From Picasso and Sima, Antibes 1946 (courtesy OVID)
OVID, one of the premier streaming sites for independent and arthouse film, has added a terrific slate of new titles for April, including a number of movies of interest to art lovers everywhere. Documentaries about David Hockney, Pablo Picasso and Michael Sima, and Hieronymus Bosch join ones about Pina Bausch, Roy DeCarava, H.R. Giger, and more.
Further, programmers from Harlem’s Maysles Documentary Center have teamed up with the site to curate a special selection of films, which includes works by Chris Marker, Chantal Akerman, Jean Rouch, Cheryl Dunye, Kazuhiro Soda, and John Akmofrah, among others.
The platform has also made a new content partner: dGenerate Films, a distribution company which specializes in independent Chinese cinema. Their programming includes many titles which not only can’t be streamed anywhere else, but some which never even received a proper theatrical release in the states. Films from dGenerate now available on OVID include several works from director Wang Bing and the delightful mother/daughter comedy Girls Always Happy. Producer Karin Chien will be hosting a Facebook Live event on Chinese independent film on OVID’s page on Thursday, April 9, at 1:00 pm EST. You can check out all these and much more on the site, and any of them would make for great viewing while you’re still safely staying at home.
The Latest
They Managed to Mess Up an Art Heist Movie
There must be a lesson in Vasilis Katsoupis’s film Inside about the vacuousness of the art market or the claustrophobia of exhibition spaces — I just don’t care.
Ten Painful Stories of the Dutch Colonial Slave Trade
The Rijksmuseum’s traveling show strives to remind us that we are all, in some way, a part of this chapter of human history, whose legacy continues today.
The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation Presents The Feminine in Abstract Painting
Curated by Jennifer Samet and Andrea Belag, this group exhibition in NYC explores the feminine through aesthetics, as opposed to identity or gender.
Textured Histories at Shiprock Santa Fe
The Santa Fe gallery features Indigenous textiles and jewelry from the early 19th century to today.
Renaissance Portrait of “Ugly Duchess” Likely Depicts a Man
A curator at London’s National Gallery believes the subject of painter Quinten Massys’s painting “is most likely a he.”
NYU Steinhardt Opens 2023 MFA Thesis Exhibitions
Taking place at 80WSE Gallery in New York’s Greenwich Village, Part I is on view from late March through April while Part II opens in May.
Hokusai’s “Great Wave” Makes a Splash at Auction
An edition of the iconic woodblock print broke records when it sold for $2.8M this week.
MTV’s The Exhibit Is Back With an Inflatable Dolphin
Episode four, in which artists tackled themes of justice and injustice, was the most lifeless of the reality TV show so far.
Miniature Worlds: Joseph Cornell, Ray Johnson, Yayoi Kusama
Through small-scale works, this exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in New York examines Cornell’s prominent role in the lives and careers of Johnson and Kusama.
Florida Principal Ousted Over “Pornographic” Michelangelo Sculpture
Parents complained that the famous sculpture was shown to their sixth graders.
Tickets to Sold-Out Vermeer Show Are Going for Hundreds
The online resale market for the Rijksmuseum’s smash exhibition is booming, with tickets selling on eBay for over $2K.
The Wider World and Scrimshaw
On March 28, join the New Bedford Whaling Museum online and in-person for a symposium on global carving traditions from across the Pacific Rim.
Three Looted Antiquities at the Met Repatriated to Turkey
Nine other repatriated works were seized from Met Trustee Shelby White, whose collection was subject to a criminal investigation.
Required Reading
This week, the world’s lightest paint, Pakistan’s feminist movement, World Puppy Day, and were some of Vermeer’s paintings created by his daughter?