Near the beginning of Stephen Sachs‘s Bakersfield Mist, a big-time art expert stands in the trailer home belonging to an out-of-work bartender and breaks the news to her that the painting she bought at a thrift store isn’t the genuine Jackson Pollock she hopes it is. “This is shallow. Empty,” he says of the canvas. “It has no allure.”
I’ve seen only the first nine minutes and 22 seconds of the documentary, but that’s enough to confirm that it’s framed as a Teri-versus-the-snoots narrative, the primary snoot being the late Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas Hoving, who’s shown discussing his “connoisseurship”—and making lots of geeky moves—on his way to declaring that Horton’s painting is no Pollock.
Through 10/15: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, Stage 773, 773-327-5252, timelinetheatre.com, $28-$51.
