April 27, 2009 07:55PM EDT

Q&A: Con Artist

Michael Sládek, Mark Kostabi

“It’s not an easy thing to do, to watch yourself portrayed in a movie,” announced Mark Kostabi following the world premiere of Con Artist. “Especially when it’s you portraying yourself. Kostabi was one of the most outrageous personalities in the art scene of 1980s New York, so we had high hopes going into the Q&A of Michael Sládek’s documentary about him. We weren’t disappointed.

Kostabi hijacked the mic and the spotlight almost immediately after Sládek introduced him, eager to share with the full house his opinion of the movie that skewers his public reputation as one of the most reviled contemporary artists in America. “As an objective portrait of me, he could have portrayed me a lot worse,” said Kostabi. “I did control the movie because I got him the bad guys [to interview]. There are some people higher up in the art world food chain who really despise me.”

Sládek agrees, adding, “We could have made this a real slam piece.” In the end, he said, he shaped Con Artist into a portrayal of a flawed person in search of love. “It’s a strange thing, making documentaries. You pick a subject and themes and ideas you want to play with, and you kind of have to discover the story as you’re shooting or editing it.”

Never letting the audience’s attention stray too far from him, Kostabi kept commandeering the mic to clarify some of the film’s angles. “This was a portrait of me by Michael Sládek,” Kostabi said. “When you make a portrait, you can twist and turn the facts.” The artist—famous for signing his name to works painted by hired hands… and profiting hugely from it—was quick to point out that he does continue to make his own drawings and paintings, which still sell for an average of $10,000 to $20,000.

For Sládek, Con Artist began a few summers ago, when he was unemployed. A neighbor who was one of Kostabi’s stable of painters set Sládek up with a gig in the background of one of Kostabi’s infamous cable-access game shows. That led to a spot as a cameraman, and soon Sládek realized the storytelling potential of the world he was now a peripheral part of. “It was always intended from the beginning to be a fun, comic look at the art world,” said Sládek. “But the film has serious overtones,” interrupted Kostabi. “Is it a documentary or a docu-comedy?” he asked. “Yes,” answered Sládek. “Does anyone else besides Mark have any questions?”

We were laughing too hard to jot down all Kostabi said in his closing rant, but we're pretty sure it had something to do with all of our cash flowing directly into his bank account.

 

---

 

Con Artist screens throughout the Festival.

Read more Festival Q&A's.