CARLO… and His Merry Band of Artists

77 min
dir. Richard Kane
Screened with a panel discussion with director Richard Kane and art lover Kent Gordon

CARLO … and his Merry Band of Artists premiered at the 2024 Maine International Film Festival (nominated for the Best Maine Film of the Year) as well as eight other film festivals in Australia, Eastern Europe, Canada, and California. Carlo Pittore, an exuberant, larger-than-life figurative artist and activist is discussed by a small group of friends and fellow founding artists of the organization he started, the Union of Maine Visual Artists, who gathered at a late afternoon al fresco picnic to assess Carlo’s impact. He died in 2005 at the age of 62. Says art author Edgar Beem, “The conversation is so casual and honest it’s almost as though Carlo had just stepped away from the table for a moment rather than for all eternity.” His advice to young artists to strike out, follow their dreams, and “Do It” was palpable… as was the love for him and the hurt he sometimes caused. Memories and perspectives clash. Carlo painted nude models while singing and dancing to Verdi’s opera at his Academy of Carlo Pittore creating works often compared to Lucian Freud and Alice Neel. Fearing the AIDS epidemic he fled New York in the late ’80s. Jonathan Katz, a founding figure in queer art history, said he didn’t think Carlo’s interest in female nudes was a cover for his homosexuality. He found them beautiful. The film captures Carlo’s ambition for artistic greatness, his infectious personality, his struggle with sexual identity, and complicated legacy.