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person Dan Schindel

newspaper The Art Newspaper article 2 articles
rate_review review schedule May 21, 2026

A New Richard Avedon Documentary Lets Him Down

A new documentary titled "Avedon" (2026), directed by Ron Howard, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The film offers a conventional tour of the life of famed photographer Richard Avedon, relying on talking-head interviews and behind-the-scenes anecdotes rather than delving into the artistic process or the deeper implications of his work. The review criticizes Howard's approach as hackwork, noting that the documentary misses opportunities to explore Avedon's insights on image culture, his influence on cinema, and the technical evolution of his photography.

rate_review review schedule May 8, 2026

The Making of a Maintenance Artist

A new documentary titled "Maintenance Artist" (2025) traces the decades-long practice of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, a pioneering artist who focused on marginal, unpaid, and feminine labor. The film covers her career from her 1969 "CARE" manifesto, through her role as artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation, to her first retrospective at the Queens Museum in 2017. It highlights her critique of art-world gender biases and her efforts to recognize discounted labor in all fields.

article culture schedule Apr 10, 2026

In The Christophers, an aging artist’s unfinished masterpieces are subjects of speculation and scheming

The Christophers is a new film starring Ian McKellen as Julian Sklar, a once-celebrated 1970s painter who has become a social pariah and reality TV villain. The plot follows a 'reverse art heist' where Sklar’s estranged children hire a restorer and former forger, played by Michaela Coel, to secretly finish a series of nine incomplete portraits of his former lover. The goal is to inflate the works' market value so they can be 'discovered' as masterpieces upon the aging artist's death.

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