SHOWING:
1:30 pm, Sat. 9/23 @ Bham Museum of Art
Directed byArthur Crenshaw
THE SANDMAN’S GARDEN examines the life and art of Lonnie Holley, a self-taught African-American artist based in Birmingham, Alabama. The film follows Holley as he builds a sculptural environment out of discarded materials and found objects in the Birmingham Museum of Art’s sculpture garden. His art is by turns profound, playful, and deeply moving. As the garden grows piece by piece, Holley is revealed as a man who has overcome a tortured past. Growing up poor and black in the 20th century American South, Holley worked to overcome prejudice and deprivation by using art to explore his life and ideas. The camera captures the artist’s process and reflections as he gathers materials, creates pieces, interacts with others, and relives the joys and sorrows that forged his unique and genuine artwork.
Screens with THORNTON DIAL, directed by Celia Carey (20 min / USA).
This short film examines the extraordinary life and work of 79-year-old black contemporary artist Thornton Dial. It also explores the uniquely important improvisational style and viewpoint of Southern African-American visual artists in American history. This visual arts appendage of jazz and the blues was born of the same experiences of Southern African-Americans, and much like their original musical styles, has been appropriated by many now-famous white artists.
Thornton Dial was born in the Black Belt of Alabama. He neither reads nor writes, yet art critics call him genius. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times hailed him as one of the most “preternaturally gifted” living artists in America. So then why is his name not well-known?
The current movement toward recognizing and elevating great “self-taught” talents, such as Dial, is causing the artistic intelligentsia to reexamine its own prejudices: What is art and where it is born—through talents honed in elite art school classes or through life experiences? It asks us all about genius,” curator Dr. Alvia Wardlaw says, “and where does it reside.”
