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Black Mountain College Museum to show Stan Vanderbeek: Avant-garde Filmmaker

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Written by Alice Sebrell   
Tuesday, 24 November 2009 02:56

Stan VanDerBeek, March 22, 1969 - "Over the past ten years, I have been working with a variety of media starting with painting and graphics, polarized light, constructions (heatpaintings, collages, etc.) developing an interest in motion pictures in 1957. I began work in animation, painting, stroke by stroke, animation: frame by frame, computers, on and off, and bit by bit, the sequence is inevitable; motion pictures as graphics in motion. I looked on the computer as a challenge".

Ashville, NC - On Thursday, December 3rd at 7:30 pm, Johanna Vanderbeek will present and discuss the films of her late husband Stan. Combining animation, painting and collage with a Dadaist sensibility, Stan Vanderbeek made films in the 1950s and 60s that were beautifully original, humorous and revealed a passionate and experimental mind. Vanderbeek was a student at Black Mountain College in the early 1950s where he was around talents like Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg. In the 1960s he and his wife Johanna moved into the Gate Hill Community in Stony Point, NY which was founded by other BMC "refugees". There, he cut off the top of a silo and used the inside as a domed projection screen for multi-projector presentations. He called it a Movie-Drome.

As Amos Vogel wrote in a tribute after Stan’s death, “Stan was a seer and a scientist; he saw no contradiction between them: both were of the cosmos.” Stan Vanderbeek never made the compromises often involved in achieving commercial success but rather continued to make films on his own terms as he sought new ways to blend art and technology. 

“Clearly a Renaissance Man, Vanderbeek has been a vital force in the convergence of art and technology, displaying a visionary 's insight into the cultural and psychological implications of the Paleocybernetic Age." Gene Youngblood in Expanded Cinema
  
The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center preserves and continues the unique legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College for public study and enjoyment. We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibitions, publications, and public programs.

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center                              Thursday, December 3, 7:30 pm 
56 Broadway / Asheville, NC 28801                                               $7 / $5 for BMCM+AC members + students w/ID
828-350-8484                                                                                 BMCM+AC - 56 Broadway, Downtown Asheville
www.blackmountaincollege.org

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