Paul Chaleff: Thinking in Clay (2026). Documentary film by Eduardo Montes-Bradley | 60 minutes

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The film follows Paul Chaleff in his studio in Ancram, New York, a space previously occupied by British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, with whom Chaleff collaborated in the early 1980s. The history of the studio provides a physical connection between two artists working across the boundaries of sculpture and ceramics, while the film remains rooted in Chaleff’s present-day practice.

Here, clay, fire, landscape, and the physical demands of making become the foundations of a life devoted to ceramics. Working at a scale that pushes the limits of the material, Chaleff approaches clay not simply as a medium but as a process—one shaped by gravity, uncertainty, repetition, and the accumulated knowledge of the body.

Chaleff’s work is considered within the larger transformation of ceramics in the second half of the twentieth century, when artists increasingly challenged the distinction between pottery and sculpture. His encounters with artists, museums, collectors, and institutions—including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art—place his work within a broader conversation about the changing status of ceramics in contemporary art.

Rather than attempting a comprehensive chronology, the documentary remains close to Chaleff and to the act of making. The studio becomes the principal stage: hands entering clay, forms rising and sometimes collapsing, enormous works moving toward the kiln, and the passage of time becoming visible through material and gesture. The resulting portrait considers how much of an artist’s body, memory, and experience ultimately resides in the objects he leaves behind.

Recommended Fields of Study

This film is suitable for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in Art History, Studio Art, Ceramics, and Sculpture, and will be of particular interest to programs examining postwar and contemporary American art, material culture, and craft. It also supports curricula in Museum Studies, Visual Studies, Art Education, and interdisciplinary humanities courses concerned with artistic process, collaboration, materiality, and the relationship between craft and fine art.

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Film Information

Director: Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Producer: Soledad Liendo | Heritage Film Project
Funded by: Documentary Film Fund
Runtime: 60 minutes | Year: 2025

Language: English | Country: United States​​​​

In Production | Release Fall, 2027

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