MoMA Museum of Modern Art

Known for such viscerally evocative films as Near Dark (1987) and Point Break (1991), Kathryn Bigelow (American, b. 1951) received widespread critical distinctions for her most recent film, The Hurt Locker (2008). She began her career as a painter and conceptual artist, studying at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Whitney Museum of American Art and working with the artist collective Art & Language before segueing into film as another medium to explore her themes. Bigelow’s background reverberates throughout her directorial process—from pre-production, when she creates personal art based on works-in-progress, to the finished films, which are distinctive in their spatial and visual treatment of celluloid as canvas. This exhibition examines a filmmaker’s intuition and process, and includes paintings, concept art, film posters, drawings, storyboards, scripts, short films, and props that reveal Bigelow's singular methods and motifs. A film retrospective in MoMA's theaters accompanies the gallery installation.