Key West The Newspaper

Key West Art & Historical Society’s “Art as History, History as Art” film series continues this Thursday, August 4 at 6:00 pm in the Helmerich Research & Learning Center at the Custom House Museum, 281 Front Street with “The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting,” a tightly constructed, thought-provoking, and sly satire on the nature of artistic interpretation.

Directed by Raúl Ruiz (called the Gabriel Garcia Marquez of film by one fan) and considered one of the most representative and imaginative films of the seventies, “The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting” began as a documentary on writer Pierre Klossowski but soon became, in Ruiz’s words, “a fiction about theory.”

The film starts off with a pompous art collector offering a new history of western art through a guided tour of his fantastic gallery of “living images,” all created by the “forgotten” artist, Tonnerr. As our guide drones away about aspects of his collection, the human figures begin to smirk and fidget, emphasizing their play-acting and introducing a new level of spectating into the narrative.

With a running time of 67 minutes, the French film with English subtitles is structured as a kind of never-ending detective thriller, evolving into a sublime and intricate meditation on the relationship between “art and life, the indefinable essence of artistic creativity, and the inexactness of personal interpretation.”

Made possible in part by the generosity of the Helmerich Trust, the “Art As History, History As Art” film series is curated by Society board member and cineaste Michael Shields, who offers “films that expand our vistas and give us fresh views of our home.” Tickets for the event can be purchased online at KWAHS.ORG/LEARN: $5 for members, $10 for non-members. For more information about this and other programs, please contact Adele Williams, Director of Education, at 305-295-6616, ext. 115. Your Museums. Your Community. It takes an Island.