Steve Beck
"Steve Beck, found on the street" / TRAILER
Click for the trailer....
http://www.artmajeur.com/en/account/stevebeckart/videos/16573
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NpSFL5iwwQ
A documentary film that follows Steve Beck, an expatriate American abstract painter living and working in Lyon France, as he uses his artwork to communicate in a new and extraordinary way.
Steve Beck, Found On The Street breaks the mold of documentary films that simply hover around an artist, his philosophies and his methods. This film takes on the issues of migration, immigration and the human experience, as Beck observes, “…to give up everything…. to find a better life… and still end up on the streets.”
Reflecting on his own inevitable displacement from France, Beck decides to put his work out into the streets of Lyon, hanging his paintings on the city’s ancient walls and attaching them to bridges and railings in order to, “Call attention to the human condition of migration.”
Beck quickly discovers that his paintings are taken nearly immediately from the locations he has chosen. One of these events is captured on film. This realization prompts Beck to begin to reconsider his mission. “So I wonder….” Beck questions, “Have I called attention to the plight of the immigrant…. or have I just decorated a few living rooms?” Interviews conducted with local people who have encountered Beck's work on the streets, add clarity to this process. Having no regrets, Beck continues to place his work on the street, adding: “I did what I had to do.”
The film also sharply brings into focus Beck's philosophy as a working artist… from scenes of his unique method of using a blowtorch to literally light his paint on fire… his own commentary…comments by his gallerist… to scenes at the open air art market along the Saône River where each Sunday, heavily laden with paintings, Beck commutes by foot down the steep slopes of Lyon.
The scenic beauty of Lyon provides a rich background as cinematographer Kamil Raczko sharply penetrates both the city…. and the mind of abstract artist Steve Beck, from the reason for dispersing his paintings throughout the city, his “everyday” life as a professional working artist, to his unique method of creating abstract paintings.