ART BASTARD (USA 2015) ***
Directed by Victor Kanefsky

Review by Gilbert Seah

“Art from day one for me was the special part of life – the part of life that was above the gutter.” – Robert Cenedella. In a madcap art world obsessed with money, fame and hype, how does an artist driven by justice, defiance and his own singular style thrive? Cenedella was the contemporary of Andy Warhol, but in reality was anti-Warhol.

When ART BASTARD begins, the camera takes the audience through a tour around the NYC Transit where a few of the subject’s paintings are seen. The artist, obviously the ART BASTARD referred to in the film title is a little known artist known as Bob Cenedella.

So who is this Cenedella? Fortunately Cenedella is still alive. Director Kanefsky allows Cenedella maximum screen time to introduce both himself and his works. His family members are interviewed too along with art experts in order to put Cenedella’s work into perspective.
Foremost, Cenedella’s paintings are introduced. The main characteristic of his paintings is the inclusion of many, many faces crammed into a scene. The year in which the paintings were drawn and a good detailed shot is provided.

Examples of these include:

Fun city 1979
The Fight 1964
Give to Cenedella 1977

The film contains a few diversions. One is an examination of contemporary art and what it means. Several art experts give their view in the context of Cenedella’s paintings. A discussion also follows on what art rises and what art fails. The individuals are pawns who can hardly make a difference. Cenedella also discusses family life. He is clearly upset about his father and the film contains quite a few scenes with him and his son. Cenedella claims it is not hard to become a good father.

Cenedella’s character is also revealed on screen. He is shown to be an artistic person. He loves Beethoven and made quite a bit of money in his youth selling Ludwig pins. He does not like Elvis. His joy as a teen are his weekly visits to the New York Metropolitan.

The film’s best scenes are those that show Cenedella actually painting and teaching it. “Holding a bush is one of the greatest disciplines in the world”, says Cenedella convincingly.

As a fair bit of the film’s running time is devoted to Cenedella’s family, some insight is added into his paintings. When Cenedella was young and his mother very drunk one night, she told him that his father is not his real father. He therefore felt like an outsider within his family. Similarly, he despised the art scene feeling like an outsider too and hence the film title ART BASTARD. Cenedella finally meets his biological father finding him to be a bit weird with a huge sense of humour. His painting in 1964 entitled ‘The Fight’ shows his father and stepfather battling each other in a boxing ring. Another one, called ‘The Third Movement’ one of his series of ‘orchestra paintings’ shows all the characters fighting each other. His paintings often are inherently funny, satirical and often contains a deeper meaning.

One can hardly complain about ART BASTARD as a documentary. Director educates his audience with interviews, archive footage of films and photos while explaining quite a few of the paintings. The film though serious in most parts, contains a bit of humour,primarily because Cenedella had a good sense of humour.

ART BASTARD is an interesting, entertaining enough documentary in which everything one wanted to know about the artist is dished out.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXhy5prz83k

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