Butchers, Dragons, Gods, and Skeletons

The Kimbell Art Museum has commissioned the distinguished filmmaker Philip Haas to create a series of film installations that interpret and elaborate upon paintings and objects in the museum’s permanent collection. The installations feature poetic and sensuous moving images that appear on unconventional screen configurations and are enhanced by architectural and sculptural effects as well as original music. One moment the images form themselves into an uncanny re-creation of the chosen piece from the collection, the next they give a vivid new form to ideas and visual delights it has suggested. In this way the installations are both beautiful works of art in themselves and invitations to look at art with imaginative abandon. They will complement a full display of the Kimbell's permanent collection, each occupying a space near the work to which it relates.

The first installation in the series, Haas’s response to Annibale Carracci’s The Butcher’s Shop (early 1580s), has already been shown to acclaim at the 2008 Venice and Toronto film festivals. At least four further installations are planned for the exhibition. The subjects are: the Red-Figure Cup Showing the Death of Pentheus and a Maenad by the ancient Greek vase painter Douris (c. 480 B.C.); a Chinese scroll painting, Arhat Taming the Dragon (early 14th century); Apollo and the Continents by G. B. Tiepolo (c. 1739); and Skeletons Warming Themselves by James Ensor (1889).

Before becoming a filmmaker, Philip Haas studied art history at Harvard. He has made documentaries with artists as well as a number of feature films, including the Oscar-nominated Angels and Insects (1995).

Information from venue