Pigments And People (silent)

Year Published: 1961

Description: Silent footage from a 1960s short film centered around the art world. It follows artists at work in their studios — mixing paint, holding brushes, painting on canvases — before shifting to an art gallery where a mix of characters interact with the artwork: a well-dressed man, a couple, a drunk man, and even a policeman who takes up painting himself. A woman chewing gum browses the gallery with casual indifference, and the film closes with an artist encountering a painting of the Mona Lisa. The overall tone seems to be a lighthearted, observational comedy poking fun at the pretensions and personalities found in the 1960s American art scene.