EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

Oscars and Art 2012

Did you notice how so many of the Oscar nominations for Best Picture were movies about movies, including the winner The Artist? For those living in caves this winter, The Artist is a mostly silent film about a silent star unable to make the transition to talkies. Hugo revolves around the early days of movies too, featuring one of film’s most daring pioneers, Georges Melies. Likewise, Woody Allen’s film Midnight in Paris (also up for Best Picture) is about a frustrated writer who gets lost in his own imagination of what would make a good script or book. As if that were not enough, The Help is about a writer gathering material for her book on African-American maids in the deep South, making the lead character an alter ego of the scriptwriter. And, then, what about Steven Spielberg’s Warhorse, a glorious reminder of how Hollywood once made movies, a child’s Gone with the Wind for modern times.

Given all this self-referential subject matter in five of 2011’s top films, is it surprising that so many paintings are, when you look at them carefully, paintings about paintings being painted?

For those interested in more classic movies about movies, see an earlier blog Ratatouille and the Great Masters (of all genders.)