In December, we have many things to look forward to: holidays, time with loved ones and time off from school and work. Thanks to a new partnership between the Hanson Film Institute and the University of Arizona Museum of Art, students may now also look forward to “Exhibition on Screen,” a documentary series that will give its audience exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the preparation and staging of some of the world’s acclaimed art exhibitions from recent past.
Kerryn Negus, the assistant director of the Hanson Film Institute, credits Vicky Westover, the director of the Hanson Film Institute, for bringing the film series to Tucson.
“[Westover] identified this film series as something that would be of great interest to Tucson audiences; it’s never been here before,” Negus said. “She thought it would be a great opportunity for the Hanson Film Institute to partner for the first time with the University of Arizona Museum of Art because it’s such a perfect combination of film and art.”
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On Dec. 9, “Goya: Visions of Flesh and Blood” kicks off the “Exhibition on Screen” series. It is to be introduced by Dr. Malcolm Compitello, head of the UA Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
This film will show the 2015–2016 exhibition “Goya: The Portraits” at London’s National Gallery. In addition, the film presents the life of Francisco Goya onscreen and shows the processes of conservation and curation required for staging this exhibition.
Negus said the Goya documentary allows audiences in Tucson to go behind the scenes and find out how the exhibit came together, in addition to receiving a front-row screen to the actual exhibit.
“If you didn’t get to go to London in 2015–16, no problem; you can be in Tucson on Saturday and you can get to experience the film,” Negus said. “And the other side of it is that they do a reenactment of Goya’s life. So interspersed with the making of this world-famous exhibit is the history behind it and the story of Goya. So that brings the historical side of it.”
Jan. 13 marks the date for the second film of this series, “The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism.” This film follows the exhibition “The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920” as it travels from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to Old Lyme in Connecticut, the location of Florence Griswold’s colony. The film offers spectacles of American Impressionism and the historical time period when they were created.
Last but not least, “Exhibition on Screen” will conclude on Feb. 10 with “Rembrandt: From the National Gallery London and Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.”
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This film features the life and work of Rembrandt, with behind-the-scenes looks of the exhibition “Rembrandt: The Late Works.” The exhibition was filled with 91 paintings produced in Rembrandt’s final years.
Negus said she hopes for the Hanson Film Institute to partner with the UA Museum of Art in the future. Members of the museum of the Hanson Film Institute Producers Club can attend a pre-screening art viewing at the museum, curated by UAMA curator Olivia Miller.
Each of the three documentaries in the series will be screened once each month at the Center for Creative Photography on campus, located at 1030 N. Olive Road, and the screenings are free and open to the public.
All screenings are general seating and doors open at 1:30 p.m., with the film following at 2 p.m.
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