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Art Bastard is a 2016 documentary film written and directed by Victor Kanefsky. It details the life of Artist Robert Cenedella and explains how specific moments and experiences from childhood to present day influenced his style as a New York Artist. The film was well received by critics and audiences alike, and garnered attention when it became an Official Selection at the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 25th, 2016. Shortly thereafter, it was publicly released to select movie theaters across the United States on June 5th, 2016, and began receiving critical acclaim in both domestic and international film festivals by winning several awards, including Best Documentary at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema (2016), the Manchester Film Festival (2016), East Hampton TV Festival at Guild Hall of East Hampton (2019), and at the NYC International Film Festival (2019).

Background
According to the "About Art Bastard" Press Kit: "'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? Art Bastard is the rousing tale of a rebel who never fit into today’s art world, yet has become one of its most provocative, rabble-rousing characters. At once a portrait of the artist as a young troublemaker, an alternate history of modern art and a quintessential New York story, Art Bastard is as energetic, humorous and unapologetically honest as the uncompromising man at its center: Robert Cenedella. Cenedella was a contemporary of Andy Warhol. But he has essentially served as the anti-Warhol. His noisy, raucous, color-splashed paintings of city scenes approach the world with a sincerity that defies the irony, frivolity and controversy-for-the-sake-of-controversy that have become the cultural currency since the ’60s.

Yet, as Art Bastard reveals, Cenedella couldn’t be any more a product of these times. He was the son of a Hollywood Blacklisted Writer, raised on crushed ’50s dreams. He’s been haunted by dark family secrets that had him questioning his identity. His passionate convictions started so young they got him kicked out of high school at the High School of Music and Art in New York, New York. Even when he found solace and expression in art, he was an unabashed outsider—never a gallery darling, not pursued by museum curators, but an artist who was going to have his say regardless of who was paying attention. Even so, over time, Cenedella’s vast canvases, rife with the chaotic beauty of politics, humor, history and humanity, drew admirers from all walks of society—even from the vaunted art patrons who rejected him. In a fast-moving series of riveting interviews with family members, art critics, museum directors, New York power brokers, art students and Cenedella himself, director Victor Kanefsky candidly presents Cenedella’s personal journey—and reveals the creation of a modern art career that ignored all the modern art rules.

Kanefsky follows Cenedella from his days selling cheeky “I Like Ludwig” buttons to pay his art school tuition at the Art Students League of New York to his apprenticeship with the exiled German satirical painter George Grosz, who inspired his merging of refined technique with blistering social critique; from his provocative 1965 “Yes Art” exhibit which became the most popular—and debated—show of the year, lambasting the crass commercialism of the blossoming Pop Art movement, to his sudden 10-year break from painting and his fruitful return as a teacher, mentor and unbowed iconoclast of American painting.

While Cenedella forthrightly questions the mechanics—and profit-making—of the art world, he has it out for no one. As he puts it: “It’s not what they show that bothers me, it’s what they don’t show.” What Art Bastard shows, in stunning cinematic detail, are the living, breathing, storytelling canvases that Cenedella has created for six decades. Set to a rollicking soundtrack, the film not only tours Cenedella’s life, it also tours his eye-poppingly intricate, New York-centered paintings as one might travel the city—peering into every corner to uncover Cenedella’s characters, commentary and emotions.

The result is a visceral art documentary that also has the sweeping impact of a feature film—at once an investigation of a man’s identity, an inquiry into what art is and whom it’s for, and a feisty portrait of the ups and downs of a life lived on one’s own terms.'"

Awards
Art Bastard was awarded several accolades before and after its official release on June 5th, 2016:




 * WINNER - Best Documentary Award - East Hampton TV Festival at Guild Hall of East Hampton (2019)
 * WINNER - Best Documentary Award - NYC International Film Festival (2019)
 * WINNER - Best Documentary Award - Manchester Film Festival (2016)
 * WINNER - Best Documentary Award - Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema (2016)
 * WINNER - Best Director Award - Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema (2016)
 * WINNER - Focus on Art Award - Orlando Film Festival (2015)
 * WINNER - Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Creativity - Utopia Film Festival (2015)

It was also the Official Selection at the following film festivals:


 * Official Selection - Newport Beach Film Festival (2016)
 * Official Selection - Big Apple Film Festival (2015)
 * Official Selection - Santa Fe Film Festival (2015)

People interviewed
In Order of Appearance:
 * Robert Cenedella - Artist, entrepreneur & teacher
 * Joan Cenedella - Writer, author & teacher (Robert's sister)
 * Jess Korman - Writer, author & singer/songwriter
 * Stephen Geller - Magazine publisher & art collector
 * Liz Cenedella - Fabric artist & business owner (Robert's wife)
 * Richard Armstrong (museum director) - Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
 * Marvin Kitman - Writer, author, TV critic for New York Newsday
 * Ed McCormack - Managing Editor, Gallery & Studio art magazine
 * David Cenedella - Professor, Baruch College (Robert's son)
 * Jack Rollins (producer) - Film producer & business manager for Woody Allen
 * Paul Zerler (1922-2014) - Art expert & appraiser for the Titanic
 * Victor Navasky - Publisher emeritus of The Nation
 * Lauren Purje - Illustrator Artist, former Art Students League of New York (ASL) student
 * Kelly Crow - Art reporter, The Wall Street Journal
 * Morgan Long - Director of Art Investment, The Fine Art Fund Group
 * Sarah Thornton - Writer, author & sociologist of art
 * Judd Tully - Art critic, journalist, editor-at-large, Art+Auction magazine
 * Pamela Fiori - Writer, journalist, magazine Editor-In-Chief
 * Sirio Maccioni - Entrepreneur, owner of French restaurant, Le Cirque
 * George Hudson (1937-2013) - Professor of English, Colgate University
 * Susan Reingold - Art Students League of New York (ASL) art student

Reviews
The film received positive review from its audience, including an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes with 12 'Top Critic' and 19 'Fresh' reviews of the film. It was reviewed in numerous publications, and was selected as a The New York Times 'NYT Critic's Pick' by Stephen Holden.


 * Stephen Holden from The New York Times wrote:
 * "It's no what they show, it's what they don't show," the painter Robert Cenedella complains in "Art Bastard," Victor Kanefsky's robust, plain-talking documentary portrait of this lifelong revel and art-world gadfly."
 * Owen Gleiberman from Variety (magazine) wrote:
 * "The madly teeming pop-cartoon paintings of Robert Cenedella anchor a lively look at a self-styled superstar of outsider art."
 * Sheila O'Malley from RogerEbert.com wrote:
 * ""Art Bastard," Victor Kanefsky's Engaging and thought-provoking documentary about Cenedella, is a beautiful portrait of the man himself, still going strong at age 76, as well as a critique of the art world that has ignored him (and others) because they don't "fit.""
 * Bob Mondello from NPR wrote:
 * "'Art Bastard' is a film about a man who has tilted - and continues to tilt - at the art-world equivalent of Don Quixote's windmills."
 * Stephanie Merry from The Washington Post wrote:
 * "Cenedella is rough around the edges, yet he remains fascinating."
 * Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter wrote:
 * "Art Bastard shines brightest not as a biographical portrait - an aim in which it succeeds only sporadically -- but rather as a showcase for the highly imaginative and thoughtful works by the now 76-year-old, too-little-known painter."
 * Scott Marks from the San Diego Reader wrote:
 * "You may not recognize the name going in, but after spending 82 minutes watching director Victor Kanefsky cast a heartfelt lens in Cenedella's direction, you'll never forget him."