New Film Released by 217 Films: “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show”
Ashford, CT (PRWEB) October 15, 2013 -- In 1913, The International Exhibition of Modern Art, known as the 1913 Armory Show, changed the face of art in America. From February 17 until March 15, 1913, thousands of Americans pushed their way through the doors of the 69th Regiment Armory on the east side of New York City while a battle was waging “for or against” Modern Art for the first time. What they saw would annoy and infuriate some...and captivate, delight, and inspire many.
To mark the 100th anniversary of this exhibit, independent filmmakers Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton of 217 Films have released “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show.” This film is currently touring the northeast and will be available on DVD in December. Excerpts can be viewed at this link: http://vimeo.com/71219208.
“The more I dug deeply into the history of the Armory Show,” said director Michael Maglaras, who also wrote the film and narrates it, “the more it became clear to me that, with the Armory Show, we had truly entered the American century: the century of our greatest achievements as a nation and the beginning of our preeminence on the world stage.”
“The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show” features more than 60 works by American and European painters and sculptors and probes deeply into the history of how the show was organized. It provides fascinating glimpses into the backstage efforts of the American artists Arthur B. Davies, Walter Pach, and Walt Kuhn as they worked tirelessly to bring a new art to a new American audience.
What resulted from these four weeks of mass exposure to European artists such as Cezanne, Renoir, Van Gogh, and the upstart Marcel Duchamp (with his “Nude Descending a Staircase”), as well as such Americans as Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Charles Sheeler, changed how Americans came to understand their own times. By entering through the doors of an armory, they had entered through the doors of the Modern Era.
The screening schedule can be viewed at this link http://two17filmsschedule.blogspot.com. New dates are being added frequently and this film tour will continue through 2014.
The September world premiere of this film sold out at the New Britain Museum of American Art. An encore screening will be held there again this spring.
The next screening will take place October 20 at the Opalka Gallery in Albany, New York. Following that, the film will travel to the Delaware Museum of Art, the Vizcaya Museum, the Hood Museum, and the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery. A special fundraiser will be held in Portland, Maine in December.
More about 217 Films: 217 Films is an independent film company in Ashford, Connecticut devoted to the American artistic experience. “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show” is 217 Films’ fifth film since 2005 about the art born of the profound energy and vigor of the American twentieth century.
In 2005, Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton released their first film “Cleophas and His Own” about American painter Marsden Hartley's epic narrative of love and loss. Maglaras both directed and played the role of Hartley in this film. In 2008, they released a second film about Hartley called “Visible Silence: Marsden Hartley, Painter and Poet” – the first-ever documentary on the life of Hartley. In 2010, with their film “John Marin: Let the Paint be Paint!” they established, through the first full-length documentary on this important painter, that John Marin was one of the fathers of American Modernism. All three films, among other distinctions, have been shown to acclaim at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Their fourth film, “O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward” was released in 2012 and will screen this winter in New York City.
The Sacramento Bee called Michael Maglaras a filmmaker of “Bergman-like gravitas.” His films have been described as “virtuoso filmmaking” (National Gallery of Art) “alive and fresh” (Art New England) and “elegiac and insightful” (Naples Daily News). David Berona, author of “Wordless Books” has said of “O Brother Man” “This film is stunning.” Judith Regan of Sirius XM Radio called it “Magnificent.”
On the Web:
217 Films: http://www.two17films.com
Excerpts from the film: http://vimeo.com/71219208
Tami Kennedy, http://www.two17films.com, +1 (207) 838-0816, [email protected]
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