The Vik Muniz Saves the World tour continues with his new film, “This is Not a Ball,” whose title is a play on René Magritte’s painting “The Treachery of Images” (whose text reads, “this is not a pipe,” above an image of a pipe), but shares none of the original work’s theoretical sense of humor. Instead, what we have is a film about Muniz, made by Muniz, whose main objective seems to be to let people know that Muniz helps people. Oh yeah, and he thinks soccer is very important.

On that last point, he’s correct. Soccer is important to many people on a global level, and the reasons why would certainly be an interesting subject of a deeply researched essay or film. But that’s not what this is. “This is Not a Ball” is the behind-the-scenes document of Muniz’s project to create an image with 20,000 soccer balls in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico, interspersed with musings on the importance of sports and the nature of the ball itself in people’s daily lives, with a globe-hopping Muniz as our narrator.

The soccer-ball project is in line with much of Muniz’s work, which places an emphasis on the process of making art in a social context. In Lucy Walker’s 2010 film “Waste Land,” Muniz traveled back to Brazil, where he was born, to create a series of works in collaboration with people who spend their time in and around Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest garbage dump, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Previously, he was known for his large-scale portraits (typically photographed from above) made out of sugar and syrup.

The problems that existed in “Waste Land” are relevant, even more so, in “This is Not a Ball.” Muniz seems incapable of understanding the power dynamics between himself, a famous artist, and people who are struggling to survive. Much of Muniz’s recent work is said to address social issues, and here is no different — the film follows his travels around the world and wants to make connections between the symbol of the ball, “the center of everything,” as he says in the film, and a global unified culture. The ball, used in a public work of art, Muniz supposes, is a tool for change. People from the lowest rungs of society can move up the societal ladder. The power of art can save the world.

That’s a skewed view of upward mobility and class rigidity, of course, and the film is tone deaf on the particularities of the subject. While Muniz might not be making money directly from this project, everything he does is part of a larger branding of his image as an important and socially-conscious artist, which will only lead to him getting more high-profile, and high-paying, work. I’m sure Muniz’s intentions are pure in his own mind, but the sight of him in a designer leather jacket visiting what appears to be sweatshops where soccer balls are sewn together made me cringe. Without addressing what is clearly the elephant in the room, Muniz’s film, and his work in general, will continue to be conflicted in its aims and flawed in its results.

“This is Not a Ball” opens June 6 in New York and will premiere on Netflix on June 13. 

Claire Colette is an artist whose work on paper is intensely motivated by sound and how it might be represented in tangible form. Her exhibition “small moves in strange rooms,” on view at San Francisco’s Eleanor Harwood Gallery through July 12, includes seven graphite-on-paper drawings, as well as an interactive sound installation created with Sean Smith.

“‘Salle D’Attende’ is French for ‘waiting room,’” said Colette, referring to the title of one of the works in the exhibition. “I had been working on a series of drawings about space, both architectural space and internal psychological spaces, and how the two effect each other. I was thinking about sound a lot — the properties of sound in an enclosed space — how it fills a room, bounces off the walls, echoes, decays, and the invisibility of it. I see the nature of sound as a metaphor for how experiences can resonate, double back, and vibrate internally.”

Based on her practice, Colette said that most people expect her musical tastes to angle toward “Zenned-out” songs, but her actual studio playlist is eclectic, from hip-hop to the bombast of Swans. Here are a few of her selections:

Savages, “Shut Up”

“Savages are loud, searing, political, creative, brave as hell, wild and polished at the same time. Endless inspiration.”

Iggy Azalea, “Murda Bizness ft. T.I.”

“Iggy can be a little more pop than I usually like, but her songs are addictive. She is a great rapper and it’s inspiring to see a young woman working hard and finding her place in a notorious boys’ club.”

Swans, “The Seer Returns”

“It’s amazing how something so dark can make you feel such a freeing sense of lightness. It’s something I will always strive for in my work.”

Francis Bebey, “New Track”

“I listen to a lot of African music and Bebey is one of my favorites. I love the upbeat quality mixed with smart lyrics and adventurous sounds.”

A$AP Ferg, “Let It Go”

“A$AP Ferg really gets me going when I need a dose of energy. A strange and great mix of rap and gangsta rap with a horror-movie vibe.”

Moondog, “Why Spend the Dark Night”

“This song is just my kind of romantic, and great to listen [to] during moments of playful experimentation.”

This article is part of the series Studio Tracks, which runs monthly in Modern Painters magazine.

— Broad Museum Sues Its Engineer: Seele Inc., the German-based engineering company responsible for exterior features of the Broad Collection contemporary art museum in downtown LA, has fallen 15 months behind schedule, resulting in a lawsuit brought forth by the museum. The suit seeks $19.8 million in damages from Seele and its insurers for not meeting the quality of work it promised, and for extra costs from the delays. Broad spokeswoman Karen Denne says the museum is now slated to open in 2015. [LAT]

— Replica Van Gogh Ear Grown for Art: The Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe is currently displaying a replica of Vincent van Gogh’s ear grown from genetic tissue from Lieuwe van Gogh, the great-great-grandson of the artist’s brother. The ear is a copy of the appendage removed by Van Gogh during a psychotic episode in 1888. Artist Diemut Strebe plans to display the piece in New York next year. [Guardian]

— Ai Weiwei Pens Op-Ed for Tiananmen Anniversary: Artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei penned an op-ed for Bloomberg to mark the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The artist discussed his recent censorship from shows in Shanghai and Beijing, saying, “Censorship has in effect neutered society, transforming it into a damaged, irrational and purposeless creature.” Weiwei also writes, “China has chosen to forget, or to allow forgetting — an attitude the West will find hard to understand. This provides China a way to liberate itself from heavy self-criticism, as well as a heavier moral burden. More important, it frees Chinese from responsibility for their actions and acquiescence.” [Bloomberg]

