Guggenheim

(Exp, 5min, 2022)

“I’m trying to get into where the jazz musicians are, the immediate present.” —Alex Katz

Filmed at his Maine studio nestled in New England’s scenic landscapes, legendary artist Alex Katz reflects on his relationship to light and the sensations that his painting evokes.

Directed by Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Producers: Stephen J. Grant, Laura Kleger, Stephan Knuesel; Editor / DP: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Carlos Hernandez; Sound-mix: Josh Allen; Interview: Katherine Brinson, Stephen J. Grant;

(Doc, 15mins, 2023)

“Even though she didn’t speak much, or didn’t like speaking much about herself or her life, it’s all interwoven. And if you learn to read through the language of abstraction, you also see that the lines are also the lines of a life.” – Pablo León de la Barra, Curator at Large, Latin America, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation
This Guggenheim-produced documentary explores the life and legacy of one of the most significant artists to emerge from Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century.

Produced, Written, and Directed by Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; DP/Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Brian J. Ramos; Sound-Mix: Josh Allen; Location sound: Carlos Hernandez (NY), Claude John Roberts (Austin);

(Doc, 18mins, 2018)

Erik Satie’s "Vexations" (ca. 1893) is a short piano piece to be repeated 840 times. John Cage—attracted to its serial, durational nature—staged it in New York with pianists in a relay in 1963. The performance lasted almost 19 hours. In 2017, 20 musicians realized "Vexations" at the Guggenheim in conjunction with the exhibition "Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892–1897." Satie, likely vexed with the Salon’s organizer, wrote the work after they parted ways. Performers included players from 1963—Philip Corner, David Del Tredici, Joshua Rifkin, and Christian Wolff—as well as renowned Satie interpreter Anne Queffélec and Cage collaborator Margaret Leng Tan.

Producer, director, editor: Stephan Knuesel; Guggenheim producer: Naomi Leibowitz; Videographers: Giacomo Francia, Sebastian Diaz, Stephan Knuesel, Caroline Mariko Stucki; Music: Denise Mei Yan Hofmann; Interviewers: Sebastian Diaz (musicians), Stephan Knuesel (curators);

(Doc. 12min, 2022)

A documentary on artist Cecilia Vicuña’s "Ex-Termination Living Quipu” performance which took place in 2022 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Premiere Sunday Nov 12, 2023 at Metrograph in New York

Film Credits:

Directed by Stephen J. Grant and Stephan Knuesel; Cinematographers: Giacomo Francia, Harry Montas, Caroline Mariko Stucky, Olga Vázquez, AEC.; Additional cinematography: Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel, Derek Siyarngnork; Editor: Giacomo Francia; Sound recordist: Carlos Hernandez; Sound mix: Josh Allen;

In this behind-the-scenes look at her creative process, Chilean artist, poet, activist, and filmmaker Cecilia Vicuña discusses “Quipu del exterminio / Extermination Quipu,” a site-specific installation on view as part of “Cecilia Vicuña: Spin Spin Triangulene” at the Guggenheim Museum, curated by Pablo León de la Barra and Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães.

Directed and filmed by: Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Producers: Stephen J. Grant, Laura Kleger, Stephan Knuesel; Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Masatora Goya; Graphics: Milo Bonacci, Jiminie Ha, Janice Lee, Brette Richmond; Sound-mix: Josh Allen

(Doc, 5min, 2024)

For "Jenny Holzer: Light Line,” Lee Quiñones, one of the originators of street art and a longtime collaborator of Holzer’s, has graffitied the walls of the Guggenheim Museum’s High Gallery over the artist’s colorful “Inflammatory Essays” posters.

Pioneering American artist Jenny Holzer activates the iconic building and highlights the power of the written word in "Jenny Holzer: Light Line” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, May 17–September 29, 2024.

Directed by Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Producers: Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Editor / DP: Stephan Knuesel; Colorist: Derek Siyarngnork; Music & mix: Carlos Hernandez; Interviewer: Stephen J. Grant;

(Doc, 15min, 2022)

*VIMEO STAFF PICK (JULY 21, 2022)

This short documentary covers the extensive research, dialogue, and complex conservation treatment that was carried out to conserve Eva Hesse’s "Expanded Expansion," bringing it out of storage after nearly thirty-five years.It was screened on a loop in the Guggenheim galleries as part of the “Expanded Expansion” exhibition in its own screening room.

