Chambers: Tracks & Gestures

"Shot on location in Spain and Canada, this visually lyrical film
　　provides a carefully constructed narrative of the artist's complex,
　　inspired life. As a young art student Chambers left the provincial
　　town of London, Ontario in the early 1950's and sailed to Naples.
　　In Spain he broke into Picasso's house to ask him for advice, and
　　ended up enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. He lived in
　　Spain for nine years, and when he came back to Canada he brought
　　with him an artistic discipline as sharp as Spanish steel,
　　a sophisticated Argentinean wife, and a new religion; Catholicism.
　　The film includes the full range of Chambers' work up until his death
　　at the age of 47 including oil paintings, drawings and experimental
　　films. His effort to integrate the influences of photography and to
　　reconcile abstract art with the conservative technical tradition that he
　　embraced in Spain reflects the central conflicts that have defined
　　artistic expression in the 20th century. For the last nine years of his
　　life, Chambers struggled with leukemia, traveling as far as India in
　　search of a cure, yet during his last years he produced much of his
　　most radiant work.
　　Tracks and Gestures includes penetrating interviews with Jungian
　　analyst and writer Marion Woodman, critic and scholar Ross
　　Woodman, multimedia artist and co-founder of Canadian Artists
　　Representation (CAR) Kim Ondaatje, and the great Spanish realist
　　painter Antonio Lopez. It also includes original footage of
　　masterpieces by Goya, El Greco, Velazquez, and Rembrandt from
　　the Prado Museum in Madrid. The film has a delightful original
　　musical score, and is narrated by two of Canada's finest actors,
　　Ted Johns and Cedric Smith."
　　Christopher Lowry