— Gugg Helsinki Announces Jury: The Guggenheim Foundation is seeking the design for its Helsinki Museum through an open competition, which will be judged by a jury of 11 architectural experts headed by Mark Wigley, dean of Columbia University’s graduate school of architecture. [NYT]

— Swiss Museum to Vet Gurlitt Trove: The Kunstmuseum Bern, the designated heir to the art collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, plans to vet the collection before accepting it. [AP]

— Crocker Stored Art For Japanese in US: Officials at the Crocker Museum recently discovered that the institution stored artworks for Japanese families interned in the US during World War II, and they plan to reunite descendants with the recovered items. [CBS Sacramento]

— Laurent Le Bon, director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, has been chosen as the new head of the Musée Picasso in Paris. [TAN]

— Recovered tear gas canisters left on the streets from violent protests in Venezuela are to be used in an art initiative that encourages locals to make the leftover pieces into sculpture. [Ahram Online]

— Jill Deupi was chosen as the new director of the University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum. [Miami Herald]

ALSO ON ARTINFO

Claire Colette’s Studio Playlist, From A$AP Ferg to Savages

VIDEO: Liz Glynn’s “Ransom Room” Full of Gold

Art Basel Picks 15 Site-Specific Works for Parcours Sector

Bill Murray-Themed Art Show to Hit SF

Check our blog IN THE AIR for breaking news throughout the day.

“I love auteurs, I love art, I love life, just like other people like wine and women,” said Marin Karmitz. “It’s the same kind of love.”

That love in all its permutations will be on display in New York, where the Museum of Modern Art will be celebrating Karmitz’s career as a director and producer with a retrospective of films made under the banner of MK2. The company, which Karmitz founded in 1974, has expanded into an empire over the last four decades, a period in which, as he describes, he acted both as a cinematographic midwife and pediatrician — helping a film to be born and then making sure it is taken care of as it goes out into the world.

His work as a film doctor is enormous. MK2 has produced more than 120 films, including works from some of the biggest names in global cinema over the past 40 years, including Krzysztof Kieslowski, Alain Resnais, Abbas Kiarostami, and pretty much every other essential name of global cinema you can think of, many of which will screen at MoMA during the series.

In a recent conversation with ARTINFO at a hotel in Manhattan, Karmitz described his path in life as moving “from the margins to the center,” breaking it down into three distinct categories: exile, solitude, and the desire to change the world, or, in other words, “the miracle of creation.”

Born in 1938 in Romania, he said he had never seen a film until he arrived in France with his family as political refugees almost a decade later. He began going to the movies, he said, with his grandmother, where he was introduced to American comedians such as Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. It was also during this period that Karmitz began going to museums, often with his mother, which sparked a love of visual art that would be reborn many years later. He remembers being excited about the Impressionist paintings in the Musée de l’Orangerie, and a Germaine Richier statue at the church of Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Grace.  

But his passion for film and then the desire to change the world (as for the solitude in between, he declined to comment), arrived during his early teenage years at the Cinémathèque Française, where he would sometimes see three films a day and discovered modern filmmakers such Antonioni, Renoir, and Bresson, who were reinventing the language of film and remaking it anew, and his time at IDHEC, the main French film school. This period of Karmitz’s life is also intertwined with his growing political commitment, which led him to activism against the Algerian War.

After graduating, he became an assistant on Agnes Varda’s groundbreaking film “Cleo from 5 to 7,” where he met Jean-Luc Godard (who has a small role in the film). It proved to be a formidable experience for Karmitz. Godard taught him “how to unlearn what I had learned at school,” and, as legend has it, Karmitz would let Godard borrow his technical book from film school because the director thought the camera was too mobile in his first film, “Breathless.” This unlearning would lead to Karmitz making his first short films, 1964’s “Nuit noire, Calcutta,” written by Marguerite Duras, and 1965’s “Comédie,” which was made with the playwright Samuel Beckett.

Godard’s influence can also be seen in Karmitz’s work post-May 1968. Like many artists, and Godard himself, Karmitz was questioning the role of artistic practice following the protests and occupations in France, and his next film would directly address this problem. “Coup pour Coup” (screening June 6 and 9), released in 1972, is a film about female textile workers engaged in labor conflicts and takes the form not of a traditional documentary but a film made from the inside. “It’s the language of the workers,” Karmitz said. “There was also a lot of experimentation with improvisation. How do you work with non-professional actors alongside professional actors, and how do you write the screenplay as you’re shooting?”

The result is more a collaboration with the workers than a product of a single authorial voice. But the problem was that the traditional channels of distribution did not want to show the film. “Coup pour Coup” sparked debate due to its political subject matter and radical form, and it remained out of theaters. Karmitz decided to take matters into his own hands — he drove around with the film canisters in the trunk of his car, brought along a sheet to hang up as a screen, and showed the film in factories directly to workers. It was a bold move, and the experience of creating an alternative system to show films would be the inspiration for MK2. At the beginning, Karmitz said, there was no vision. He simply did it — going back to that phrase he often repeated during our conversation — to change the world.

“The vision came through practice, particularly through the difficulties,” Karmitz said. “It’s very difficult to create a company, a capitalist structure that currently has 300 employees, all the while defending people who are against the system. You make a lot of enemies. Especially when you get it right.”

“The system doesn’t understand that,” he added. “The system would like to do the same thing but it can’t because it’s the system. The system is what we usually do, the idea that the only point in making a film is to make money. I made films for my own personal gratification, because I like it.”

Karmitz opened the first MK2 theater in 1974 and today there are 60 in Paris alone, many dedicated to showing challenging films that otherwise wouldn’t be seen. But as the years went on, the world of cinema began to change. The process of making films became tedious, he said, and his energy drained. “As long as you do things that are alive it’s normal to be refused and hear people say no to you,” he said. “There’s always somebody with a whistle telling you to get back in line.”

