Since we signed up for Dish Network we have been watching a channel that is strictly an HD channel called Gallery that has had some really fascinating documentaries about artists and museums. It is not all contemporary either. Yesterday there was an hour long doc about Mary Cassatt and I found out that she was a feminist. What's interesting about that is that most of her subjects were mothers and children, but her viewpoint didn't demean the "mother" position, she elevated it. Not exactly a contemporary view of feminism! In one of her paintings she used another artist's work as inspiration, a man, woman and child in a boat. In the original piece the man is obviously the center of attention, in charge of the scene. Mary took the scene and put the man in a position of being the laborer, the one rowing the boat but with his back to the artist and the woman and child are predominant! She was the only woman to be recognized as an impressionist by the French group of Impressionists during that era and she lived to see modern art become the dominant movement, although she thought of her art as modern and didn't like "modern" art! She died of complications of diabetes in 1926.


Has anyone else seen a movie or documentary about their favorite artist that they care to inform us all about?