Local, USA

With Peter Bradley

By Alex Rappoport

PREMIERING THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19 at 8/7c

When filmmaker Alex Rappoport met Peter Bradley in 2020, the 79-year-old abstract artist hadn't sold many paintings nor had a major show in over four decades...yet he still painted every day in relative obscurity. Over time, Rappoport recorded Bradley's life story and artistic process, both deeply inspired by modern Jazz music. As a child, Bradley met and befriended musicians including Miles Davis and Art Blakey, and their influence was indelible.

Bradley's early rise to success was remarkable. Curator of what is considered the first integrated modern art show in America, Bradley was also the first Black haute art dealer in New York and likely the first Black abstract artist represented by a major New York gallery. But by the 1980s his career nearly ended. Still deeply committed to the expressive power of color, Bradley continues painting gorgeous pictures at a prolific pace, but without an audience to appreciate them.

At once an intimate portrait and a deep study of the creative process, WITH PETER BRADLEY is situated entirely at the artist’s rural home and studio, and unfolds over the course of changing seasons. The sole figure on screen, Bradley narrates his life in a series of unscripted conversations: often provocative, sometimes bitter, and full of surprises.