Success didn’t temper the tediousness, and a shift in passions emerged. “I’d lost my innocence in respect to the movies,” he writes in “Silences,” an exhibition catalogue for a show he curated at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Strousberg, “but I found it again, with very intense feeling, when it came to the visual arts.”

Karmitz began collecting artwork, first from friends and connections he made through his film work, then expanding his scope to others that inspired him. His extensive collection of photographs includes work by Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, among many others. Nathanael Karmitz, his son, took over the day-to-day operations of MK2 in 2006.

To be honored in America, which he calls “the country of cinema,” and especially by the Museum of Modern Art, has been a dream. “I’m just a French immigrant who doesn’t have much recognition in his own country,” he said, “so my ego is incredibly satisfied. But I don’t believe I’m the king of the world. There are many more films to be made.”

But does he still have the desire to change the world?

“Unfortunately, yes” he said with a smile.

“Carte Blanche: MK2,” at the Museum of Modern Art, runs June 5-23. On June 6, FIAF will premiere“A Life at the Movies,” a documentary about Karmitz, followed by a discussion with critic Eric Hynes. On June 8, Union Docs in Brooklyn will screen Karmitz’s early short “Nuit Noire, Calcutta.” On June 9, Karmitz will be in conversation with International Center of Photography chief curator Brian Willis on his outstanding photography collection at the Invisible Dog in Brooklyn.

There’s a first time for everything. This week, that means there are 11 countries presenting inaugural exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens to the public on June 7. Of the 66 national pavilions at this year’s event, the first-timers are Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Together, they offer a variety of responses to Biennale curator Rem Koolhaas’s theme of “Fundamentals.” The Belgian architect and founder of Rotterdam-based firm OMA asked participating nations to reflect on the development of modern architecture since 1914, and the resulting loss of distinctive and definitive national characteristics in architecture.

Koolhaas’s provocative mandate promises to produce thought-provoking results from both new and returning exhibitors. The British pavilion, curated by London-based architects FAT (who, sadly, are disbanding after the Biennale and 20 years of practice to pursue solo projects) with Crimson Architectural Historians, is dubbed “A Clockwork Jerusalem” and focuses on 19th-century influences and ideas, such as Romanticism and the sublime, on the creation of a specifically British post-war modernism. Meanwhile, the French pavilion, curated by architectural historian Jean-Louis Cohen, is presenting “Modernity, Promise or Menace?” — which operates under the idea that French designers did not absorb the characteristics of modern architecture, but rather invented modernist architecture altogether. Although the national pavilion projects will cover extensive thematic ground, there will be more unity between exhibitions than in previous years: 2014 also marks the first year that participating countries were required, not merely asked, to address the Biennale’s official theme.

Several more firsts are in store this year: operating as collateral pavilions (that is, unofficial participants), Antarctica will become the first continent to have its own pavilion and Moscow the first such city. Seeing as rookies rarely get the same treatment as MVPs, we’ve rounded up some of the most promising inaugural pavilions at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Costa Rica
“Ticollage City: The Vicious Circle of Social Segregation and Spatial Fragmentation in Costa Rica’s Greater Metropolitan Area 1914-2014”
Where: Arsenale
What: The Costa Rican pavilion curators focused on the country’s urban history over the past century. “Many historic buildings have been erased to make space for parking lots that serve the fleet of vehicles required by the ‘rurban’ commuters, which has sparked a heated debate about preservation versus development,” writes Oliver Schutte in his curatorial statement. Highlighting the uneven, unplanned growth of conurbations as the country’s hallmark of architectural modernity, the exhibition will look at the influence on preservation of movement between the capital, San Jose, and its more rural suburbs.

Cote d’Ivoire
Where: Chiesa San Francesco della Vigna
What: After the country’s first year participating at Venice in 2013, Cote d’Ivoire returns for its inaugural pavilion at the Architecture Biennale with an exhibition devoted to materials. Specifically, Ivorian pavilion curators Mamadiou Zoumana Coulibaly-Diakite and Francis Sossah focus on the country’s “bois sacre” as a means of addressing the dilution of the country’s traditional culture. “The sacred Ivorian wood which is here presented as a spacial indicator that allows the audience to rediscover and reevaluate the sacrifice inflicted by the last years of modernization,” notes the curatorial statement. The pavilion will likewise consider the possibility of eco-friendly and sustainable architecture as a means for preserving traditional Ivorian building practices.

Dominican Republic
“Fair Concrete/La Feria Concreta”
Where: Arsenale
What: Curated by the Laboratrio de Arquitectura Dominicana, the Dominican pavilion takes the 1955 World Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the Free World, orchestrated by dictator Rafael Trujillo, as its inspiration. Erected in concrete, the fairgrounds represent the beginning of an overwhelming predilection for concrete throughout the history of post-war Dominican architecture. The complex now hosts government institutions by day, and what the curators describe as “illicit” activities at night. In an exhibition space demarcated by locally produced blocks of concrete, the curators employed juxtaposition to explore the dualities of official and unofficial uses of space.

Kenya
“Back to The(se) Stars”
Where: San Servolo Island
What: “In Kenya, national identity has never lost its way in spite of technological progress,” said Paola Poponi, curator of the Kenyan Pavilion, who also curated the country’s pavilion at last year’s Art Biennale. Devoted to the work of Italian-born, Kenya-based architect Armando Tanzini, “Back to The(se) Stars” examines the role of the individual designer in a colonial setting. Poponi is likewise an Italian ex-patriot based in Kenya, and one can only hope that the pavilion is not merely a personal project. However, Poponi’s curatorial statement suggests that the colonial relationship between Kenya and her European origins will make for a critical, if abstract, exhibition: “The presence of the human figure as a protagonist of a change seems to be the key for a trustworthier reading against architects’ egotism,” she writes.

Moscow
“MOSKVA: urban space”
Where: Santa Maria della Pieta
What: For Moscow’s first pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Russian capital’s chief architect, Sergey Kuznetsov, curated an exhibition that looks to the city’s urban development throughout the 20th century to contextualize the forthcoming Zaradye Park project near the Kremlin designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. He argues that Moscow’s urban fabric is no longer defined by its buildings but rather by the “connective tissue” between them. “Moscow has a very particular position within Russia, and internationally,” he told ARTINFO. “The pace of the city’s development is unique within Russia, but what’s happening in Moscow is highly important for the development of architectural trends globally. The history of Moscow’s urban development is also quite an interesting story, one that merits closer looking.” For those in Venice this week, Kuznetsov and Liz Diller will be telling that story at a conference at the pavilion on June 6.

New Zealand
“Last, Loneliest, Loveliest”
Where: Palazzo Pisani S. Marina
What: Like several fellow pavilion curators from post-colonial nations, David Mitchell of the New Zealand pavilion argues that national differentiation in architecture is indeed still possible: “In New Zealand, national architecture is more distinctive than it was a century ago.” To prove his point, Mitchell organized an exhibition about traditional Maori architecture, which he sees as a national building tradition that has only become more nationally prominent with time. “These are very fragile, lightweight wooden structures, the opposite of what we see in Venice,” Mitchell said of the indigenous architecture he plans to display in Venice. The New Zealand pavilion will include a tent made of fabric based on a Maori house, with photographs displayed inside. It will also feature a traditional Maori storehouse, newly carved for the Biennale, with a scale model of the Neoclassical 1919 Auckland War Memorial Museum inside. “According to Rem, 100 years ago we were building Greco-Roman architecture and putting traditional buildings inside of them as anthropological relics. All we’re doing now is the reverse,” he quipped.

United Arab Emirates
“Lest We Forget: Structures of Memory in the United Arab Emirates”
Where: Arsenale
What: Emirati pavilion curator Michelle Bamberg is quick to note the accelerated pace of architectural development in the United Arab Emirates, where many buildings were still constructed of palm fronds in 1914. In order to ensure that the history of gulf architecture is not forgotten in the midst of the region’s current building boom, which sees newer and bigger architecture constructed at lightning speed, she envisioned the pavilion as an archive of historic architectural projects in the UAE. Bamberg focused on the residential and public architecture of the 1970s and ’80s — an era when the Emirati federation, and its emblematic architectural agenda, first took shape. By examining the period between the pre-federation, pre-oil boom construction and the contemporary vogue for skyscrapers, Bamberg means to uncover the origins of the adaptation and appropriation that define Emirate architecture today.

— YBA Show Canceled Over Ukraine Tensions: A show on the Young British Artists (YBAs) in Russia — anticipated as the highlight of the 2014 UK-Russia Year of Culture — has been canceled by the British Council due to the crisis in Ukraine. The council has stated that the Russian sponsor for the exhibition, the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, withdrew its support after not being able to raise adequate funding. The British and Russian organizers of the exhibition were unable to find an alternative venue, so the show has been postponed to 2016. [TAN]

— Nahmad Sued for Hiding Nazi Loot: Manhattan art dealer Helly Nahmad, who recently received jail time for operating an illegal gambling ring, is now being sued for hiding a $20 million painting believed stolen by Nazis during WWII. Phillippe Maestracci, the grandson of a Jewish art dealer who fled Paris during the war, is suing the Nahmad family for using the International Art Center corporation to avoid a federal lawsuit over Modigliani’s 1918 “Seated Man with a Cane.” The suit asks the Nahmads to disclose details about the company and the painting’s whereabouts. [NY Post]

— “Grand Bargain” Funding Aids DIA: The Michigan State Legislature has agreed to give $350 million over the next 20 years to keep the Detroit Institute of Arts’s (DIA) collection intact and aid the city’s pension funds. The “grand bargain” deal is a step forward for settling the city’s bankruptcy woes, and with the government’s funding the current total stands at $820 million. Annmarie Erickson, the DIA’s executive vice president and COO, said, “It’s very significant and we’re delighted that the senate decided to move the package forward.” She added, “This is the best outcome for the DIA and the pensioners and the city of Detroit in terms of moving the bankruptcy along.” [TAN]

— Collectors Join MOCA Lawsuit Against North Miami: Several collectors who have donated to the Museum of Cotemporary Art in North Miami have joined the lawsuit against the city to make clear that their works were gifts just for the nonprofit museum. [Miami Herald]

— Are Biennials Gentrifying the Art World? While visiting the eighth Berlin Biennale, Hyperallergic contributor Kimberly Bradley proposes that biennial culture may be gentrifying the art world, bringing together international works that all feel the same rather than highlighting any diverse global art trends. [Hyperallergic]

— The Problems with Sprawling Memorials: Catesby Leigh of the Wall Street Journal argues that memorials are becoming increasingly sprawling, physically and conceptually, and getting much bigger than needed. [WSJ]

— Following the Mellon Centre’s recent conference on connoisseurship, the Tate Britain’s Martin Myrone and art historian Bendor Grosvenor take opposite sides in the ongoing debate. [TAN, TAN]

— Bloomberg’s In The Loop segment gave an overview of the art theft market. [Bloomberg]

— John Lennon’s sketches and poems sold for $3 million at Sotheby’s New York. [Independent]

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Check our blog IN THE AIR for breaking news throughout the day.

Robert De Niro, the film actor, plays a sizable role in the documentary “Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.,” co-directed by Perri Peltz with Geeta Gandbhir, who also produced and edited it. Both an homage to the painter, who was the actor’s father, and an apologia to him, the film is rich in photographs, home film footage, and interviews. It looks closely both at De Niro Sr.’s painting career and his life and, movingly, at his son’s relation to both. The two themes are braided together exquisitely.

