Art Films for 2019
Art Films are free to all Villagers and their guests. The films and the A/V charges are paid by The Villages Arts and Crafts Association to give back to the community and to continue making Art a vital force in The Villages.
All films are shown at Vineyard Center on second Tuesdays at 7 pm. Pamela Oliver Lyons is the Volunteer Art Films Coordinator for Arts & Crafts.
May 14: Bernard Leach, Father of English Studio Pottery
June 11: Robert Motherwell: Leader of the Abstract Expressionists and the New York School
September 10: Marc Chagall
October 8: Mark Rothko
November 12: Grandma Moses
May Art Film: Leach Pottery, 1952
On May 14th, Tuesday at 7:00 P.M. in the Vineyard Center, the Villages Arts and Crafts Association will present Marty Gross Film Production's The Leach Pottery, 1952. This film offers two versions of a rare 30 minute segment narrated by Master Potter Bernard Leach in a newly discovered recording and followed by a second voice over narration by his apprentice Warren MacKenzie. These two perspectives inform viewers and students as well, of the behind the scenes processes this world famous workshop and studio employed.
Although the footage was shot by amateurs (apprentices) on an old 18mm B&W camera, the historical content more than overcomes the awkwardness. In this St. Ives Cornish business, local craft and museum quality masterpieces provide for both solvency, as well as, pioneering an international craft art movement.
When Founder Bernard Leach went to Japan in 1909, he intended to teach Western etchings; but instead, he studied Japanese and Chinese ceramics. He returned to England with a new friend Shoji Hamada, who later became a Japanese National Treasure. Their cultural exchanging of ideas changed history.
Join us at the beginning of this movement. This film is a must see for those who love getting their hands on clay.
“Bernard was concerned with the aesthetics of clay...the feel of clay under his hands as he worked it and the visual aesthetics of the finished pot.” Professor Warren MacKenzie, University of Minnesota (Apprentice at Leach Pottery 1979)