Girls / Museum

A number of young girls and teenagers, ages seven to nineteen, are our tour guides at the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts, speaking about particular paintings from the past to the present. Some suggest what the women depicted might be thinking. The more analytical speak about the representation of gender, and one asserts again and again, “They are all by men.” These reflections reveal much about the politics of collecting art, the representation of women, and the young girls and their generation. It is Silver, though, who focuses on the more formal properties of the paintings with her striking cinematography and close-up details. Her new film has been described as “at once a social inquiry, a critical essay in art history, and a poised, even sculptural study of people, paintings and space” (Jonathan Romney, ScreenDaily).