By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Harry Moses
Country: united_states
Year: 2006
Running time: 90
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487092/
Bruce says: “This film is a perfect companion piece for WHO GETS TO CALL IT ART?, a film that explains how Henry Geldzahler became a power broker for the contemporary art scene in New York during the latter part of the last century. Geldzahler, among others, was a self-appointed arbiter of taste. Key to his success was the fact that he had the right connections. The upper echelon of the art world has gone to great lengths to ensure that outsiders cannot participate at will. WHO THE $#%& IS JACKSON POLLOCK? delivers the perfect example to illustrate the point.
“Over ten years ago Teri Horton bought a painting at Dot’s Spot Thrift Shop in hopes that it would cheer up a depressed friend. When the friend saw the painting she told Teri it was the ugliest thing she ever saw and asked why Teri couldn’t have given her something cool like a Norman Rockwell. Teri, at that time a truck driver specializing in long-hauling 18-wheelers, couldn’t fit the painting through the door of her Southern California trailer home. So she put it in a yard sale where an art history teacher spotted it and told Teri that she had a Jackson Pollock. A who?
“WHO THE $#%& IS JACKSON POLLOCK? traces the efforts of Teri and her son Bill Page to prove that Teri did indeed find a 50 million dollar diamond in the rough, a genuine Jackson Pollock. Getting started on such a mission is not easy. Most phone calls to galleries and appraisers are not returned. Teri is collecting insults and abuses – ‘You crazy old bitch, you have no money.’ Finally the ice cracks and the art world begins to respond. Dozens of experts are consulted. One of the most prominent is Thomas Hoving former director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Hats off to the filmmaker for choosing the perfect angles and lens to depict Hoving as the art world’s most disgusting, effete prick. Not that his words aren’t enough to do the job.
“The International Foundation for Art Research will not validate Teri’s painting as a Pollock. The report form the foundation is unsigned and the decision makers, unrevealed. As a result, Teri has no idea who might hear an appeal. A forensic specialist is called in. He finds a fingerprint on the back of Teri’s canvas which matches a fingerprint on a Pollock in a private collection in Berlin and a fingerprint on a paint can in Pollock’s east Hampton studio. All this evidence is still not enough for the big-wigs. Teri is told she needs provenance, a history of previous owners. She has a sales receipt from Dot’s Spot; that’s it.
“One can easily label Teri Horton ‘a real character.’ She adds a ton of spice to what is a compelling story of power and control
by a few over the many. WHO THE $#%& IS JACKSON POLLOCK? is a very entertaining film. 4.5 cats
“WHO THE $#%& IS JACKSON POLLOCK? was screened at the 2006 Provincetown International Film Festival. WHO THE $#%& IS JACKSON POLLOCK? marks my 300th Chlotrudis review. Thanks, Chlotrudis – and particularly Michael – for coming along at the perfect time.”
Chris says: “This wonderful documentary profiles the inimitable Teri Horton, a retired truck driver and junk collector who bought a painting at a thrift shop for five bucks. When someone tells her the giant, messy splattered canvas looks an awful lot like a Jackson Pollock (prompting a response that gives the film its title), Horton sets off to determine just how much her find is worth.
“According to the hermetic New York art elite, it’s not worth anything, even as Horton slowly gathers the support of outsiders and some forensic evidence in her favor. More than just an amusing character study, the film gives real insight as to how art acquires (and requires) legitimization. Horton obviously doesn’t fit the mold of the respectable art collector, but her story is fleshed out to the point that she always endears, even when she’s duplicitous: her tale of the artwork’s origin (made up to account for the lack of provenance) is a highlight, particularly because even she knows how ridiculous it is. Her quest may never amount to a multi-million dollar payoff, but POLLOCK shows us the struggle here is as important as any goal.
“Far more solid than last year’s art theft doc STOLEN, I’m surprised the film’s distributor, Picturehouse, hasn’t given it
a wider release (it played only two times at the new ICA in Boston)–it deserves an audience. 4 cats”