The co-directors and producers have worked together on other successful documentaries, providing a measured and careful analysis of their subjects, for which they have been justly honored with Academy Award nominations and Peabody awards, among other recognition. They resolve, without sentimentality, to stay on the delicate edge between the personal and the political, allowing them to infuse their films with responsible empathy.

Needless to say, the subject of this film became “Senior” belatedly because his son eclipsed the father’s name as an artist. Still, the film does a very good job of locating De Niro Sr.’s oeuvre within a larger art historical context of pre- and post-World War II America. Figures such as Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art, Irving Sandler, the preeminent American art historian of that period, and Megan Fox Kelly, an art adviser, speak eloquently of De Niro Sr.’s education and introduction to both European influences and the later American split from those influences after World War II. They all do this to underscore De Niro Sr.’s particular directions, which were in large part European, and that perspective does much to advance the case for his artistic work without exaggeration or displaced zeal. De Niro Sr. continued to adhere to a more European style, whether affected by Rouault, Matisse, or even Hans Hofmann and thus slowly fell away from the new trail being blazed by the Ab-Ex artists.

All too often we see reclaimed artists, a group in which De Niro Sr. resides only partially, being subjected to embellished claims of status accompanied by a sense of historical victimization. This biography is careful to position De Niro’s work and his aesthetic accomplishments within a set of social parameters and personal proclivities. He continued to exhibit for most of his career and there was always approval, although more muted as historical and institutional forces (such as MoMA, for instance) assumed a more radical trajectory. Or, it may be said that the critical discourse shifted to a particular kind of American art and De Niro Sr. was not a part of it and was wary of it, at best.

De Niro Jr.’s contribution is twofold and does not undermine the more objective tone established by the experts. First, he places his father in a biographical arc that is an accurate accounting of the older man’s deep commitment to his artistic career and his familial entanglements. Within this story, Bobby, as he is often called by family and friends, has the courage to engage his parents’ divorce and his mother’s move away from the profession of artist. This provides a backstory, as it were, as Virginia Admiral had early achievements that were originally greater than her husband’s. We hear, for instance, not only of her gallery show at New York’s Art of This Century, but that the renowned artist and teacher Hofmann considered her and her husband to be his finest students ever.

The other aspect that De Niro Jr. brings to the film is, of course, emotion. In interview format, we see him struggling to deal with his conscience and his sense of responsibility to honor his father posthumously. He does not try to make extraordinary claims for his father’s work, understanding as an artist himself that a career is based not on either good or bad values, but on a complex set of conditions that include luck and timing. The emotions are real, however, and form a tender backdrop to all of the film.

One of the finest parts of the film is the intimate interviews with two of De Niro Sr.’s closest artist friends, Albert Kresch and Paul Resika. Both are generous in their praise of the work and the life of their colleague. One of the most moving moments is offered by Kresch when he talks about Senior’s near obsession with Greta Garbo as the title character in the first scene of the movie “Anna Christie.” Drawing and painting images of her in a state of melancholy that hovered over both her real life and that famous scene, he has represented her continually. Yet when De Niro Sr. encounters Garbo in an elevator on 57th Street — on his way to his own exhibition, which features many images of her — he is rendered mute. His silence matches her legendary silence. That pain, which today would be drowned out in a celebrity culture with endless narcissistic selfies, stays in the memory as an example of a kind of stoicism he was known for, along with his dedication to his art. Despite the fact that he learned French on his own and danced well, he was conflicted by a Catholic guilt and an almost overwhelming sense of lacking love, remaining a loner, dedicated to an art that, for a while, was less fashionable and less ambitious than that of some of his peers.

In the end, Robert De Niro Sr. comes off as a committed artist of talent and unique foresight who may have been lesser-known than others of his time, but whose clear personal vision and strong aesthetic progress is captivating. This is a powerfully modest, but important, inspiration that carries throughout this truthful film.

“Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.” airs on HBO on June 9.

A version of this article appears in the July/August 2014 issue of Modern Painters magazine. 

Of all the lessons Dad taught you, investing wisely was probably the best one. This year, show him you were listening, with BLOUIN Lifestyle’s Father’s Day gift guide.

For the aesthete: A print of Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood, ca. 1953
Christie's Photographs Department is presenting a group of works depicting Hollywood icons from the 'Golden Age' of cinema through to the present day, for discerning collectors and photography enthusiasts alike. This shot is by Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) — it’s a splurge, but it’s worth it.
Bids start at £ 10,000 at Christies.com

For the James Bond wannabe: Vintage Howard & Co. sterling silver martini shaker
Made by Howard & Co. in New York circa 1920, but in excellent condition with nice patina, this shaker comes with a clever built-in strainer for a functional design evocative of modern sculpture.
$1,650, 1stdibs.com

For the active soul who loves all things hand-made: WILL Leather bicycle
The second of seven being created by William Adler, this artsy steed is a restored Elgin bicycle from 1935 that has been adorned in domestic vegetable leather and Oaxacan wool rug detailing. Inspired by a lively and colorful Mexican culture, unique detailing includes a custom wool knitting kit that is affixed to the leather-wrapped handle-bars, and pedals crafted from stacked natural vegetable tan leather.
$10,000 at Will Leather Goods

For the stylish-but-too-busy-to-sweat-the-small-stuff go-getter:Chopard Grand Prix de Monaco Power Control watch in 18k rose gold, titanium and stainless steel
Introduced at this year’s Grand Prix, the sporty timekeeper features a power-reserve display on the dial, inspired by a race car’s fuel gauge, that niftily indicates how much longer the watch can function without winding.
$10,250, Chopard.com

For the elder statesman: "Mid-life crisis" pocket scarf
Cut him a break and celebrate his latent neuroses with one of these limited-edition, animated handkerchiefs in beautiful English silk by Turnbull & Asser.
$105, Turnbull & Asser

For the one who always — or never — played ball with you: Bronze Ball sculpture by Marcus Harvey
Worked in clay and subjected to multiple firings and glazes, the result is a tough but humorous sculpture, unapologetic and brash, political yet ambiguous, considered and painterly.
£8,000, edition of 8, Other Criteria

To score some extra points, be sure to pop some bubbly too. The Louis Roederer Brut Vintage 2007, encapsulating qualities like “measured power of Pinot Noir” and “mature tastes” and recently repackaged and labeled, should perfectly fit the bill.

