Around this time tomorrow, the 200th episode of Exclusive will be released online. Be among the first to watch it by following Art21 on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr.
In this third and final Exclusive playlist, Art21 friends and colleagues look back at videos featuring Lynda Benglis, Ai Weiwei, and Margaret Kilgallen, among other artists.
(In case you missed the Exclusive playlists published earlier this week, check out part one and part two here in the Art21 Magazine.)
Judith Tannenbaum, Adjunct Curator at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum
“This film footage is luminous. Rackstraw Downes seems to take great pleasure in painting the landscape subjects he chooses. He talks about contemporary life as well as art history with humor and profundity.”
“Mary Heilmann is another senior painter whose love for her life’s work—and for the studio and garden she has created—is contagious. Walking through the Long Island field with her reveals an exuberant spirit and an inspiration that makes her recent abstract compositions seem inevitable.”
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Museum Nerd
“As a longtime fan, it’s my pleasure to join a bunch of amazing folks shouting out their favorite Art21 artist profiles. I can’t believe it’s been six years and 199 episodes of their Exclusive series.
I chose this Exclusive largely because it was my first introduction to this great artist, Margaret Kilgallen. It was filmed in 2000 and Kilgallen sadly passed away the next year. I love the shots of her and her partner in crime, Barry McGee, in the train yards! Watching Kilgallen’s confident hand with the paint stick, creating these fully realized portraits is amazing.
I was psyched that Art21 recognized a graffiti artist. It’s also an example of their continued recognition of female artists. When Kilgallen says she’d ‘like to change the emphasis of what’s important when looking at a woman,’ it’s absolutely inspiring. I love Kilgallen’s voice…and her interest in women who did ‘small things’ that are powerful.”
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Marina Cashdan, Editorial Director at Artsy
“I had the privilege of interviewing Lynda Benglis for Frieze magazine a few years ago and during our conversations, she spoke at length about India and the profound affect the country has had on her life and work. I had always envisioned what her studio and home in India looked like, and her relationship with Anand, so it’s wonderful to get such an intimate picture of it as it really exists. I also enjoyed seeing her Manu series in the making, which continues the arc of her very material- and process-based practice.”
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JiaJia Fei, Digital Marketing Manager at the Guggenheim Museum
“I still remember the day @aiww re-tweeted me on Twitter, while I was live-tweeting the New York premiere of his documentary film, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, at the Guggenheim (#someta). Working at the intersection of art, the Internet, and social change, and particularly in China, Ai Weiwei has always been an artist I’ve connected with and not just on Twitter. In this Exclusive video of Weiwei’s Beijing studio just 84 days after his release from detention in 2011, you see how social media and the Internet are completely entwined with his artistic practice. He advocates for artists to be more aware of changes in this ‘new human condition’ of online expression. This video also features cats.”
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Felicity Hogan, Program Officer at New York Foundation for the Arts
“It is always inspiring to hear how artists seamlessly link multiple connections across media, especially when they break new grounds in the process. Beryl Korot’s narrative makes it sound so easy.”
“Mary Heilmann’s narrative discussing delightfully diverse inspirations connects me to a pivotal moment of excitement—when I discovered that Stuart Davis painted while watching television. A true television addict, the idea that it could inform my creative endeavors as opposed to being a guilty pleasure was revolutionary! Heilmann’s obvious delight in color is contagious and compelling.”