- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Illustrations
- To Iris Barry (1895–1969)
- Credits
- Previews
-
1 Early Years -
2 “We Enjoyed the War” -
3 “Dear Miss Barry” -
4 The Other Bloomsbury -
5 Life with Lewis -
6 Children -
7 Alan Porter -
8 The Spectator -
9 Splashing into Film Society -
10 Cinema Paragons, Hollywood, and Lady Mary -
11 Let’s Go to the Pictures -
12 Victory and Defeat -
13 America -
14 The Askew Salon -
15 Museum Men -
16 Remarriage -
17 Settling In -
18 Cracking Hollywood -
19 Art High and Low -
20 On to Europe -
21 Going Public -
22 The Slow Martyrdom of Alfred Barr -
23 Meanwhile, Back at the Library -
24 New Work, Old Acquaintances -
25 “The Master” and his Minions -
26 Temora Farm -
27 The Museum Enlists -
28 Mr. Rockefeller’s Office -
29 L’Affair Buñuel -
30 The Other Library -
31 Divorce -
32 Postwar Blues -
33 Abbott’s Fall -
34 Hospital -
35 Departure -
36 La Bonne Font -
37 Things Past -
38 The Austin House -
39 Readjustments -
40 New York and London -
41 Final Breaks -
42 The End - Sequel
- Sources
- Index
Art High and Low
Art High and Low
- Chapter:
- (p.205) 19 Art High and Low
- Source:
- Lady in the Dark
- Author(s):
Robert Sitton
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
This chapter discusses how Iris Barry addressed the diverse agendas surrounding the development of the new Film Library. Iris' view that movies provided a legitimate dream-escape for people from otherwise oppressive lives, and that their content reflects cultural issues and trends worth studying, appeased the entertainment side of the American film scene represented by Hollywood. On the other hand, her regard for seminal filmmakers, and her historian's bent to preserve and study their works gave her efforts the air of legitimacy that sophisticated museum work required. The result was a movement which turned traditional aesthetic evolution on its head. Instead of lifting motion pictures upward to fit aesthetic standards derived for other and preexisting art forms, she focused critical attention downward to find in the vibrant new art form its own inherent validation. Ultimately, this populist dynamic set in motion an approach to film criticism later practiced by critics such as James Agee and Pauline Kael.
Keywords: films, motion pictures, Dick Abbott, film library, aesthetics, populism, Hollywood, legitimacy
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- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Illustrations
- To Iris Barry (1895–1969)
- Credits
- Previews
-
1 Early Years -
2 “We Enjoyed the War” -
3 “Dear Miss Barry” -
4 The Other Bloomsbury -
5 Life with Lewis -
6 Children -
7 Alan Porter -
8 The Spectator -
9 Splashing into Film Society -
10 Cinema Paragons, Hollywood, and Lady Mary -
11 Let’s Go to the Pictures -
12 Victory and Defeat -
13 America -
14 The Askew Salon -
15 Museum Men -
16 Remarriage -
17 Settling In -
18 Cracking Hollywood -
19 Art High and Low -
20 On to Europe -
21 Going Public -
22 The Slow Martyrdom of Alfred Barr -
23 Meanwhile, Back at the Library -
24 New Work, Old Acquaintances -
25 “The Master” and his Minions -
26 Temora Farm -
27 The Museum Enlists -
28 Mr. Rockefeller’s Office -
29 L’Affair Buñuel -
30 The Other Library -
31 Divorce -
32 Postwar Blues -
33 Abbott’s Fall -
34 Hospital -
35 Departure -
36 La Bonne Font -
37 Things Past -
38 The Austin House -
39 Readjustments -
40 New York and London -
41 Final Breaks -
42 The End - Sequel
- Sources
- Index
