As with any good painting, abstract or otherwise, the documentary "My Kid Could Paint That" gives off so many different perspectives and possible interpretations that it challenges the viewer to arrive at a clear, hard assessment of its complete picture.
Amir Bar-Lev's documentary, which will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, traces the story of 4-year-old Marla Olmstead, who became the talk of the art world after her abstract canvases were discovered on the walls of a cafe in her hometown of Binghamton, N.Y. When the money being offered for Olmstead's work stretched into the thousands, the media's eyes got bigger, and soon, she and her parents were besieged by TV cameras. At first, the attention was laudatory and then, with skepticism creeping in about the authenticity of the paintings, accusatory.
On the one hand, "My Kid Could Paint That" deals with modernism in art and its perverse attraction of cynics and skeptics. On the other, the movie deals with the capricious and often cruel transactions between the media and those caught in its headlights. The movie's surface gives way to other meanings and deeper ideas.
Which is something Kenneth Wayne, chief curator of the Heckscher Museum of Art can relate to. Wayne will be leading the discussion following Tuesday's screening.
"I was stunned," Wayne said upon seeing the film. "Somehow I missed this whole story in the media when it first came up. Watching it now, I felt as though I was watching a thriller and it kept you clinging at every twist and turn."
Wayne doesn't want to disclose the ending, but will say of Olmstead's work that its "quality is quite good and quite sophisticated for someone her age. It wasn't just finger painting. And I was also impressed with the fact that she wasn't a product of marketing. People came to her and her family. They didn't seek this attention. To me, that only enhances what I believe to be its authenticity."
-- GENE SEYMOUR
