pentimento | pen-tuh-men-toh
noun (plural pentimenti | pen-tuh-men-tee)

the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over.

origin: early 20th century: from Italian, literally ‘repentance’.

Pentimenti is a Chicago-based film production company and arts non-profit with a mission to produce, distribute, and support films about art and artists. Its inaugural feature was the 2014 documentary, Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists, which focuses on the history, impact, and legacy of a group of visual artists from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who came to prominence starting in the 1960s. In 2023, Pentimenti released Westermann: Memorial to the Idea of Man If He Was an Idea, a 3-D documentary about the artist and Marine H.C. Westermann that features voice-over narration by four-time Academy-Award nominee Ed Harris. Pentimenti’s films have screened at major museums, cinemas, and universities around the world, including Art21 at the Movies, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hammer Museum, Museo Reina Sofía, the Block Museum, Fandazione Prada, the Music Box Theater, the Gene Siskel Film Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and have garnered “Best Documentary,” “Best Director,” and numerous other awards at various film festivals. In addition to producing its own original documentaries, Pentimenti also facilitates documentary workshops at the Hyde Park Art Center, and a grantmaking program for emerging women, non-binary, and/or LGBTQ+ filmmakers.