To view all these items, click on the slideshow.

LONDON — Tate’s final venture in the Project Space before it closes for the expansion of Tate Modern, “A Chronicle of Interventions” (through July 13), is a finish with a bang, rather than a whimper.

The exhibition begins back with works from the 1980s, when Central America was the focus of political and economic debate in the West, and the New York-based collective Group Material created its seminal 1984 installation Timeline: A Chronicle of US Intervention in Central and Latin America. This was less of a reflection than a strong reaction to military activity in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador at the time. The project contained more than 50 contributions from New York artists, including Claes Oldenburg and Leon Golub, and was shown at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens (now MoMA PS1).

With this context in mind, and after extensive conversations with Group Material members Julie Ault and Douglas Ashford, organizers at Tate revised the original show’s concept with new works from some of the best-known contemporary Latin American artists—Regina José Galindo, Humberto Vélez, Óscar Figueroa, and Andreas Siekmann among them—who consider the complex history of military, economic, and political conflict.

One of the first works on view is Vélez’s film The Last Builder, 2008, which addresses the U.S. colonization of Panama in the 19th century and the building of the Panama Canal. Connected with the channel’s construction, which was completed after a 33-year building period in 1914, is the myth of the last black—and therefore, slave—builder of the structure. There is a muscular figure stretching on the bank of the canal in Vélez’s work. His objectified but proud body becomes a symbol of brute strength, similar to that of his colonizer.

The history of Latin American colonization is not often approached in British exhibitions, the show’s curator, Shoair Mavlian, says. By broaching this subject, Tate could have presented a didactic survey that risked alienating viewers—but the captivating pieces are widely accessible. 

Mavlian added: “Many of the works here are complex and layered—I feel we do ask a lot of the viewer.” But even if it were necessary to make several visits to this show, they would each be a pleasure. 

A version of this article will appear in the September 2014 issue of Modern Painters magazine. 

NEW YORK — After a $100 million dollar year-long renovation, Loews Regency Hotel in New York re-opened it doors this spring to a more vibrant, contemporary look.

Gone are the traditional dark oak and burgundy shades of the interior of the landmark Midtown East hotel, which opened its doors in 1963; Instead, a more modern palette of pastel greys and velvet eggplant designed by Rottet Studio, Meyer Davis Studio Inc, and Jonathan Nehmer + Associates fill the 379-room hotel, in line with the new vision of hotelier Jonathan Tisch.

“Art is, of course, a huge part of Jonathan Tisch’s life,” said Jim McPartlin, the managing director of the hotel. “He wanted to bring in elements of that into the property along with good design.”

The focal point of the grand 24-foot high ceiling in the Rottet Studio-designed hotel lobby is Brooklyn-based artist Nina Helms art installation, “Brise de Printemps” or Spring Breeze. The handcrafted mural, comprising of 438 dogwood flowers in alabaster plaster and nickel, is scattered across the wall of the hotel’s lobby lounge as if in various stages of bloom.

In addition to the six Meyer Davis Studio signature suites, ranging from 700 to 1550 square feet, The Regency Bar and Grill reclaims its New York ‘Power Breakfast’ with executive chef Dan Silverman, formerly of The Standard Grill, and his modern twist on classic Italian fare.

“We really had a challenge at how to make people who have been coming for years feel comfortable as well as attract some new blood and I think it’s happened,” said McPartlin. “We actually have a nice melange of people now and it seems to work.”

— Hauser Wirth & Schimmel Names Venue: A former flour mill in downtown LA has been announced as the location of multidisciplinary arts center Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, a collaboration between the ever-expanding gallery and former LA MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel. A two-month show will debut at the building in January, after which the institution will close for renovations until 2016. “More of our artists live in LA than in any other city. They’re a diverse, multigenerational group whose work informs our international program and shapes contemporary dialogue,” said gallery president and owner Iwan Wirth. “It seems particularly fitting to launch our third decade by creating Hauser Wirth & Schimmel and pioneering a new gallery model in the city known around the world as a place for imagination, reinvention and new forms of cultural expression.” [LAT]

— Melissa Chiu Named Hirschhorn Director: The Asia Society’s director, Melissa Chiu, has been named the next leader of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The museum’s previous director, Richard Koshalek, along with several trustees, departed a year ago after the institution was unable to raise enough money to complete its proposed Seasonal Inflatable Structure to cover the inner courtyard. Chiu will oversee the museum’s 12,000 artworks, 60,000-square-feet of exhibition space, and $8 million budget. [NYT]

— Larry Clark’s Early Work Goes On View: Photographer Larry Clark’s controversial early works from his “Tulsa” and “Teenage Lust” series will go on view next week at Foam in Amsterdam, along with a previously lost film — considered a precursor to “Kids” and “Ken Park” — shot in 16mm in 1968 and rediscovered in 2010. With both series, Clark immerses himself in what he describes as “the outlaw life,” documenting the sex and drug habits of teenagers in his hometown of Tulsa and paving the way for artists like Nan Goldin, Corinne Day, and Antoine D’Agata. Clark told the Guardian that the photographs were “a record of his secret teenage life,” and explained, “I remember thinking, ‘I have either got to burn all the negatives and shoot myself, or go down to LA and try and get it published.’” [Guardian]

