• With Peter Bradley
  • With Peter Bradley
  • The Shape of Things
  • Dufus (aka Art)
  • With Peter Bradley
  • With Peter Bradley

With Peter Bradley

In Person

  • Local painter/filmmaker Mike Henderson will be in person with two short films, Dufus (aka Art) and The Shape of Things.

    Photo by Susan Deming

Pioneering abstract artist and curator Peter Bradley reflects on life, art, and his artistic practice in this invigorating, intimate documentary portrait, mainly filmed around the nearly eighty-year-old Bradley’s New York farm, where he continues to create. Working on a canvas outside, he muses, “The seasons give me encouragement to work. . . . Changing color of leaves, what ice does. Everything changes every day. . . . It’s all about work every day.” Curator of the pioneering 1971 De Luxe Show in Houston, Texas, “one of the first racially integrated exhibits of contemporary artists in the United States,” the artist-at-heart Bradley “was abandoned in art’s critical hinterlands” (New York Times) before 2021 exhibitions returned his abstract, color-popped masterpieces to acclaim. “Documentary in its purest form: one subject speaking and showing us his life and work. It is riveting” (Film Threat). His 1972 painting Isom Dart 1 is currently on display in BAMPFA’s galleries.

Jason Sanders
FILM DETAILS 
Cinematographer
  • Alex Rappoport
Print Info
  • Color
  • DCP
  • 85 mins
Source
  • Alex Rappoport
Preceded By

Dufus (aka Art)

Mike Henderson, United States, 1970–73

A radical look at Black identity by local Black painter/blues guitarist/filmmaker Mike Henderson.

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 16mm
  • 10 mins
source
  • Academy Film Archive

The Shape of Things

Mike Henderson, United States, 1981

“The artist nods to his various literary, musical, and cinema influences in this inventive performance in the [artist’s] studio” (Mark Toscano, Academy Film Archive).

FILM DETAILS 
Print Info
  • B&W/Color
  • 16mm
  • 8 mins
source
  • Academy Film Archive

Event Accessibility

If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 642-1412 (during open hours) with as much advance notice as possible. More information on accessibility services.