Continue with us on our summer journey through art history at our Movies at SAAM series. We've had a great turnout so far and seen some spectacular movies. We've watched a computer engineer attempt to recreate a 16th-century Vermeer painting in Tim's Vermeer, a young struggling artist speak truth to power in Basquiat, and have followed the extraordinary and colorful life of Frida Kahlo in Frida. If you've enjoyed these, wait until you see our next three films.
Banksy is one of the most famous graffiti artists today, but, like most graffiti artists, he likes to keep his identity a secret. Exit Though the Gift Shop, which we are screening on July 30, is a documentary that follows an eccentric French shopkeeper turned documentary filmmaker and his attempts to catch the renowned British graffiti artist —on film, that is. However, there is a twist when Banksy turns the tables and the camera.
On August 6, watch artist David Hockney, whose own work can be seen at SAAM, trace Chinese Emperor Kangxi's 1689 tour of his southern empire through a seventy-two-foot Chinese scroll. In Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China, Hockney gives us a detailed narration of what everyday life really was like in 17th-century China.
Our last film of the season will be on August 20. Running Fence, a 1978 documentary by Albert and David Maysles, follows Christo and Jeanne-Claude as they gather support for, and encounter opposition to, their plan to build a twenty-four mile fence of white fabric over the hills of California. After the show be sure to check out Christo's sketch, Running Fence, located on the third floor of SAAM.
From graffiti art to a 17th-century tapestry, and finally, to the 1978 California countryside, we invite you to sit back and experience some of art's greatest stories on the big screen. And keep an eye out for our fall calendar for a list of films being screened this autumn. Seating in the McEvoy Auditorium is first come first serve. Every show starts at 3 p.m.