Directors: Stephen J. Grant and Stephan Knuesel; Editor: Miao Wang; Music: Denise Mei Yan Hofmann; Cameras: Erick Munari, Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel;

Village Voice (Aug 3, 2022) In a small adjoining room, a brief film discusses the decision to show Expanded Expansion and the “minimal intervention” necessary to restore it. […]Unlike many documentaries in art shows—so often fawning, jargony, or simplistic—this one doesn’t condescend to its audience. Renowned curator (but not of this show) Elisabeth Sussman and sculptor Maren Hassinger disagree about the nature of Hesse’s work in its present state: Are her sculptures as vital as ever? Or have they become, in their rigidity, monuments? In one fascinating segment, the Guggenheim’s restorers partner with Doug Johns, Hesse’s personal fiberglass manufacturer, while he recreates a single panel from scratch in order to understand the work’s appearance half a century ago. […]

Currently screening at Hauser & Wirth in New York (May 2– July 26, 2024).

David Heald, who has been photographing the Guggenheim Museum since 1981, calls the Frank Lloyd Wright building the most valuable work of art in the Guggenheim collection. This short documentary explores Wright’s famed design and some of the museum’s most memorable exhibitions through the lens of the museum’s Director of Photographic Services and Chief Photographer.

Producers: Alex Barber, Caitlin Dover, Laura Kleger, Stephen Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Alisha Levin; Director, DP, Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Denise Mei Yan Hofmann; Sound-mix: Josh Allen; Graphics: Brette Richmond, Jae-eun Chung;

David Heald’s work: https://www.davidhealdstudio.com

"Red Lily Pads" (1956), one of American sculptor Alexander Calder’s iconic mobiles, has occupied an important place in the Guggenheim’s collection for more than half a century. Here Nathan Otterson, Senior Conservator, Objects, and Tracey Bashkoff, Director of Collections and Senior Curator, describe the demanding process of restoring the work, from matching its distinctive red color—a signature of Calder’s—to adjusting how its leaf-like plates “branch out” and move once installed.

Producers: Naomi Leibowitz, Stephan Knuesel; Director, DP, Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Additional camera: Nisma Zaman; Music: Alex Weston

(Doc, 8min, 2022)

*Nowness Pick (Dec 16, 2022)

“I know that I am here to use art as this vehicle for change. So, I have to somehow come up with ways of working that sort of breaks down these divisions.” —Nick Cave

A short documentary created on the occasion of the “Nick Cave: Forothermore” exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2023 curated by Naomi Beckwith.

Producers: Stephen J. Grant, Laura Kleger, Stephan Knuesel; Directors: Stephen J. Grant and Stephan Knuesel; DP & Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Shaun J. Wright; Location sound: Jen Kienzler; Soundmix: Josh Allen;

Simone Leigh, winner of the 2018 Hugo Boss Prize, introduces her artistic practice and the process of making new sculptures for the exhibition "Loophole of Retreat."

Producers: Alex Barber, Caitlin Dover, Stephan Knuesel, Alisha Levin; DP: Stephan Knuesel; Editor: Miao Wang; Music: Rob Burger

Producers: Alex Barber, Caitlin Dover, Stephen Grant, Stephan Knuesel, Alisha Levin; DP: Stephan Knuesel; Edit: Miao Wang; Music: Denise Mei Yan Hofmann

Why is it important for the Guggenheim Museum to collect and preserve art? "Collecting Abstraction" journeys through the decades-long history of abstraction in the Guggenheim’s collection and iconic exhibitions, illustrating an enduring commitment to the artists of our time, the multiple perspectives art offers, and the conversations artworks can stimulate. Through open and honest dialogue with various voices from the Guggenheim Museum, "Collecting Abstraction" demonstrates the ways in which the founding principles of the Guggenheim’s collection continue to guide its present and future.

Directors: Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Producers: Stephen J. Grant, Laura Kleger, Stephan Knuesel; DP: Caroline Mariko Stucky; Giacomo Francia, Stephan Knuesel; Editor: Miao Wang; Music: Damon Smith

A short ad for the Guggenheim museum catalogue “Gego: Measuring Infinity.”

Direction: Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Camera, edit & sound: Stephan Knuesel; Hand model: Clara Boesch;

More on the book

(Teaser, 60s, 2023)

A teaser for the exhibition “Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s” curated by Kyung An and Kang Soojung at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Producers & directors: Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Director of Photography: Derek Siyarngnork; Editor and additional camera: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Denise Mei Yan Hofmann; Graphics: Milo Bonacci, Jiminie Ha, Janice Lee, LeSean Marie Patton;

This time-lapse video documents the installation of Sun Yuan & Peng Yu's "Can't Help Myself" (2016), a large-scale installation featuring a robotic arm as part of the exhibition “One Hand Clapping” at the Guggenheim Museum in 2016 curated by Xiaoyu Weng.

Producers: Stephan Knuesel, Naomi Leibowitz; Camera & edit: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Tim O’Keefe;

For two decades, Derek DeLuco, Senior Technician and Mount Maker at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, has made mounts for the art on view at the museum—an undertaking that requires patience, ingenuity, and a good eye. In this video, he describes some the of mounts created for the Giacometti exhibition and explains that the mount should not be a distraction when viewing the art. This short documentary provides a glimpse into DeLuco’s position and the complexity behind making mounts that both support an object and are invisible to visitors.

Producers: Harineta Rigatos, Stephan Knuesel, Naomi Leibowitz; Director, DP, Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Rob Burger; Graphics: Peter Castro, Jae-eun Chung;

A teaser for the Giacometti exhibition at the Guggenheim museum in 2018 curated by Megan Fontanella, showing a glimpse into the installation process.

Producers: Stephan Knuesel, Naomi Leibowitz, Harineta Rigatos; Director, camera & edit: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Rob Burger

Wu Tsang’s new commission, "Anthem" (2021), was conceived in collaboration with the legendary singer, composer, and transgender activist Beverly Glenn-Copeland. This site-specific installation revolves around an immense, 84-foot curtain sculpture suspended from the Guggenheim’s iconic oculus. Projected onto this luminous textile is a “film-portrait” Tsang created of Glenn-Copeland improvising and singing passages of his music, including original a cappella melodies and his rendition of the spiritual “Deep River.”

Featuring: Wu Tsang, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Elizabeth Glenn-Copeland; Producers: Stephen Grant, Laura Kleger, Stephan Knuesel; DP, Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Kelsey Lu, Asma Maroof, Daniel Pineda; Sound-mix: Josh Allen

In this video artist Danh Vo describes the process of making "We the People" (2011–16), a one-to-one replica of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Like the Statue of Liberty, which is a hollow shell, the copper forms of Vo’s replica have the thickness of only two pennies. Yet the three hundred or so individual pieces that make up the artist’s version will never be brought together to form a whole. Vo states that the aim for this project is to “turn something familiar into something very unfamiliar.”

Producers: Naomi Leibowitz, Stephan Knuesel; Camera & edit: Stephan Knuesel; Sound-mix: Josh Allen; Music: Alex Weston

Visit The Bunker Studio with New York–based Trinidadian drummer, composer, and musician Zane Rodulfo, and listen to his new jazz composition, “Around the Circle,” created in response to learning more about Vasily Kandinsky’s practice and spiritual beliefs.

Directors: Stephen J. Grant, Stephan Knuesel; Cameras: Mark Hayes, Derek Siyarngnork, Stephan Knuesel; Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Zane Rodulfo; Performers: Zane Rodulfo, David Bertrand, Aaron Burnett, Michael King, Dan Pappalardo, Aaron Nevezie;

Jenny Holzer is one of six contemporary artists invited to explore the Guggenheim’s collection as a curator of the exhibition "Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection." She says, “The great pleasure of going into storage was that it was to be about looking. . . . It was a joy to be able to go in and peer and have an immediate response from the eyes.” For her presentation, "Good Artists," Holzer chose works made exclusively by women, seeking out seldom-seen pieces by both well-known and underappreciated artists.

Producers: Alex Barber, Caitlin Dover, Stephan Knuesel, Alisha Levin; DP / Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Denise Mei Yan Hofmann; Sound-mix: Josh Allen; Graphics: Jae-eun Chung, Michael Enten, Janice Lee, Brette Richmond;

This video shows the creation of Danh Vo’s work Fabulous Muscles Take My Breath Away (2018), engraved on the Guggenheim’s street-level window by Danh’s father, Phung Vo.

Production: Naomi Leibowitz, Stephan Knuesel; Direction, camera & edit: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Alex Weston;

"How can I break the rules of how art history is written? How an exhibition is made? How art is presented?" asks "Tales of Our Time" cocurator Xiaoyu Weng. Xiaoyu Weng worked directly with artists to commission new artworks for the museum's permanent collection. Here, she explains how she invited each artist in "Tales of Our Time" to respond to a set of keywords: territory, borders, boundaries, and divides. She also discusses how the works featured in the exhibition are united by the artists' use of storytelling.

Producers: Stephan Knuesel, Naomi Leibowitz; Xiaoyu Weng; DP (NYC), editor: Stephan Knuesel; DP (Hong Kong, China, Taiwan): Shaoguang Sun; Camera op (Interview): Alvin Tsang; Music: Tim O’Keefe; Sound-mix: Josh Allen; Graphics: Janice Lee

Maren Hassinger discusses her artistic practice, how she draws inspiration from dance and collaborative performance, and her installation "Untitled" (1972/2020). The work, which was conceived in 1972 and is comprised of repeatedly hand-spliced nautical rope, is presented to the public for the first time as part of the 2020–21 exhibition "Knotted, Torn, Scattered: Sculpture after Abstract Expressionism" curated by Lauren Hinkson.

Producers: Caitlin Dover, Lauren Hinkson, Stephen Grant, Laura Kleger, Stephan Knuesel, Olivia Manno; DP/Editor: Stephan Knuesel; Graphics: Brette Richmond; Music: Masatora Goya; Sound-mix: Josh Allen;

Go behind the scenes with Megan Fontanella, Curator, Modern Art and Provenance, and explore the work of artist Vasily Kandinsky, a central figure in the Guggenheim Museum’s founding collection.

Featuring: Megan Fontanella and Stephen J. Grant; Producers: Stephan J. Grant, Laura Kleger, Stephan Knuesel; Videographer & editor: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Damon Smith; Sound-mix: Josh Allen; Graphics: Michael Enten, Jiminie Ha, Janice Lee, Brette Richmond;

In this video, Nat Trotman, Curator, Performance and Media, reflects on Gillian Wearing’s three-decade career and the ways masks in her practice serve as both literal props and metaphors for the performances each of us stage every day.

“Gillian Wearing: Wearing Masks” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York is the first retrospective of Wearing’s work in North America. The exhibition is on view through April 4, 2022, and is organized by Jennifer Blessing, Senior Curator, Photography, and Nat Trotman, Curator, Performance and Media, with X Zhu-Nowell, Assistant Curator, and Ksenia Soboleva, Jan and Marica Vilcek Curatorial Fellow.

Producers: Stephen J. Grant, Laura Kleger, Stephan Knuesel; Camera&edit: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Carlos Hernandez; Interviewer: Stephen J. Grant; Sound-mix: Josh Allen;

Teaser with press quotes for the exhibition “Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future” at the Guggenheim Museum in 2018-2019.

Producers: Naomi Leibowitz, Stephan Knuesel; Camera & edit: Stephan Knuesel; Music: Andrew Miller

Teaser for the exhibition “Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now” at the Guggenheim Museum in 2019.

Producers: Naomi Leibowitz, Stephan Knuesel; Music: Denise Mei Yan Hofmann; Camera&edit: Stephan Knuesel; Graphics: Jae-eun Chung;

This is a short artist profile video on Cao Fei and her works for the Guggenheim Exhibition “One Hand Clapping” curated by Xiaoyu Weng. Set in the largest logistics warehouse in Shanghai, Cao Fei’s film "Asia One" (2018)—part of a larger installation of the same name—examines the automated industry’s physical and psychological impact on society. In this video, she notes a central question of her work: “How can humanity go on finding its place after humans have been replaced by automation?”

Producers: Naomi Leibowitz, Stephan Knuesel; Camera: Stephan Knuesel; Edit: Miao Wang; Music: Damon Smith; Sound-mix: Josh Allen;

Richard Prince is one of six contemporary artists invited to explore the Guggenheim’s collection as a curator of the exhibition Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection. He says, “When you go to something as vast as the Guggenheim’s collection is, you start to see patterns.” When preparing for his presentation, Four Paintings Looking Right, Prince discovered a surprising number of commonalities among paintings made between the 1940s and early 1960s, many created by lesser-known Abstract Expressionist artists.

Producers: Alex Barber, Caitlin Dover, Stephen Grant, Stephan Knuesel, Alisha Levin; Videographer & editor: Stephan Knuesel; Additional videography: Giacomo Francia; Music: Denise Mei Yan Hofmann; Sound-mix: Josh Allen; Graphics: Jae-eun Chung, Michael Enten, Janice Lee, Brette Richmond;

Artist Ai Weiwei describes working with filmmaker Wang Fen for film festival “Turn It On: China on Film, 2000–2017” to select twenty documentary films that reflect the daily reality in China, and narrate the complexity of the society. Through the “personal points of view of those filmmakers,” he says, “you can never get to know China better.”

Producers: Naomi Leibowitz, Stephan Knuesel; Editors: Ruohan Xu, Stephan Knuesel; Field producer, videographer: Thomas Adamicka; Music: Tim O’Keefe; Interviewer: Alexandra Monroe; Location sound: Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer; Graphics: Janice Lee

This is a short artist profile and behind the scenes video on Lin Yilin and his works for the Guggenheim Exhibition “One Hand Clapping” curated by Xiaoyu Weng. In his three-part "Monad" series (2018), Lin Yilin encourages viewers to understand space in new ways and notes the political undercurrents of his work. His VR simulation enables us to inhabit the experience of a basketball in the hands of NBA player Jeremy Lin, who the artist describes as a “key figure in the representations of race.”

Producers: Naomi Leibowitz, Stephan Knuesel; Camera: Stephan Knuesel, Erick Munari; Edit: Miao Wang; Music: Damon Smith; Sound-mix: Josh Allen