Pat Steir: Artist, a documentary film directed by Veronica Gonzalez Peña about the life of legendary artist Pat Steir, will be released on Apple TV, Prime Video, and other digital platforms as well as DVD on June 9, 2020.
The impetus for this project stemmed from a series of conversations between Steir and Gonzalez Peña about family, psychoanalysis, poetry and books, Steir’s art practice, feminism, and politics. Because of Gonzalez Peña’s background as a novelist, she has structured the film like a first-person novel; it is character-driven, broken down into chapters, with a circular narrative and a slow reveal of self.
Shot over the course of three years, primarily in Stier’s home and studio, Pat Steir: Artistis a poetic visual exploration of creativity and process, on what it is to live an artistically engaged life. Gonzalez Peña not only showcases Steir’s painting practice but gives Steir a chance to speak about her childhood, her experiences in New York in the 70s and 80s, and her relationships with artistic mentors notably Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt, and John Cage. Pat Steir: Artist is a refreshingly candid and revelatory portrait of a trailblazing feminist, who was a leader in the development of Conceptual Abstraction and who has been on the forefront of American painting for half a century.
“Pat Steir and I met eight years ago, and immediately recognized something in each other,” said Gonzalez Peña. “We not only had many friends in common but also a similar way of thinking about artistic practices. At a time when I was moving from writing into filmmaking, Pat provided me with a way to think about that shift. I cast her as one of the principal characters in my film Cordelia, alongside Michel Auder, Douglas Gordon, and Alice Weiner. It was at this point that Pat and I started speaking about making a film together,” she added.
Art world notables in the film include Steir, John Cage, Sylvère Lotringer, Anne Carson, Alexis Acton, Oliver Alex, Penelope Pardo and Joost Elffers with cameos by Kiki Smith, Anne Waldman, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, John Giorno, Ugo Rondione, Richard Tuttle, Linda Yablonsky, Joan Jonas, Lynn Tillman, Marc Glimcher, Elan Gentry, and Sandy Calder.
Pat Steir: Artist, a film by Veronica Gonzalez Peña will be released on Apple TV, Prime Video, Digital Platforms, and DVD on June 9, 2020. The film is distributed by Giant Pictures, a digital distributor for independent filmmakers.