Artist recreates world of DW Griffith
... In recent years Mr. [Adam] Cvijanovic, 47, has become known for his “wallpaper” painting installations, which typically render a landscape (a 52-foot-wide meadow, say, or a 21-foot-high glacier) at a relatively monumental size.
But this time he has tackled a more mythic monument: D. W. Griffith’s 1916 silent epic “Intolerance,” in particular the portion that unfolds in the court of ancient Babylon.
To create the film Griffith, the pioneer director, had a gargantuan set built in 1915 and filled it with sweeping staircases, plaster elephants and a cast of thousands. Although the movie is now frequently hailed as the diadem of his oeuvre, it flopped mightily at the box office. Griffith’s production company was forced into bankruptcy, and the fabulous set famously rotted in place for years at the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards as Hollywood grew up around it, mainly because he couldn’t afford to take it down.
In Mr. Cvijanovic’s painted interpretation, called “Adam Cvijanovic’s Colossal Spectacle,” he has chosen to portray Griffith’s dazzling failure — or triumph, depending on your viewpoint — in several different ways.
The show opens with a precisely rendered oil-on-Mylar painting that presents the set as it must have looked when it was freshly built in 1915, propped up on scaffolding and looming over a handful of streets and bungalows.
In another gallery about 30 oil sketches depict Griffith’s set in various stages of development and decay, as well as several scenes from the film. Some show the site as it appears today, a traffic-clogged intersection that is home to the Vista Theater, a gas station and a Vons supermarket. Others depict the Edenic paradise that it was circa 1905, before the movie industry hit town. (In another few days this display may well mushroom in size, given that Mr. Cvijanovic is still at work.)...
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But this time he has tackled a more mythic monument: D. W. Griffith’s 1916 silent epic “Intolerance,” in particular the portion that unfolds in the court of ancient Babylon.
To create the film Griffith, the pioneer director, had a gargantuan set built in 1915 and filled it with sweeping staircases, plaster elephants and a cast of thousands. Although the movie is now frequently hailed as the diadem of his oeuvre, it flopped mightily at the box office. Griffith’s production company was forced into bankruptcy, and the fabulous set famously rotted in place for years at the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards as Hollywood grew up around it, mainly because he couldn’t afford to take it down.
In Mr. Cvijanovic’s painted interpretation, called “Adam Cvijanovic’s Colossal Spectacle,” he has chosen to portray Griffith’s dazzling failure — or triumph, depending on your viewpoint — in several different ways.
The show opens with a precisely rendered oil-on-Mylar painting that presents the set as it must have looked when it was freshly built in 1915, propped up on scaffolding and looming over a handful of streets and bungalows.
In another gallery about 30 oil sketches depict Griffith’s set in various stages of development and decay, as well as several scenes from the film. Some show the site as it appears today, a traffic-clogged intersection that is home to the Vista Theater, a gas station and a Vons supermarket. Others depict the Edenic paradise that it was circa 1905, before the movie industry hit town. (In another few days this display may well mushroom in size, given that Mr. Cvijanovic is still at work.)...