains, androgynous, animals, Anna Chancellor, anti-birth, anti-colonial, architect, art, art exhibition, artist, Astrid Hadad, athletics, attention-seeking, auction, bedridden, biographer, biographies, bisexual, bleeding, bleeding womb, blood, blood vessel, bone treatment, boyfriend, braid of flowers, brand, Brandels University, brown-skinned heroine, buried, bus accident, Carlos Phillips Olmedo, Carmen Lomas Garza, Casa Azul, Catherine Wood, Catholic, celeb, censorship, Chicano, Christian, Christian symbolism, civil rights, civil war, clothes, colonialism, colour photographer, Communist Party, communities, confined, consumer culture, corpse, counterculture, cracked landscape, Cristina Kahlo, curator, day and night, defiant, defiant gaze, desolation, Detroit, Diana Bermudez, dictatorship, Diego Rivera, Diego Riviera, disability, divorce, divorce proceedings, doctor, doctor’s orders, dog, dog deity, Dolores Olmedo Museum, earring of a hand, earrings, exhibition, Exhibition On Screen, faith journey, fathers and daughters, female body, fingerprint, folk culture, fractured spine, Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo Museum, Frida: the making of an icon, Gabriel Porras, gallery, Gannit Ankori, gay identity, gender fluidity, global brand, global food supply, green, group show, Hayden Herrara, Hilda Trujillo, Hindu, Hindu symbolism, historian, hope, hospital visits, housebound, Houston, husbands and wives, hybridisation of plants, iconicity, identity, injury, Interim Director, Juan O’Gorman, Las Cachuchas, Latin American Art, Le Corbusier, left-wing, letter, library, London exhibition, love affairs, Luther Burbank, Madonna and child, male and female, man plant, manifesto, Mari Carmen Ramirez, marriage, Mary McCartney, matriarchy, medical bills, medical training, menagerie, Mexican art, Mexican Woman, Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico City’s National Preparatory School, miscarriage, mixed race, mothers and daughters, mouth, Munchausen syndrome, mural, Muralism, museum, Museum of Fine Arts, myth, nails, naive painting, necklace of thorns, new government, new social movement, New York, newspaper article, Nickolas Muray, nun, opening night, opposites, ornate rings, orthopaedic brace, pain, painting, Paris, philosopher, Polio, politics, portrait, posing for photographs, pre-Hispanic art, pregnancy, Professor of Art History, prostitute, public buildings, religious paintings, Renaissance, retablos, retablos artist, revolution, revolutionary, roots, rules, Rupert Garcia, San Francisco, sartorial identity, schooling, scientist, self-portrait, sexual violence against women, sisters, skull, solo exhibition, Spain, Spanish / Indian descent, Spanish colonialism, spider-monkey, stabbed to death, still life, student movement, studio, sun and moon, surgery, surgical scissors, Surrealism, Tate External Curator, Tate Modern, Texas, the Blue House, The Human Condition, three quarter portraits, Tijuana, Tobias Ostrander, torso, tourist boats, Tracey Emin, trauma, UK, umbilical chord, underworld, US, vaginal blood, Warhol, Warholesque silkscreen print, wealth, women artists, work from photographs, workers' rights, writer, writing desk, Xolotl, Yasumasa Morimura, yin and yang

Documentary Features Live Action Movies

London’s Last Wilderness

London’s Last Wilderness

Director – Pablo Behrens – 2026 – UK – Cert. 12a – 61m

*****

London’s Thames Estuary filmed and edited from the point of view of an alien – out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 24th

A genre bender of a documentary, this owes a great deal to Petropolis (Peter Mettler, 2009) which comprises aerial cinematography of the environmental wreck of Canada’s Alberta Tar sands. The subject of London’s Last Wilderness, however, is not an ecological catastrophe, however much its narration by intertitle might (mis)interpret it as the aftermath of a war zone. It is rather the estuary of the Thames, the river that further inland flows through London, which city puts in a brief appearance towards the end. Indeed, insofar as this has a narrative spine, it is of a journey from the largely uninhabited estuary inland to the metropolis itself.

Where Petropolis was shot largely from a helicopter by a cameraman, the results recalling nothing so much as the aerial footage that opens The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) and closes (because they bought the rights to it) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982), aerial photography has moved on considerably in the last fifteen of so years with the evolution of drones, today a major part of the filmmaker / cinematographer’s arsenal.… Read the rest

Art Documentary Exhibitions Features Live Action Movies

Exhibition on Screen
Turner & Constable

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date March 9 2026
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Turner & Constable

Exhibition on Screen: Turner & Constable

Director – David Bickerstaff – 2026 – UK – Cert. U – 93m

****

A journey through the current Tate Britain show and art history about the two rival landscape painters – out in UK cinemas from Tuesday, March 10th

This latest Exhibition on Screen entry kicks off in uncharacteristic fashion with photographic shots of landscape (typical of views that used by painters Turner and Constable) accompanied by an excerpt from the poem Richmond by James Thomson (1834-1882), a favourite of both painters whose work will be similarly deployed (voiced by Robert Lindsay) at appropriate intervals throughout this documentary.

