Ballad of Philip Guston
Jem COHEN
- USA
- 2022
- 28min
- 12 +
- DCP
- color/black and white
Korean Premiere
Synopsis
An unorthodox essay film on the renowned but controversial painter, Philip Guston. Ballad interweaves Guston’s biography, influences, and philosophical approach to art with Cohen’s deeply personal grappling with the man and his work. Balancing elements as disparate as Krazy Kat cartoons, the 19th Century Russian author Babel, and Guston’s lifelong grappling with racism and injustice, the film is an unusual critical immersion and a free-wheeling celebration of painting’s radical potential.
Review
Ballad of Philip Guston is a project planned with Philip Guston Now held at the Washington National Gallery in 2022. The scene composition is inspired by the term, ballad, to comment on the artworks by Guston, who is one of the most influential contemporary artists. This essay film by Jem Cohen talks about the works and legacies of Guston from the first-person view, and it features a subjective interpretation of Guston, who asked about the relationship between beauty and brutality, freedom and doubt, and politics and imagination, including cartoon and mural, abstract expressionism, transition to figurative painting format, political and social participation, and personal confession in his works.
Director
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Jem COHEN
New York based filmmaker Jem Cohen has made over 70 films. His works are in the collections of MoMA and Whitney Museum, and D.C.’s National Gallery of Art. We Have an Anchor, a multi-media show with live music, was a main stage production at Brooklyn Acadamy of Music’s Next Wave and London’s Barbican. Cohen has worked extensively with musicians including Patti Smith, Fugazi, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, R.E.M., Terry Riley, Xylouris White, DJ Rupture, and Vic Chesnutt.