EXCLUSIVE: Agnes Denes, a pioneer of ecological and land art known for work on a monumental scale, will be the focus of an upcoming documentary from director Alexandra Shiva and executive producer Ethan Hawke.
The untitled project, from Shiva’s Gidalya Pictures and Hawke’s Under the Influence banner, will explore a prodigious talent who continues to make art at the age of 94. Denes, born in Hungary in 1931, has been based in New York for decades and it was in Manhattan in 1982 that she created her most celebrated piece — “Wheatfield – A Confrontation,” that saw her plant and harvest “a field of golden wheat on two acres of rubble-strewn landfill near Wall Street and the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan,” as Denes’s website puts it.
“I am fascinated with Agnes as an artist, who has been referred to as a modern-day Da Vinci,” Shiva noted. “She is one of the most prolific living artists, yet most of her work has gone unseen and unrealized – until now.”
The film team has received “exclusive, intimate access to the legendary artist,” according to a release. The documentary will follow Denes as she works from her SoHo studio on projects destined for locations around the world, including Saudi Arabia.
Director Alexandra Shiva
Courtesy of Josh Lehrer
“Agnes is a series of contradictions, and therefore an extremely captivating documentary subject,” Shiva commented. “She is physically frail, but her mind is razor sharp. She is homebound, but her inner creative life is boundless. She is intensely private, but finally for the first time, ready to open her world to the public. I see the film as embodying that spirit of contradiction and duality – it will be both an intimate dialogue with one of the greatest minds of our time and an expansive look at art, culture, society, and the environment.”
Ryan Hawke of Under the Influence Productions, Lindsey Megrue of Gidalya Pictures, and Bradley Girson of FirstGen Content are producing, with Ethan Hawke as E.P.
FirstGen Content’s Girson originated the project. “Like so many, I had somehow never heard of Agnes Denes when I first saw the iconic photograph of Agnes in her wheatfield,” he said. “That project, like Agnes’s singular career and enduring belief in the human spirit, represents the highest ideal of art—and art’s vital role in our shared human experience. That Agnes spent years as a neglected-yet-revered working artist in New York City adds intrigue and complexity to her story, which we are excited to share with people when the film is ready.”
Film Forum is serving as fiscal sponsor for the project. The untitled film has also received support from Zach Verdin’s Parable (The Brutalist, The Testament Of Ann Lee), LYRA Art Foundation — a recently launched nonprofit founded by entrepreneur Tanya Eves to support boundary-pushing artists and curators — and Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia.
Ethan Hawke
Josh Telles for Deadline
Ethan Hawke’s Under the Influence produced The Last Movie Stars for CNN Films and HBO Max, a six-part documentary series about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Under the Influence’s Seymour: An Introduction, about pianist and teacher Seymour Bernstein, premiered at Telluride. It was at Telluride this year that Under the Influence premiered Highway 99: A Double Album, a film about country music legend Merle Haggard. Hawke directed all three projects — The Last Movie Stars, Seymour: An Introduction, and Highway 99: A Double Album.
Shiva’s Gidalya Pictures produced One South: Portrait of a Psych Unit, a two-part HBO documentary about an in-patient psychiatric unit. Previous work includes This Is Home, winner of the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Peabody award-winning film How To Dance In Ohio, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and was recently adapted into a Broadway musical.
Alexandra Shiva is represented by Maggie Pisacane at WME.