However, the film soon moves into more familiar territory with shots of present day London and of the Tate Britain’s current Turner & Constable exhibition, with visitors admiring some of the paintings on display. Amy Concannon, Manton Senior Curator, Historic British Art, Tate Britain, notes that this show represents the first time the two painters have been displays side by side on such a vast scale. Turner & Constable were born within a year of one another, which became a catalyst for the current show’s displaying them together.

Artist, writer and broadcaster Lachlan Goudie talks about the “dazzling” influence of both artists on the likes of Delacroix.… Read the rest

Tags 1768, 1802, 1806, 1815, 1819, 1820s, 1832, Alps, Amy Concannon, art, art exhibition, art historian, artist, artists’ sketchbook, bought and sold, British artist, British national consciousness, broadcaster, brushstroke, business, canal, castle, child prodigy, Claude Lorrain, commerce, Constable, Constable clouds, country, country boy, countryside, Covent Garden, critical attention, Curator of British Art 1790-1850, David Bickerstaff, declaration of peace, Delacroix. Nicola Moorby, drawing, East Anglia, Exhibition On Screen, fields and skies, France and England, French Revolution, grain exportation, grand scenery, hairdressing, hanging committee, Historic British Art, Impressionism, Industrial Revolution, inflections of light, Italy, James Thomson, Lachlan Goudie, landscape, landscape painting, light and shade, llandscape, lock gate, London, make money, Manton Senior Curator, milling, mountains, Napoleonic Wars, national consciousness, National Gallery, notes would enable him to construct artist’s studio, observer, oil painting, open fields, paint, painter, painting, painting in the studio, painting outdoors, plein air, political system, print shop, pub, RA, RA member, radical, railway engine, red light district, representation of light, Richard Johns, rival landscape painters, rivalry, River Stour, Robert Lindsay, Royal Academy, rural, science and technology, shop window, shop window display, sketchbook, social injustice, Somerset House, Suffolk, Tate Britain, the Lake District, the Louvre, theatre, tourist locations, travel, travel restriction, treaty, Turner, Turner & Constable, Turner’s sunsets, UK, University of York, upheaval, upward mobility, urban, urban type, viaduct, visual, visual research, Wales, war and peace, watercolour, well-heeled, wig-making, writer, yellow, yellow paint

Documentary Exhibitions Features Live Action Movies

Exhibition on Screen
Caravaggio

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date November 11 2025
No Comments on Exhibition on Screen
Caravaggio

Caravaggio – filming Christ at Emmaus (1601) at the National Gallery London © David Bickerstaff

Exhibition on Screen: Caravaggio

Directors – David Bickerstaff, Phil Grabsky – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 101m

***

A look at the turbulent life of sixteenth century Italian painter Caravaggio, his troubles, his forced travels, and his art – out in UK cinemas from Tuesday, November 11th

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), generally known as Caravaggio, is here, initially, curiously and somewhat confusingly referred to as Michelangelo only to be called Caravaggio throughout the remainder. The narrative of the artist’s life is built around talking head footage of actor Jack Bannell as Caravaggio himself speaking his own words – except that, they aren’t his own words since, as is pointed out later, this particular artist wrote very little himself and most of what is known about him today comes from police records of the time.

The framing device with the actor is supposed to be Caravaggio recalling his life on the boat trip back to Rome. Historically, he mysteriously disappeared after landing and was never seen again. Alas this latter fact – which might have made a great framing device – is only clarified at the end, at which point it plays merely as a less than satisfying conclusion.… Read the rest

Tags art, artist, artists’ workshop, author, bed and board, Bible, Biblical text, boat trip, Caravaggio, Catholic, Catholicism, Christie’s, cities, close friends, copies of devotional works, David Bickerstaff, death, disappearance, districts, Exhibition On Screen, Fabio Scalatti, famine, fights, Filide, flee, framing device, hack work, half-length figures, Helen Langdon, historian, invade the viewer’s space, Italy, Jack Bannell, Knights Templar, landing, Letizia Treves, Malta, Mario Maniti, Milan, models, mystery, Naples, paint brush, painting, Phil Grabsky, plague, police records, pushing the boundaries, rapier blade, religious, Rome, sailing, Sicily, Stephen Nelson, streets, studio, talking head, three heads a day, travels, troubles, UK, Valetta, warfare

