Robert Carlton Breer (September 30, 1926 – August 11, 2011) was an American experimental filmmaker, painter, and sculptor.[William Grimes, "Robert Breer, Pioneer of Avant-Garde Animation, Dies at 84", The New York Times, August 17, 2011, [1].]
Life and career
Born in 1926, Breer began his artistic career as a painter after studying at Stanford University and Paris.
[[2], ] "A founding member of the American avant-garde,"
[ Harvard Film Archive] Breer was best known for his films, which combine abstract and representational painting, hand-drawn rotoscoping, original 16mm and 8mm film footage, photographs, and other materials.
[ Carnegie International Museum of Art Website, Artist's bio.]
After experimenting with cartoon animation as a child, he started making his first abstract experimental films while living in Paris from 1949 to 1959, a period during which he also showed paintings and kinetic sculptures at galleries such as the renowned Galerie Denise René.[, "Screening Room with Robert Breer (1976)"][ Australian Center for the Moving Image , "Robert Breer: Master of the 4 inch x 6 inch."][ Animation World Network Website, Artist's Bio.]
Breer explained some of the reasons behind his move from painting to filmmaking in a 1976 interview:
Breer also taught at Cooper Union in New York from 1971 to 2001.[ The Film Gallery , Artist's Bio.] He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978.[ The New York Times, "Guggenheim Foundation Announces 1978 Awards."]
Breer died on August 11, 2011, at his home in Tucson.[ Frameworks Listserv][ Movie City News, "Experimental Filmmaker Robert Breer Dies at 85."]
Influences
His aesthetic philosophy and technique were influenced by an earlier generation of abstract filmmakers that included Hans Richter,
Viking Eggeling,
Walter Ruttmann, and Fernand Léger, whose work he discovered while living in Europe.
Breer was also influenced by the concept of
Neo-plasticism as described by
Piet Mondrian and
Vasarely.
Legacy
Scholarly publications on Breer's work and interviews with the artist can be found in
Robert Breer,
A Critical Cinema 2: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers by Scott MacDonald,
An Introduction to the American Underground Film by
Sheldon Renan,
Animation in the Cinema by Ralph Stephenson, and
Film Culture magazine.
[Wetzel, Roland, Laurence Sillars, Ute Holl, Andres Pardey, and Laurence Sillars. Robert Breer. Bielefeld: Kerber, Christof, 2011. Print.][MacDonald, Scott. A Critical Cinema 2: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Print.][Renan, Sheldon. An Introduction to the American Underground Film. New York: Dutton, 1967. Print.][Stephenson, Ralph. Animation in the Cinema. London u.a.: u.a., 1967. Print.][Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, "Interview with Robert Breer," Film Quarterly, 56-57 (Spring 1973), p. 44.]
Breer won the 1987 Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Artists' Award, presented by the American Film Institute.[[11], "Maya Deren," SensesOfCinema.com]
His film Eyewash was included in .[Zorn, John, Martin Scorsese et al. Treasures IV: American Avant Garde Film, 1947-1986. San Francisco, Calif: National Film Preservation Foundation, 2009.][ 10 Weirdest Avant-Garde Films Of The 50s, Ranked|ScreenRant]
Archives
The following films were preserved by Anthology Film Archives:
[ Anthology Film Archives Collections]
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Form Phases I (1952)
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Form Phases II (1953)
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Form Phases III (1954)
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Form Phases IV (1956)
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Un Miracle (1954)
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Recreation (1956)
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Motion Pictures No. 1 (1956)
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Jamestown Baloos (1957)
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A Man and His Dog Out for Air (1957)
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Le Mouvement (1957)
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Eyewash (1959) – both versions
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Blazes (1961)
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Breathing (1963)
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Fist Fight (1964)
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66 (1966)
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69 (1969)
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70 (1971)
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77 (1970)
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Fuji (1974)
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Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons (1981)
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Bang! (1986)
The following films were preserved by the Academy Film Archive:
-
Form Phases #4 (1954, preserved 2019)
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Sunday Morning Screenings (1960, a trailer for Cinema 16)
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Time Flies (1997, preserved 2018)
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Atoz (2000, preserved 2018)
Further reading
-
Uroskie, Andrew V. "Visual Music After Cage: Robert Breer, Expanded Cinema and Stockhausen's Originals (1964)". Organised Sound: An International Journal of Music Technology 17, no. 2 (August 2012): 163–69.
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Burford, Jennifer Lou. "Robert Breer". Bilingual French-English. Preface by Christian Lebrat. Paris: éditions Paris Expérimental / RE:VOIR Vidéo éditions, 1999. 146 pages.
External links
