I was in Chicago last week and saw the exhibit at the Art Institute that traced the role the art dealer Vollard played in bringing together the French artists of the early 20th century. Then I caught this movie on Comcast VOD for free. It's running right now if you have digital cable on the Palm Pictures free movies.
It felt like the post-war american version of Vollard. Again, artists of all sorts painted many portraits of Henry Geldzahler and he served as a cross-pollenator among the New York artsist from the 40-70s. A very informative work, but like the Vollard exhibit, I cared alot less about Geldzahler than I did about seeing more Franz Kline.
In retrospect though, both things taught me something about the importance of catalysts in artistic movements. Someone has to take all these generally reclusive people and expose them to each other. Then someone needs to share the results with the world.
Who is the Geldzahler of Grand Rapids, MI?