Features Live Action Movies

Fountain of Youth
(2025)

Director – Guy Ritchie – 2025 – US – Cert. 12a – 126m

Two estranged, treasure-hunting siblings, with the help of a rich backer, pursue the trail towards the life-giving water source of legend, pursued by forces that want to prevent them from doing so – premieres globally on Apple TV+ from Friday, May 23rd

Films get made in a variety of different ways. According to the press handouts, this one came about initially through producer Tripp Vinson’s research into the legendary Fountain of Youth and the desire to have a globe-trotting hero searching for it. This idea was developed by screenwriter James Vanderbilt (Scream VI, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, 2022; The Amazing Spider-man, Marc Webb, 2012; Zodiac, David Fincher, 2007) into where the hero was not one but two people, an estranged brother and sister. When director Ritchie later came on board, he brought to it the idea of the journey being more important than the destination. This is not, therefore, a director-led project. In the process of making movies, however, it is ultimately the director, once they are on board, who is responsible for the myriad decisions that are taken in putting the film on the screen.… Read the rest

Tags accomplice, action, adultery, Alfred G. Vanderbilt, Arian Moayed, art, backer, Bangkok, Benjamin Chivers, bike, brothers and sisters, Cairo, caper, car chase, Carmen Ejogo, cipher, curator, custody, decode, divorce, Domhall Gleason, Egypt, Eiza González, estranged, Fountain of Youth, gallery, gangsters, Gleason, Guy Ritchie, helicopter, inspector, Interpol, Ireland, James Vanderbilt, John Krasinski, journey, Laz Alonso, library, London, Lusitania, museum, Natalie Portman, National Portrait Gallery, painting, prodigy, pyramid, Rembrandt, Royal College of Music, seventh commandment, shipwreck, Stanley Tucci, Steve Tran, stunts, Thailand, theft, thug, torpedoed, train, Tripp Vinson, UK, US, Vienna, villain, Wicked Bible

Art Documentary Exhibitions Features Live Action Movies

Exhibition on Screen
Michelangelo
Love and Death

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date May 20 2025
No Comments on Exhibition on Screen
Michelangelo
Love and Death

Exhibition on Screen: Michelangelo – Love and Death

Director – David Bickerstaff – 2017 – UK – Cert. U – 91m

*****

Sixteenth Century Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo remains one of the greatest artists of all time, yet his overreaching ambition frequently proved his undoing – back out in UK cinemas to tie in with the 550th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth from Tuesday, May 20th

“From a fountain of mercy… my suffering is born.” These words (voiced by James Faulkner as Michelangelo) accompany images of a present day sculptor (Marco Ambrosini) working away at a piece of marble in his studio. The writings of Vasari (voice: Lawrence Kennedy) take up the story. A boy was born to a noble family in 1475. Art Critic and Author Jonathan Jones places Michelangelo among the greats, like Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Picasso. He deals with the strangest, darkest and most difficult stuff. He is the original famous artist. He had two biographies written about him in his lifetime, and took great interest in them, helping bring them to fruition. He painted, sculpted, built architecture, wrote poetry, even built military fortifications. This was the time when artists started being regarded as creative geniuses, according to Art Historian Jennifer Sliwka.… Read the rest

Tags 1475, 1530, 15th Century, 16th century, acolyte, Alessandro Cecchi, ambition, anatomy, ancient ruins, and Martin Clayton, architect, architecture, Arnold Nesselrath, Art Critic, art historian, artist academy, artists’ workshop, assistants, attack, author, Bacchus, Battle of the Centaurs, Bertoldo, Bible, biographer, biographies, block of marble, burning at the stake, cadavers, Carrara, Casa Buonarotti, Casa Buonorotti, Christ in judgement, Christian redemption, church, Clinical Anatomy, closed access, Colosseum, columns, commission, committee of artists, Condivi, Conservator, control freak, Cosimo de Medici, Creation of Adam, creative genius, crucifixion, cupola, David, David Bickerstaff, David Rintoul, Dawn and Dusk, dead Christ, decorative, delegate, design, Divinity, Donatello, Duomo, end of the world, engineering, English, Exhibition On Screen, eyes, facade, family, Florence, Florence Cathedral, flow, football, fortifications, frame, France, Francesca Nicoli, gay, gay sexuality, Genesis, German, God’s finger, grief, hands, Heaven, hiding, higher spiritual realm, Holly Trusted, imagination, impart life, interview, irrationality, Italian, Italy, James Faulkner, Jennifer Sliwka. Art, Jonathan Jones, Laboratoire Artistici Nicoli, language of architecture, Laurentian library, lava, Lawrence Kennedy, Leonardo da Vinci, library, London, Lorenzo di Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent, male world, marble, Marco Ambrosini, Martin Gayford, Mary, medical science, Medici, Michelangelo, military fortifications, mother, motifs, motion, movement, muscular nude body, Neo-Platonist, New Testament, night and day, nudity, Office of Works, Old Testament, painter, painting, papal court, patrons, peace deal, Peter Abrahams, Phil Grabsky, Phillippa Abrahams, physical agony, physical beauty, Picasso, picture frame, pietà, poet, poetry, Pope Clement VII, Pope Julius II, Pope Leo X, Pope Paul II, power, Prints and Drawings, problem-solving, professor, punishment, quarry, religious art, Rembrandt, Renaissance, Rome, Royal Collection Trust, sacristy, San Lorenzo, San Lorenzo monastery, Santa Croce church, Santo Spiritu, sculptor, sculpture, self-portrait, Senior Curator, Sistine Chapel, Sistine Chapel altar wall, Sistine Chapel ceiling, sodomy, St. Peter’s Rome, staircase, studio, studying cadavers, tactile, Tania Kovats, teenage angst, The Battle of Cascina, the Divine, The Last Judgement, tomb, torment, touch, trams, turn convention on its head, UK, upbringing, V&A, Vasari, Vatican Museums, Virgin Mary, vision, volcano, wall of flesh, Warwick Medical School

