Philip C Curtis: An American Original DVD

$ 9.99
This DVD is a collection of conversations with the artist, Philip C. Curtis.
“Philip C. Curtis is a unique artist, and American original whose life and work have spanned and absorbed the art history of virtually the entire twentieth century. His charming, exquisitely crafted paintings, in unique frames selected and integrated by the artist, present an imagined vision of Americana influenced by the magic world of the circus and entertainment and by the artists memories of his turn-of-the-century childhood in Michigan. They combine people (often in period costumes) and musical instruments with invented, isolated, boundless settings in intense colors and in moods that echo surrealism, magic realism, and realism. The figures in Curtis’s paintings are in effect characters in a plot staged by the artist. Curtis said, “I treat the canvas as a stage and the people I use belong to an acting company of mine.”
Philip C. Curtis’s provocative paintings, like those of Rene Magritte, stimulate and enchant our minds as well as out eyes, delighting us with their brain-teasing takes on the nature of art and the foibles of living. The loneliness they sometimes portray is softened by the artists evident fascination with rituals and activities summoned up by his memories of the past.” (From American Dreamer: The Art of Philip C. Curtis)
  • 40 Minutes 
  • Produced by Ken Marsolais
  • Directed by Gerardo Puglio
  • Copyright Phoenix Art Museum