{"id":44893,"date":"2024-08-23T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=44893"},"modified":"2024-08-20T20:08:22","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T00:08:22","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-challenge-a-tribute-to-modern-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/23\/the-bootleg-files-the-challenge-a-tribute-to-modern-art\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files – The Challenge: A Tribute to Modern Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 876:<\/strong> \u201cThe Challenge: A Tribute to Modern Art\u201d (1974 Oscar-nominated documentary narrated by Orson Welles).
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\nLAST SEEN: <\/strong>On YouTube. <\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> There might be a right issue that is unresolved. <\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: <\/strong>A re-release on DVD and Blu-ray is not likely at this time.<\/p>\n

Question: How can anyone encapsulate the history of modern art in roughly 100 minutes? The answer: You cannot, although Herbert Kline gave it a spirited try with his 1974 documentary feature \u201cThe Challenge: A Tribute to Modern Art.\u201d Perhaps the key word in the film\u2019s title is \u201ctribute\u201d \u2013 as with any tribute, it provides a celebratory overview of achievement without plumbing the depth and scope of the subject with any great intensity.
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Viewed today, \u201cThe Challenge: A Tribute to Modern Art\u201d is strictly an old-school documentary feature: pedagogic and a bit plodding, but also well-researched and often surprising. To its credit, the film is rich with rare archival footage and then-contemporary interviews with the titans of the field. Yet key figures and events in modern art history are either too-briefly considered or are omitted. <\/p>\n

And the film is also burdened or enlivened (depending on your patience level) by the presence of Orson Welles as an on-screen narrator. Encased in a black overcoat that only emphasizes his girth against the white walls of the art galleries while carrying an oversized hat behind his back, Welles is an XL-sized distraction \u2013 for a contemporary viewer, it is obvious that he is going through this presentation in a half-hearted manner just to snag enough money to finance more footage of another self-funded film that would never be completed. But when he\u2019s off-camera, his peerless oratory enhances the production in a stylish yet unobtrusive manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Challenge: A Tribute to Modern Art\u201d begins its journey by focusing on Pablo Picasso \u2013 he wasn\u2019t the first modern art star, of course, but he was the first to resonate with the general public. Picasso is viewed in historic film clips, and other modern artists including Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Max Ernst and Jackson Pollock are glimpsed in vintage footage.<\/p>\n

To its credit, \u201cThe Challenge: A Tribute to Modern Art\u201d offers original color footage of the modern art legends who were still active when the film was made. Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander Calder and Willem de Kooning make rare on-camera appearances to show off their work and offer insight on the creative process.<\/p>\n

The film also acknowledges the importance of art collectors in gathering modern art and making these works accessible to the public. Collector Peggy Guggenheim is accorded an on-screen interview that considers her role in bridging the gap between modern art\u2019s often enigmatic imagery and the public\u2019s appreciation of its challenge to cultural protocol.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is only so much that can be squeezed into the film\u2019s running time, and the film has some gaps that could have been addressed in a longer running time. The role of women and people of color in modern art is conspicuously underplayed \u2013 and while new interviews with Lousie Nevelson and Romare Bearden are included, the contributions of Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and Henry Ossawa Tanner at the dawn of the modern art movement are ignored. Likewise, the controversies of the 1913 Armory Show and the 1937 Nazi-sponsored Degenerate Art Show don\u2019t raise a blip in this film.<\/p>\n

And, strangely, John Lennon and Yoko Ono turn up as examples of then-contemporary modern art. While a tenuous argument could be made for Ono\u2019s inclusion, Lennon\u2019s presence is wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Challenge: A Tribute to Modern Art\u201d was a last hurrah for filmmaker Herbert Kline, who earned prominence for his on-location 1930s war documentaries \u201cHeart of Spain,\u201d \u201cReturn to Life\u201d and \u201cCrisis.\u201d His career was derailed by the McCarthy-era blacklist and he was absent from screens until the 1970 documentary \u201c’Walls of Fire\u201d’ about the Mexican artists Diego Rivera and David Alfaro \u2013 that film received an Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Challenge: A Tribute to Modern Art\u201d was also Oscar nominated, but lost to the groundbreaking \u201cHearts and Mind.\u201d The film had a scattershot theatrical release in 1975 and again in 1977, but didn\u2019t click with moviegoers. To date, there has been no U.S. commercial home entertainment release, although there was a European DVD in 2003 under the title \u201cModern Art: A Complete Guide.\u201d A decent print is on YouTube in an unauthorized posting (although it is hard to explain why it is an \u201cage restricted\u201d offering, unless paintings of naked ladies is a bit too risqu\u00e9 for today\u2019s online crowd). <\/p>\n