Art Documentary Features Live Action Movies

War Paint
Women at War

The Crying Game. Between a Rock and a Hard Place 2017 by Marcelle Hanselaar

Director – Margy Kinmonth – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 89m

*****

A look at the output of various women artists who have documented and dissected war, and what they can tell us – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 28th

Although being promoted, reasonably enough, with an image from World War Two of women working with barrage balloons, right from the start in narration over its opening titles this breaks the mould for anyone expecting it to cover any one specific historical or geographical war. “I’m going to talk to women all round the world”, says director Kinmonth in regard to the concept of war as a catalyst for creativity. “What do women see that men don’t?” Quite apart from her gender, she is well-placed to tackle such a subject having recently made two documentaries on the subject of war artists: Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War (2022), War Art with Eddie Redmayne (2015), and many more before that on the subject of art in assorted social contexts.

The film is a compendium of interviews with living female artists or, in the cases of artists who’ve passed on, their descendants or proponents. Some of the names are familiar, such as Lee Miller, Maggi Hambling or Dame Rachel Whiteread, others much less so.… Read the rest

Tags 1066, 1979 Iran revolution, 1992, 2005 Darfur genocide, 2022-3, AC/DC, Afghanistan, Agent Orange poisoning, air raid, air raids, aircraft, American Pavilion, Ami Bouhassane, amplifying stories, annihilation, anti-aircraft guns, architect, artist, atrocity, ATS searchlight women, Austria, Balloon Command, barrage balloons, Bayeux Tapestry, Bletchley Park, Blitz, bombed houses, bombed out, burka, burned, ceasefire, Changi, Changi prison quilt, children’s drawings, consequences of war, creativity, crimes against humanity, crucifixion, culture, Dame Laura Knight, Dame Penelope Lively, Dame Rachel Whiteread, Darfour, Donetsk, drawing, Dutch, enigma, European Court of Human Rights, factory, factory girl, Falkland Islands, fashion model, freezing conditions, Galahad, Gladys Hines, history, Holocaust memorial, homeless, horse head impaled, hospitality, identity, Lee Miller, Linda Kitson, London, London Vogue, Luftwaffe, m Assil Diab, m searchlight beams, Maggi Hambling, Marcelle Hanselaar, Margaret Thatcher, Margy Kinmonth, martyrs, Maya Lin, miscarriage, missile, morality police, Mozambique, mural, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York City, Nigeria, Nina Berman, nineteenth century, official war artist, painting, Palestine, Palestinian Women, Pallanytsia, password, Patricia Thorncroft, photographer, plane, postage stamp, production line, propaganda, protest, protester, quilt, RA Summer Show, Rachel Reckitt, rape as a weapon of war, rape scene, Royal Academy, Russia, Second World War, Shirin Neshat, Singapore, social media, soldiers as rapists, spray paint, Sticker Project, stitched by nuns, Sudan, Sudan war, tiles, travelling car window, twentieth century, UK, Ukraine, US economy, US support for WW2, veil, Venice Biennale, Vietnam War, Vietnam War Memorial, violence and death, war and militarism, war crimes, War Paint, war photographer Lee Miller, war reportage gender imbalance, war zones, war-making, warplanre, wartime fashion photos, wartime propaganda, Washington DC, welcome bread, window sicker, witness, Women at War, women discarded after rape, women in the workforce, women in war zones, Women Life Freedom, World War 2, World War II, World War Two, WW2, Zhanna Kadyrova