Local Color – The Movie
Nikolai Seroff [Armin Mueller-Stahl] and Johnny [Trevor Morgan] in Local Color
A new movie, Local Color, by artist and director George Gallo will be hitting theaters nationwide on November 7th. Modeled on real events in the director’s life as he struggled to learn to paint, it follows an 18-year old in the 1970’s who desperately wants to learn representational painting, albeit during a period when an unsympathetic art world considered it passé. After learning that an old Russian artist lives locally, he eventually convinces the old man to mentor him, and the younger artist sets forth to tackle the trials of outdoor painting. The humor, frustration and pursuit of passion put this film on a level of humanity that anyone can relate to. Click on the image above to go to the official site of Local Color to watch trailers, read reviews and more.
The California Art Club will be hosting special previews of the movie on October 12th at the Rialto Theater in South Pasadena, as well as on October 26th at the Women’s City Club of Pasadena. Visit their website for more information. Director George Gallo is an Out-of-State Artist Member of the California Art Club.
This is a great time in which we are living – there are many art forms which are embraced, and which inform each other – and there is relatively little struggle between the forms for superiority, as was the case in the past. The elusive criteria sought by the viewer to understand and judge a piece for themselves, though – this should be the level of an artist’s integrity, or lack of, visible in every artwork if looked for in the right place.
This movie can be viewed in many different lights – but is also important historically. It documents a time not too long ago when representational painting literally fought to stay alive by the efforts of a small handful of artists, represented by Nikolai Seroff. I don’t believe the movie is saying “We need to reinstate the status quo of representational painting as it was before,” but rather “This is our history, we still have a seat at the table, and representational painting still has much more to say.”
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Thanks for the interesting link to the movie which I look forward to.
Hey Eric,
I like some of the ideas you start talking about here. I’m going to be on a panel discussion next week talking about tradiotion and innovation as a painter in Maine, and I think some of this is very applicable. Such as, “there are many art forms which are embraced, and which inform each other” and, “This is our history, we still have a seat at the table.” I like these two quotes alot. First of all I really like not having animosty between different ways to make art, but seeing other ways of working as something you might be able to borrow from. And at this point I think everyone has a seat at the table… everyone is contributing. And I think the biggest value of tradition/history is what we can use to improve ourselves. It seems like today, we have the opportunity to try anything we want in our art, without having to be pingeonholed as part of a movement, or part of the establishment. Maybe not so true 50 years ago?
Plus I really agree with trying to judge art by looking for the artist’s integrity in a painting. Painting well and making a good painting are 2 very different things.
Thanks for some thought provoking ideas.
Hi Colin,
Thanks. Yes, in many ways I think we’ve moved beyond the 20th c., in which individual art forms literally fought for supremacy. The history of art in Los Angeles is very much a record of those struggles.
Delacroix once said (in his Journal) that “What moves those of genius, what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” Too, the common idea that the Impressionists and their work were sort of an end in and of themselves is erroneous; I think rather that Monet and the others developed ideas about beautiful color relationships that were just the tip of the iceberg.
Some of the interpretations of the movie that I’ve heard recently still follow those old battle lines. I see it differently. Good luck with your panel discussion!
This is the first that I have heard that this movie is getting distribution. That makes me happy.
Cheers,
Hi Paroshep, thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone goes out to the movies this Friday to support the film – it will probably be a litmus test, and having seen it myself I know it will resonate with audiences.