That story is one of our must-see films at Hot Docs. Find more festival picks inside.
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Hi, Art!

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Hi, Art!

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Hi, art lovers!

 

Swindlers, forgers, thieves: like much of the population, I’m a sucker for any true-crime story that features one (or all) of those crooks. So while everyone on the CBC Arts team was scanning listings for the Hot Docs Festival, calling dibs on which films to blurb (read our staff picks), one title (The Thief Collector) tripped the laser-alarm system in my brain. Translation: I needed to see it. 

The story begins by recapping an art crime that sounds a shade quirkier than most: a stolen painting by Willem de Kooning re-emerged decades later in rural New Mexico, hanging in the bedroom of two recently deceased schoolteachers. This article from 2018 is what got the director interested in the case, and it’s just the beginning of the intrigue because the doc winds up investigating so much more than the riddle of how Woman-Ochre wound up in a Walmart frame. (Now in the process of being restored, it’ll go on display at the Getty Center later this year.)

Are you a sucker for these stories too? Then you’ll devour these old long reads if you haven’t already: “The Secrets of the World’s Greatest Art Thief”, the secrets of France’s greatest art thief, and the not-so-secret (but unsolved) case of Canada’s greatest art heist. 

Why do we love stories about art crime so much? (Seriously, I’m asking.) Heck, if the robbery is sensational enough, it can mint a masterpiece: that’s how much we love a great heist headline. (This is presuming the art’s recovered, of course. Hello, Mona Lisa.) 

So what’s the answer? There’s no shortage of speculation out there, as many opinions as there are missing museum pieces. (Or maybe not. More than 52,000 is a lot.) 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Photo of fungal life emerging from mossy rock. The colours appear to buzz with neon outlines. To the right of the image is text that reads:

Brendan George Ko

As part of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, billboards in 10 cities across Canada will be featuring work by Brendan George Ko. (Here’s where to find them.)

 
Photo of blue blossoms and butterflies made of thread hang at various levels from the ceiling of a white-walled gallery creating the illusion of a space swarming with floating forms.

Centre Materia

If you saw our short doc on Amanda McCavour all those years ago and have been daydreaming about roaming through one of her installations ever since, get your butt to Quebec City this spring. She has a new exhibition at the Centre Materia to May 29.
 
Black and white abstract image, with white forms emerging from the darkness with ghostlike opacity.

Ed Pien

Another CBC Arts throwback: remember this story about Ed Pien and how he “collaborated with the Atlantic Ocean”? A selection of his Ocean Drawings is now on view at Birch Contemporary in Toronto.
 
Painting of neon red and purple mounds of beach glass against a glowing red and purple sky.

@ameliacarley/Instagram

From ocean drawings to paintings of beach glass. (Art by Amelia Carley.)
 
Flat-lay photo of colourful trash assembled into a symmetric formation.

@williambroidery/Instagram

This trash isn’t as pretty as beach glass, but damn if it doesn’t look good when William KW gets his hands on it.
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Collage of police sketches of a man and woman and two '80s era photos of sportscars, one red and one silver.
Courtesy of Alter Estate

Who steals a multimillion-dollar painting just to hide it in their bedroom for 32 years?

 
Were they an ordinary couple or thrill-seeking art thieves? The Thief Collector tells the wild tale of a stolen de Kooning.
 
Still from After Shock. A young Black man carries a little Black girl on his shoulder. They both wear red T-shirts. It is a sunny day and a clear blue sky appears behind them.
Hot Docs

Talking about Hot Docs, we can’t wait to see these films

 
Plan your viewing schedule with these staff picks.
 
Photo of a basketball covered with silver and red rhinestones resting on a white plinth. The Toronto Raptors logo, also blinged out, appears at the centre of the ball.

The Local Gallery

 

Art and basketball

 
Take a trip to an art show that celebrates the sport, with rhinestone-studded balls and a robot programmed to shoot perpetual two-pointers.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Pepe Bratanov

@peppy_colours
Photo of pink pop art hanging on a white wall. it depicts a smiling cartoon face, all pink. Its eyes are made out of basketballs resting on hoops.

@peppy_colours/Instagram

That basketball art show I just mentioned? Pepe’s the curator, and this work of his is also a part of the exhibition.
 

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The newsletter will be taking a short break, so before I enter vacation mode, a reminder: the winner of CBX: Canadian Ballroom Extravaganza will be revealed Friday, May 6, when the finale arrives on CBC Gem. Add it to your queue!

I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
XOXO CBC Arts
XOXO CBC Arts
 
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