Artful History: A Restoration Comedy (1989)
Artful History offers an engaging, and unexpectedly frank, look into the business of art restoration, including backroom dealings and restorer shenanigans, such as cutting up paintings and sculptures to make them "better" or removing an element from a painting for one client and then replacing it for another. The word artful in the title of this work does double duty: the video illuminates a largely invisible and unregulated aspect of the art world in which the preservation, restoration, and sale of art can involve nefarious doings, and it reveals the cunningly manipulative power of the pairing of image and text in the cinematic context. Dion and Simon, longtime interlocutors who collaboratively produced this work, share in their individual practices the desire to examine regulatory structures that shape culture and normalize tendencies that would otherwise seem bizarre.
Screenplay
Themes
Parody and Spoof
Keywords
mockumentary, short film
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Artful History: A Restoration Comedy about?
- Artful History offers an engaging, and unexpectedly frank, look into the business of art restoration, including backroom dealings and restorer shenanigans, such as cutting up paintings and sculptures to make them "better" or removing an element from a painting for one client and then replacing it for another. The word artful in the title of this work does double duty: the video illuminates a largely invisible and unregulated aspect of the art world in which the preservation, restoration, and sale of art can involve nefarious doings, and it reveals the cunningly manipulative power of the pairing of image and text in the cinematic context. Dion and Simon, longtime interlocutors who collaboratively produced this work, share in their individual practices the desire to examine regulatory structures that shape culture and normalize tendencies that would otherwise seem bizarre.
- Who directed Artful History: A Restoration Comedy?
- Artful History: A Restoration Comedy was directed by Mark Dion, Jason Simon.
- How long is Artful History: A Restoration Comedy?
- Artful History: A Restoration Comedy has a runtime of 28m (28 minutes).
- What genre is Artful History: A Restoration Comedy?
- Artful History: A Restoration Comedy is a Comedy film.
- What are the themes of Artful History: A Restoration Comedy?
- The themes of Artful History: A Restoration Comedy include: Parody and Spoof.