Andrew Shea’s blistering new documentary, Portrait of Wally, untangles the complicated historical, legal and moral threads surrounding Egon Schiele’s painting “Portrait of Wally” (1912), which pitted the art world against heirs of the painting’s pre-World War II owners and the US government.
Marisa Carroll
Marisa Carroll is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. Her reviews of film and television have appeared on Popmatters.com and in Magill's Cinema Annual. She has a master's degree in film studies from the University of Iowa.
Comfort in Limbo
If you find yourself at the Museum of Arts and Design this spring, be sure to check out its survey of unsettling quasi-documentary videos by Julika Rudelius, titled What Is on the Outside. The pieces, which were created by Rudelius between 2001 and 2010, range in length from three to 29 minutes, and the complete program will be playing on a continuous loop until July 5.
The Man Behind the Squeegee
Corinna Belz’s new documentary, Gerhard Richter Painting (playing at Manhattan’s Film Forum from now until March 27), offers a rare glimpse into the life and work of the celebrated and self-proclaimed “secretive” German artist. For a little more than 90 minutes, we watch Richter labor over two new paintings, as well as devise upcoming gallery shows and attend large-scale exhibitions of his own work. Although the reasoning behind Richter’s artistic choices may remain largely mysterious, a sympathetic rendering of the artist emerges.