We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
3
SUNDAY
It’s an arty day in the neighborhood when filmmakers Chris Maybach and Paul Gardner take their camera into the sprawling yet tiny precincts of contemporary American painters, sculptors, dealers, and art critics. The first installment in the duo’s “Art City” documentary series was set in New York, but the two have now located another art city (L.A.) as well as a few well-established colonies such as Woodstock and Taos. In these rarefied climes, Maybach and Gardner chat with such art stars as Ed Ruscha, Louise Bourgeois, John Baldessari, and Agnes Martin, as well as celebrity art critic Dave Hickey, the only person to appear in both of the new one-hour episodes, Simplicity and A Ruling Passion. Because it deals with issues of careerism and features a meeting between a gadfly and a rising star, the former chapter is the more entertaining, but both are lively and fluid. They show at 5 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium, 4th and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. (202) 842-6799. (Mark Jenkins)