— Big Changes at Museo del Barrio: El Museo del Barrio’s new director, Jorge Daniel Veneciano, has a plan to help the stumbling museum get back on track. [NYT]

— Meet Lily Fierman: Here’s an interview with Mike Weiss’s new director, 25-year-old Lily Fierman. [Interview]

— Freed Slave Portrait Debuts: Artist William Hoare of Bath’s portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, a freed slave from Senegal, is set to go on view at the Yorktown Victory Center in Virginia this summer. [NYT]

— Premier League soccer players in the UK are spending their continually rising salaries on art, buying Picasso paintings and sculptures, along with expensive real estate. [Businessweek]

— Word came from the Court of Cassation in Rome on Thursday that a ruling on the “Getty Bronze” would face a long delay. [LAT]

— Cornell DeWitt stepped down from his recent position as VP of development and marketing at Mana Contemporary, after only five weeks on the job. [artnet News]

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Check our blog IN THE AIR for breaking news throughout the day.

VENICE — The ambitious goal of Rem Koolhaas’s 2014 Venice Architectural Biennale was to unite the national pavilions of the Giardini under a singular theme, hoping to avoid the cacophonous array of spectacles put on in Biennales past. He chose “Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014,” a look at 100 years of evolving national architectural identities as they absorbed the effects of globalization.

Over the past hundred years, the Korean peninsula has had much to absorb. Its own path to modernity was shaped in part by its unique geographical situation — a peninsula caught between two powers, China and Japan — which ultimately resulted in its division at the end of World War II. Since then, the Korean peninsula has been split in two nations that have radically diverged politically, culturally, and economically. Before the war, however, Korea was a singular entity united under Japanese colonial occupation. “Crow’s Eye View: The Korean Peninsula,” the exceptionally well executed Korean Pavilion of the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, tells the modernization story of both halves before and after the great division.

The exhibition does not imagine a peninsula united, but rather examines the respective paths of two once-connected nations as they’ve been expressed through architecture. Pavilion commissioner Minsuk Cho of the Seoul-based practice MASS Studies had hoped to provide a holistic account of this history by enlisting curators from both the North and South, to create a landmark exhibition that would be the two states’ first collaborative engagement. The effort proved to be difficult, if not impossible.

“I was practically sending love letters to different people, ambassadors, with no response,” Cho told ARTINFO. “By mid-December, we had to decide to give up plan A.”

Lacking direct contact or participation from the North, Cho’s efforts evolved into a massive research project through a global network of collaborators, 39 in total, 19 of which are based in South Korea, the rest dispersed throughout the world. The resulting “hodgepodge of narrative fragments,” as Cho describes them — photographs, artwork, videos, and more — illustrate the disparate (although sometimes parallel) trajectories of Pyongyang and Seoul on both a physical and ideological level. A gallery adjacent to the main exhibition space, for example, features “Utopian Tours,” artwork collected by Nick Bonner, co-founder of a production company of North Korean media based in Beijing. His “Comrades of Construction” collection is a series of Norman Rockwell-esque construction site scenes dating back to the ’80s, subtly imbued with socialist, nationalist, and even Confucian elements. A lone youngster character reappears in a few, shining slightly brighter than his surrounding elders as a symbol of the prosperous future he will provide them.

In “Borders,” a section devoted to the Demilitarized Zone, the exhibition looks at the gaps punctuating the physical and psychic barrier between the two Koreas. It’s not an account of clandestine border crossings, but an illustration of overlooked connections. Images by the Italian photographer Alessandro Belgiojoso show DMZ guards standing at attention on both sides of a security checkpoint. Apart from the different stylings of rooftops and army uniforms, the thing worth noting is that in the North Korean picture, a branded Samsung air conditioner is visible in the foreground. As Brooklyn-based architect Yehre Suh’s “Actor Map of Korea,” 2014, charts, acts of transgression across the DMZ are most actively committed by such corporate entities, as well as NGOs and academic and religious groups, from Save the Children DPRK’s sewer line construction to Hyundai’s joint tourism projects with the North Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

Although broad in its scope, the exhibition unfolds without political condemnation. “We wanted to avoid the cliches of the divided state, of the trauma of war,” said Cho. “The whole point is to present an alternative way of looking at these two states through the building of a city,” to look beyond “media sensationalism.” And there are of course unexpected similarities between the two as their route to modernization ambled through various architectural styles. After the Korean War, the North faced the task of reconstructing a leveled capital and building a new utopian socialist future, while the South was later fueled by economic development that eventually led to the metropolitan boom that exists today. Photographs show the back-and-forth the two experienced between accepting international trends, the direct translation of traditional architecture into modern buildings, and the pursuit of an ever-elusive national style that in both places has resulted in high-density, high-rise residential buildings.

The exhibits fill every nook of the light-filled pavilion, including the glass of the skylight overhead. There, organizers printed excerpts from the late one-time architect Yi-Sang’s 1934 poem “Crow’s Eye View,” the title and the concept of the exhibition. Written before the division, the disjointed serial poem contrasts the idea of a bird’s-eye view, through which a universal truth can found by putting oneself at a distance, with reality, where a single cohesiveness often fails to exist. The seriality of the poem led to the graphic identity of pavilion, geometric shapes broken into pointilist formations of brightly, contrastingly colored dots. Those dots also symbolize the pavilion’s self-confessed state as a collection of individual pieces rather than a continuous narrative. It’s a story told in small increments, where the gaps in between become more visible as we look closer.

“The more I learn about North Korea, the more I realize how ignorant I am on the subject,” Cho said. “But this is a small step. I had this fantasy, hoping some day there would be two flags on each side of the pavilion door, or maybe even just one. Now this is just a bit of a rehearsal, a prologue, for that.”

