That was Art&Seek’s Stephen Becker regaling the masses with the topic “Through a Cinematic Lens: Exploring the DMA Collections” on Wednesday afternoon in the Dallas Museum of Art’s weekly Gallery Talk. Mr. Becker, whose real name is Benevolent Supervisor, used to be one of the main movie guys at the Dallas Morning News, but still keeps up with all the new releases since coming to KERA almost one year ago. He led attendees on a visual tour of the filmmaking process, using paintings from the museum’s permanent collection to symbolize a single step toward making a movie. For example, what does Edward Hopper’s Lighthouse Hill (1927) have to do with cinematography? Stephen always likes the spontaneous verbal pop quiz, but this time it was fun (the answer is Hitchcock). He even made a convincing case for Church’s Icebergs as a parallel to modern Hollywood film marketing practices.

Gallery Talks are held every Wednesday at 3 pm and are included in general admission to the museum. Meet at the Visitor Services Desk by the parking garage and say hello to Ali. On August 5th, hear the DMA’s angelic curatorial assistant Erin Murphy speak on Willie Doherty: Requisite Distance.