A little over a year ago I purchased a 27-inch digital picture frame by Meural. I love the versatility of this frame. I take a lot of pictures. The Meural allows me to create playlists of my images. But that’s not all I use it for. I also use to display images from other sources, such as the Hubble space telescope and from other photographers. Additionally, I use it to display artwork. It’s like having an art museum in my home. Here’s a sample of some of the artists and artwork I have viewed over the past year: Van Gogh, Picasso, Leonardo Da Vinci, Monet, Rembrandt, Jackson Pollock, and many more. Additionally, every week Mueral, through a yearly subscription, sends me artwork and playlists from various artists around the world as well as museum curated picks. There’s more you can do with this frame, but that’s not what this post is about. I want to talk about abstract art.
The best way to describe abstract art is that it’s all in the eye of the beholder. It’s subjective. I’m no art expert. I couldn’t paint a telephone pole standing in an open field. But I’m pretty sure that I could create a painting that looks a lot like a Jackson Pollock. Give me a large canvas and a couple buckets of paint, and I could create a masterpiece.
This brings me to the real reason for this post, my recommendation for three excellent documentaries that deal with the subject of abstract art.
First up is the Netflix documentary Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art. This excellent documentary tells the story of how an art studio, its owner, and one particular art dealer, managed to sell nearly 80 million dollars of fake art to unsuspecting art enthusiasts. It turns into a massive white-collar crime where no one is really held accountable. Watching it unravel is worth your time.
The next documentary to add to your list is Who The &%$# is Jackson Pollock. You can find this one on Amazon Prime. This is a story about a painting bought for a few dollars that just might be a real Jackson Pollock painting worth millions.
The last of this three-film abstract art trilogy is the documentary My Kid Could Paint That. You can find this one on Amazon Prime also. This film tells the story of how a four-year-old girl, with a little assistance from her father, created paintings that would eventually sell for thousands of dollars. Is she an art prodigy? Or is she just a young child slapping paint on a canvas? Is she creating the work on her own, or is her father the real artist? This film was released in 2007. The little girl in the film, Marla Olmstead, is all grown up. She’s still painting. You can view her paintings at www.marlaolmstead.com.
Take the time to watch these three documentaries. Maybe you’ll have a whole new appreciation of abstract art.