FINAL TRACES OF THE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS
New York / Munich, 2014 by Caro Jost
DVD – 45 minutes || PAL / NTSC Color, 16:9 || Stereo, English with German subtitles
This investigative art film deals with the original places at which the Abstract Expressionists lived and worked in New York after WWII. The film shows what is left of their former studios, galleries, bars and meeting places today. It is annotated with cites of the mentioned artists and with historical footage by photographers Fred W. McDarrah, Rudy Burckhardt, John Cohen, John Leongard, et al.: a juxtaposition of the past and the present. The few still living witnesses provide interviews testimony: Alex Katz meets his colleague Philip Pearlstein in the former room of a gallery, where their careers first started, after more than 40 year the widow of Ad Reinhardt re-enters his former studio for the first time again……
Editor: Friedrich Rackwitz
Camera: Hans-Albrecht Lusznat, Brendon Sumner
Camera assistant: D.C. Washington
Speaker: Daryl Jackson, Jean-Luc Julien
Synchronization: Berliner Synchron, Munich
Music: Morton Feldman „Rothko Chapel“, and “Music for Jackson Pollock”, Universal Edition AG
Atmo: Exhibition “Abstract Expressionist New York“, MoMA, New York, 2011
With special thanks to:
Ad Reinhardt Foundation, New York
The Barnett Newman Foundation, New York
Adolph and Ester Gottlieb Foundation
Frederick Kiesler Stiftung, Vienna
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné office, New York
Ameringer/McEnery/Yohe Gallery, New York
L. Parker Stephenson Gallery, New York
John Loengard, New York
John Cohen, New York
Fred W. McDarrah Estate, New York
Paulus Leeser Estate, New York
Dan Budnik, Tuscon
Michael Fredericks, New York
Getty Images, Munich and New York
Museum Archives of MoMA, New York
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institut
Jonathan Cramer
Alex Katz
Irving Sandler
Lynn Umlauf
Karole Vail
Lois Dodd
Philip Pearlstein
Rita Reinhardt
et. al.
Premiere
NewFilmMakerFestival, December 21, 2014, New York
Nominations & Awards
Best Documentary
Sound in a Documentary
Cinematography in a Documentary
Honorable Award
Filmography
Kunstsammlung NRW, K20, Duesseldorf
Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin
NewFilmMakerFestival, New York
American Documentary Film Festival, Palm Springs
Museum fuer Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt
Southampton International Film Festival, Southampton
Columbia Film Festival, Maryland
Sarasota Museum of Art-Salon, Sarasota
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Desert
Walter Storms Galerie, Munich
New York State Film Festival (preselection), New York
New York City Independant Film Festival, New York
Mark Rothko Art Center, Daugavpils
Museum Lothar Fischer, Neumarkt
WALKING WITH DEKOONING
New York / Munich, 2011 by Caro Jost
DVD – 4,42 minutes loop
The short film is based on a report of Edwin Denby about Willem deKooning (1904-1997) in the 1930s: ... walking at night in Chelsea with Bill (deKooning) during the depression, and his pointing out to me on the pavement the dispersed compositions – spots and cracks and bits of wrappers and reflectons of the neon-light – and I remember the scale in the compositions……).”
The film shows exactly the sidewalks, where deKooning walked around nearly every day in the 1940s in NYC: his studio at 22nd Street/7th Avenue and 6th Avenue/8th Street from Walddorf Cafeteria to the Artists Club and the Cedar Street Tavern. Streets were an important inspiration source for Willem deKooning and his work. This is explained in a lof of interviews and personal statements.
Caro Jost follows into the footsteps of Willem deKooning in 2011.
Editor: Peter Böhm
Camera: Hans-Albrecht Lusznat
Soundtrack recorded during the exhibition “Abstract Expressionist New York”, MoMA, April 2011 infront of Willem deKoonings paintings. Street noise recorded at 8th Street, New York, 2011.
The film is tagged with cites by Edwin Denby, Dore Ashton, Philip Pavia – close friends of deKooning.
FINAL TRACES OF MÜNTER AND KANDINSKY – THE MUNICH YEARS
Munich/Moskow/Murnau, 2020 by Caro Jost
DVD – 7,46 minutes, 16:9 || Stereo, English
At the turn of the century (1900) my home town Munich was considered one of the leading art cities in Central Europe, which magically attracted artists from all over the world. Münter and Kandinsky lived and worked in the Munich district of Schwabing, not far from my own Studio…….”In order not to forget these places and to capture the spirit of the time, I record the final traces, where these artists worked and lived and all of that flows into my art …in my work in my Streetprints.”
With special thanks to Gabriele Münter + Johannes Eichner-Stiftung.