Actor, director and producer Bob Balaban offered Paddle8 insights into his early memories of art, his admiration for the Barnes collection and his favorite piece from the Zak and Robin Williams curated exhibition. You may have seen Balaban in Midnight Cowboy, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Ghost World or any of Christopher Guest’s films. He also produced the Robert Altman directed film Gosford Park.
Balaban’s earliest memory of art was in the theater seeing the national company of Peter Pan with Mary Martin in its pre-Broadway run in Chicago. Speaking about art spaces, he would have loved to spend time inside the Albert C Barnes collection and seen the idiosyncratic, salon style manner with entire walls with paintings interspersed with decorative metalwork. Barnes had an especially impressive showing of work by Cezanne, Renoir, Gaugin, Modigliani and Matisse – an artist that Balaban also favors.
Among the artists Balaban discussed from Taking Sides, he highlighted Jenny Holzer because he “consistently respond to her work”.
Check out the New York Times interactive tour of the Barnes Foundation before its relocation.
Check out Jenny Holzer’s artwork on Paddle8.