Final Traces of the Abstract Expressionists

Summary

In "Final Traces of the Abstract Expressionists" artist and filmmaker Caro Jost takes viewers to the original locations where the Abstract Expressionists were active in New York from ca. 1940 to 1970. These locations, at which art history was made, are the former studios and apartments, meeting places and bars, exhibition spaces and galleries of artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning or Mark Rothko.

Caro Jost follows in the footsteps of the artists of an era. In a mixture of walk and detective hunt, she shows what has now become of these once important places, e.g. designer lofts, shops, business consultancies, whereas others, including entire buildings, have been replaced by skyscrapers.

The few still living witnesses provide interviews and testimonies. The famous artist Alex Katz meets his colleagues in the former rooms of a gallery where their careers first started. Peggy Guggenheim’s granddaughter visits her grandmother’s former gallery, today a sewing shop. After more than 40 years, the widow of Ad Reinhardt visits his former studio for the first time again.

The film is a juxtaposition of the past and the present: the scenes are shot based upon historic photo documentation and the film is annotated with historical footage by photographers Fred W. McDarrah, Rudy Burckhardt, John Cohen, Nina Leen, and John Leongard, among others.

Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH