Think of departed 1980s art world stars Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring and it's hard not to conjure some of their most ubiquitous images on coffee cups, T-shirts, and shower curtains. Less universally known and rewarded was their contemporary and friend, Richard Hambleton, a street artist who alternated between the rarefied world of glitzy (and lucrative) exhibitions in Manhattan galleries and years of homelessness. Filmmaker Oren Jacoby's documentary Shadowman tells the truly odd and sad story of Hambleton, who died in October 2017 after suffering years of untreated skin cancer that left his face ravaged. The film begins with grainy, nighttime footage of Hambleton in younger, healthier days, hurriedly painting the trademark haunting silhouettes he would leave as graffiti all over the Bronx. The compulsive Hambleton created an enormous amount of artifacts, which caught on with gallery owners and critics, giving him a deep-pocketed fan base and the support of such luminaries as Andy Warhol. But then he disappeared for 20 years, ending up on the streets, where he was incapable of managing money or caring for his health. But he kept working somehow, was eventually rediscovered, and briefly came back into the limelight, with some of his art pieces selling for six figures. Combining interviews and archival footage, Shadowman is a sad chronicle of the decline of a strange and talented artist. Extras include bonus footage. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
Shadowman
(2017) 82 min. DVD: $24.95. Film Movement (avail. from most distributors). Closed captioned. Volume 33, Issue 2
Shadowman
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