Kimbell goes kinetic with filmmaker

The Kimbell Art Museum will devote an innovative midsummer opening to a collaborative project with filmmaker Philip Haas – an exhibition of five commissioned film installations, serving both to advance a gathering local tendency to regard film as a self-sufficient art form and to develop a moving-picture complement to the Kimbell’s established collection.

HaasÂ’ installations interpret works in the collection, on the one hand, and stand on the other as formidable works of art in themselves. They will be shown for the first time as an exhibition opening July 18. After the summertime display has run its course, the museum will use the films occasionally within collection displays in the galleries, and (in modified forms) in various educational programs.

At the heart of Haas’s installations are short films that give form to ideas and feelings suggested by the chosen works from the collection. Though based upon deep research into the original artists and the cultures thus represented, the films are poetic and sensuous in approach – rather than factual, like a documentary. At various points in the films, actors, dancers and settings form themselves into an ingenious, even uncanny, re-creation of this work or that, as if bringing the familiar art into an unfamiliar realm of animated spirit. Allusions to other, related works of art further enrich the imagery.

The Kimbell venture reflects recent yearsÂ’ film-as-art installations at the Amon Carter Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth while integrating HaasÂ’ creations strikingly with works that chronic museum-goers associate indelibly with the Kimbell. The overall effect promises an experience worth repeating. The exhibition also will involve the participation of the Lone Star Film Society.

Ranging in length from seven to 20 minutes and running continuously, the Haas films will be projected on screens of various unconventional formats and configurations. All five are accompanied by original musical score. Three will appear in elaborate architectural and sculptural sets, further immersing the viewer.

HaasÂ’s installations open new and freely imaginative ways of looking at art, refreshing the popular view of familiar works. The films will complement a full display of the KimbellÂ’s collection throughout the galleries, each installation occupying a space near the work that inspired it. The project is a new departure for the Kimbell and for the very concept of film-installation exhibition; it may be the first such venture by any museum.

A forthcoming book to accompany the display will feature an essay by the British novelist A.S. Byatt, associated with Haas on his best-known film, Angels and Insects (1995).

Texas Ballet Theater

sets 2009–2010 season

Texas Ballet Theater has announced its 2009–2010 season, spanning from Bass Hall in Fort Worth to the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Margot & Bill Winspear Opera House. The exciting season includes The Russian Masters, Oct. 2-4 at Bass Hall; Ben Stevenson’s The Nutcracker, Nov. 27-Dec. 6 at the Winspear and Dec. 11-24 at the Bass; Romeo and Juliet, Feb. 12-14, 2010, at the Bass and March 12-14 at the Winspear; and The Sleeping Beauty, April 9-11 at the Bass and June 11-13 at the Winspear.

Subscriptions ($75–$336) can be placed with the troupe’s box office at 877-828-9200. The Web address is www.texasballettheater.org.

mprice@bizpress.net