Let’s address the first thing about the new production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” co-directed by Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh: the location. If you’re lucky enough to see the show, which stars Branagh in the title role, you’ll know why I’m bringing this up. The Park Avenue Armory, a massive building taking up an entire block on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is quickly becoming one of the best performance spaces in the city, and its unique qualities greatly enhance this take on “Macbeth.” The play’s force — and if anything can be said about this production, it’s that it’s forceful — would not be as powerful held in any other space, except the battlefields and castle walls in which the drama takes place.

In a recent profile in the New York Times, Branagh, one of the most accomplished Shakespearean actors to ever stomp across the stage, said that his original idea for a new production of “Macbeth” was to place the action in a neon-glow future-world resembling “Blade Runner,” where the characters were fighting for control of a global multimedia company. No matter how odd, Branagh’s initial dystopian sci-fi vision for “Macbeth” makes sense in context. Shakespeare’s tale of powerful and tragic ambition is one of the Bard’s most produced — Ethan Hawke starred in a production at Lincoln Center less than a year ago — and has always been the source of radical interpretation, especially in the cinema. Orion Welles filmed a version in 1948 (just over a decade after he staged his famous “voodoo” production in New York, set in Haiti with an African-American cast), Japanese director Akira Kurosawa made “Throne of Blood” in 1957, influenced by the Noh theater, and Roman Polanski’s 1971 adaptation highlighted the violence of the play.

Instead of setting “Macbeth” in the future, Branagh went in the opposite direction. At first glance, it might seem that the idea was a back-to-basics approach, but that notion disappears quickly upon entering the space. The audience, separated into groups named after the clans that mapped out 11th-century Scotland — I was part of the Cawdor clan — is pushed into the open expanse of the Armory’s main space. Dark and foggy with hooded guards forming a winding path, the audience makes its way toward the stage. Walking on the soft dirt through the mysterious space, it feels like you’ve stepped through the doors and entered another planet.

Then the audience reaches the stage, or, more appropriately, the arena, an open space surrounded by bleachers where attendees sit and gaze down at the actors, who perform on the ground (the set-up resembles a football game or wrestling match). People in the front row are just a few feet from the action, and during some of the most chaotic scenes at a performance earlier this week — especially the opening battle, where men clash swords in the pouring rain — onlookers had to duck to avoid dirt or spit. The experiential approach makes this production of “Macbeth” as daring as any other. At times it feels more like you are in the production, rather than simply watching it.

To match the intensity of the spectacle, the performances needed to be big, but Branagh and the rest of the cast understand that this does not mean erasing subtly. Alex Kingston, in the role of Lady Macbeth, is particularly great at letting a wave of emotions wash over her and conveying it through the twist of her body or the turn of her face. And Branagh, in the title role, matches his physicality — he often slams himself against the walls like a hockey player — with a depth of emotion that is crucial toward making “Macbeth” something more than evil people doing evil things.

Branagh’s new production proves once again that the actor is one of our finest interpreters of Shakespeare — but it goes beyond that. It also opens up the possibilities for theatrical production. This is something completely visionary and new, which is hard to find these days. Large-scale productions are sinking and money is scarce. People don’t want to take risks. They’d rather go with what works, which is understandable. But when the risks pay off, everything else pales in comparison.

Even though Luxembourg and Dayan’s exhibition “The Shaped Canvas, Revisited” (through July 11) commemorates the 50th anniversary of the original at the Guggenheim, curated by the critic Lawrence Alloway, it is not a museum show, and one should not expect it to be all-inclusive. Rather, it’s an unsystematic survey of its subject, with works from differing periods and styles. Nonetheless it includes a few important works by well-known artists such as Lucio Fontana and Ellsworth Kelly. Lesser-known artists like Harvey Quaytman and Charles Hinman, as well as younger artists like Nate Lowman, Jacob Kassay, and Rebecca Ward, are also represented.

Beginning in the mid-century, abstract painters in the U.S. moved away from the subjectivity and painterliness of Abstract Expressionism. Their desire was to make painting factual by rejecting illusionism and delving into the literal. Robert Rauschenberg’s combines and Jasper Johns’s flags and targets first expressed this tendency. But it was the young Frank Stella who moved further away from questions of composition and taste by introducing the shaped canvas. At first he chose to use notched rectangles, then parallelograms, rhomboids, trapezoids, and triangles. This show includes two pinstripe paintings, the V-shaped Sieve, 1964, and the copper L-shaped Creede II, 1961, and are characteristic of the general movement toward the industrial aesthetic shared by Pop art and Minimalism.

Along with the two Stellas, Kenneth Noland and Ellsworth Kelyy represent Minimalism. Paintings by Ron Gorchov and Mary Heilmann, as well as Lynda Benglis’s paint-splattered knot PSI, 1973, and Richard Tuttle’s unstretched, eccentrically-shaped orange canvas are examples of Post-minimalism’s new formats and approach to painterliness. The use of the shaped canvas by Pop artists is represented by Tom Wesselmann’s impressive Smoker #11, 1973, which depicts a red-lipped open mouth expelling smoke, along with Claes Oldenberg’s Key (less a painting and more a soft canvas sculpture) and James Rosenquist’s Head on Another Shape: Study for Big Bo, 1966.

Given the exhibition’s general focus on U.S. Pop and Minimalism, there’s the odd inclusion of several Italian artists: Paolo Scheggi’s Fontana-inflected Intersuperficie Curva Blu, 1965, and Pino Pascali’s canvas Coda di Delfino, 1966, which is really a wall-mounted sculpture. What is surprising is that there is no works by the artists associated with German Zero, or art concrete from Latin and South America. Beyond these weaknesses, the works chosen from the last thirty years are dependent on the strategies and logic of the ’70s. Consequently the show, which is meant to “offer a fresh new lens through which to consider the trajectory of the shaped canvas,” is actually a collection of familiar works that offer little insight or surprises.  

A version of this article will appear in the September 2014 issue of Modern Painters magazine.