Hard Beauty Helaine Blumenfeld (2018)

Helaine Blumenfeld is one of the most respected sculptors of her generation and one of the art world's best kept secrets. Now in her eighth decade, this is the first film about her life and work. Featuring sequences filmed in Paris, where Blumenfeld first learned her craft under the great Russian sculptor Ossip Zadkine; Pietrasanta, Italy - a sanctuary for sculptors since Michelangelo, where Blumenfeld has a studio; and the artist's hometown of Cambridge, this film reveals the story of one of Britain's great unsung artists. It follows the creation of Blumenfeld's sculpture, Tree of Life: Encounter, from conceiving the form in clay, to scaling up, 'roughing out' and finishing the marble, to installing the completed 10ft sculpture at the Woolf Institute's new headquarters at Westminster College, Cambridge, in February 2018. Timothy Potts, Director, J Paul Getty Museum, who features in the film says: "It's quite remarkable that Helaine Blumenfeld, at this stage in her life, is enjoying so much success with new commissions and recognition from major museums, collectors and public institutions. Many artists have successful mid-life careers but their future doesn't always look as exciting as what's come before them. Helaine has avoided that pitfall by continuing to evolve in her artistry; what she's creating now is more ambitious and complex than ever before. I am sure that Helaine's work will survive the test of time and she will have a place in 20th and 21st century history."