The Imaginary Solutions of Thomas Chimes (2007) [N/A]
Featuring:
Thomas Chimes, Anne d'Harnoncourt, Phillip Mitsis
Directed by:
Michael Blackwood
Release Date:
April 13, 2007
Original Title:
The Imaginary Solutions of Thomas Chimes
Genres:
Documentary
Production Companies:
Michael Blackwood Productions
Production Countries:
United States of America
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 54
The Imaginary Solutions of Thomas Chimes presents a conversation with the artist as he reminisces about his career, influences and artistic intuitions. Director of the museum, Anne d'Harnoncourt, joins Chimes to revisit the galleries of Thomas Eakins, Duchamp and Van Gogh, all of whom were deeply influential throughout his artistic journey. Just as many other American artists, Chimes spent time in Paris and discovered writers such as Antonin Artaud, James Joyce and most notably Alfred Jarry, whose writings on pataphysics dominated Chimes' work for two decades.
Our visit with Thomas Chimes (born 1921), one of Philadelphia 's most important contemporary artists, begins at the Philadelphia Museum whose collection inspired him as a school boy to become an artist. Here he was drawn to Thomas Eakins, a fellow Philadelphian, and to Duchamp and Van Gogh. Anne d'Harnoncourt, Director of the museum, joins Chimes to revisit the galleries of these influential artists and to "compare notes" with Chimes. Just as many other American artists, Chimes spent time in Paris and discovered writers such as Antonin Artaud, James Joyce and especially Alfred Jarry, who became important sources of inspiration. Alfred Jarry's writings on pataphysics dominated Chimes's work for two decades. Chimes's portraits of Jarry and his intellectual peers are the core of his idiosyncratic work as an artist. Michael Taylor, curator of Chimes' retrospective exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum, questions him on his progress from his beginnings to his present work, tiny objects which the octogenarian makes in his modest studio apartment. Thomas Chimes died in 2009.
