Music: “The Pines of the Villa Borghese,” “Pines Near a Catacomb,” and “The Pines of the Appian Way,” movements from Pines of Rome (1923–24)
Composed by Ottorino Respighi, performed by the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo ToscaniniCourtesy of Sony Masterworks/RCA Records
With A MOVIE (1958), Conner launched a lifelong celebration of moving images alongside his other artistic practices of collage, assemblage, drawing and photography. He reconceived midcentury notions of cinema itself, as A MOVIE simultaneously explores the very nature of cinema and montage in the modern era. Comprised of discarded 16mm films purchased at flea markets or scavenged from camera shops, A MOVIE has been described by many as the first contemporary “found footage film.” Conner crafted this work with care and absolute precision, qualities that would define his entire oeuvre in diverse media. A MOVIE orchestrates a virtual symphony of disasters, car crashes, explosions, war, famine, as well as serene moments of grace—a tightrope act, a plane floating through clouds, light reflected on water. Although seemingly random in its sequence of imagery, A MOVIE abstractly yet deftly moves the viewer through a wide range of human experience and emotion.
With Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” as the soundtrack to A MOVIE, Conner established a visual poetry that combines music and image. Conner would refine this marriage of sight and sound over the next several decades in other films and lay the groundwork for the music video we know today.
Bruce Conner
A MOVIE, 1958
16mm to 35mm blow-up, b&w/sound, 12 min
Digitally Restored, 2016
Music: "The Pines of the Villa Borghese", "Pines Near a Catacomb", and "The Pines of the Appian Way", movements from Pines of Rome (1923-24), composed by Ottorino Respighi, performed by the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanni, Courtesy of Sony Masterworks/RCA Records
Music: "The Pines of the Villa Borghese", "Pines Near a Catacomb", and "The Pines of the Appian Way", movements from Pines of Rome (1923-24), composed by Ottorino Respighi, performed by the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanni, Courtesy of Sony Masterworks/RCA Records
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Music: “The Pines of the Villa Borghese,” “Pines Near a Catacomb,” and “The Pines of the Appian Way,” movements from Pines of Rome (1923–24) Composed by Ottorino Respighi, performed by...
Music: “The Pines of the Villa Borghese,” “Pines Near a Catacomb,” and “The Pines of the Appian Way,” movements from Pines of Rome (1923–24)
Composed by Ottorino Respighi, performed by the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanini
Courtesy of Sony Masterworks/RCA Records
With A MOVIE (1958), Conner launched a lifelong celebration of moving images alongside his other artistic practices of collage, assemblage, drawing and photography. He reconceived midcentury notions of cinema itself, as A MOVIE simultaneously explores the very nature of cinema and montage in the modern era. Comprised of discarded 16mm films purchased at flea markets or scavenged from camera shops, A MOVIE has been described by many as the first contemporary “found footage film.” Conner crafted this work with care and absolute precision, qualities that would define his entire oeuvre in diverse media. A MOVIE orchestrates a virtual symphony of disasters, car crashes, explosions, war, famine, as well as serene moments of grace—a tightrope act, a plane floating through clouds, light reflected on water. Although seemingly random in its sequence of imagery, A MOVIE abstractly yet deftly moves the viewer through a wide range of human experience and emotion.With Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” as the soundtrack to A MOVIE, Conner established a visual poetry that combines music and image. Conner would refine this marriage of sight and sound over the next several decades in other films and lay the groundwork for the music video we know today.
Composed by Ottorino Respighi, performed by the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanini
Courtesy of Sony Masterworks/RCA Records
With A MOVIE (1958), Conner launched a lifelong celebration of moving images alongside his other artistic practices of collage, assemblage, drawing and photography. He reconceived midcentury notions of cinema itself, as A MOVIE simultaneously explores the very nature of cinema and montage in the modern era. Comprised of discarded 16mm films purchased at flea markets or scavenged from camera shops, A MOVIE has been described by many as the first contemporary “found footage film.” Conner crafted this work with care and absolute precision, qualities that would define his entire oeuvre in diverse media. A MOVIE orchestrates a virtual symphony of disasters, car crashes, explosions, war, famine, as well as serene moments of grace—a tightrope act, a plane floating through clouds, light reflected on water. Although seemingly random in its sequence of imagery, A MOVIE abstractly yet deftly moves the viewer through a wide range of human experience and emotion.With Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” as the soundtrack to A MOVIE, Conner established a visual poetry that combines music and image. Conner would refine this marriage of sight and sound over the next several decades in other films and lay the groundwork for the music video we know today.
Exhibitions
A Movie, Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne, Germany, 16 February 2018Bruce Conner: Forever and Ever, Speed Art Museum, Louisville KT, 11 November 2017 - 4 March 2018
A MOVIE, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK. 6 May - 4 July 2017
Bruce Conner: IT'S ALL TRUE, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain. 21 February – 22 May 2017A MOVIE, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles CA. 11 November 2016 – 14 January 2017
Bruce Conner: IT'S ALL TRUE, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco CA29 October 2016 – 22 January 2017Bruce Conner: IT'S ALL TRUE, Museum of Modern Art, New York NY. 3 July – 2 October 2016Under the Clouds: From Paranoia to the Digital Sublime, Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal, 20 June – 20 September 2015International Pop Cinema, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. 11 April – 29 August 2015DOCPOINT: Vanishing Point: Bruce Conner 1, Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, Helsinki. 27 January – 1 February 2015Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria. 14 November 2014 – 15 February 2015Seduction and Resistance. At the Limits of Pop: The Collage of the Public Sphere, Fundación Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain. 7 August 2014Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950, Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg. 12 July – 12 October 2014The Films of Bruce Conner, presented by Cinespia, CineFamily, Los Angeles CA. 3 & 8 December 2013Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. 24 October – 26 May 2013The Films of Bruce Conner, presented by Cinespia, CineFamily, Los Angeles, CA. 1 October 2013OFF Series: The Films of Bruce Conner, Tel Aviv Cinematheque, The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel. 23 & 26 June 2013Experimental Collage Film: Bruce Conner and Arthur Lipsett (PG*), Barbican, London, UK. 26 March 2013Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany. 29 May – 4 June 2012Bruce Conner: The Art of Montage, International House, Philadelphia PA. 23 – 24 September 2011Blockbuster, Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel (CIAC), Mexico City, Mexico. 24 June – 25 September 2011Bruce Conner, VIDEOEX, Zurich, Switzerland. 25 March 2011Bruce Conner: The Art of Montage, New York Film Forum, New York, NY. 10 – 23 November 2010Bruce Conner: An American Original, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain. 10 – 18 November 2010Viennale: Vienna International Film Festival, Vienna, Austria. 21 October – 3 November. Bruce Conner: All Films (in conjunction with the exhibition “Bruce Conner: The 70s”), Austrian Film Museum, Wien, Austria. 14 – 20 October 2010Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000, Berkeley Art Museum and Paci c Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley CA. 17 September 2010 – 3 March 2011The Last Movie + Breakaway (in conjunction with the exhibition “Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood”), Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia. 3 December 2009Bruce Conner: A Tribute, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 26 April 2009The Films of Bruce Conner, Program 1, Gene Siskel Film Center, Art Institute of Chicago,Chicago IL. 9 April 2009Ann Arbor Film Festival: Bruce Conner Retrospective 1 & 2, Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor MI. 28 & 29 March 2009CROSSROADS: The Films of Bruce Conner, Program One, presented by San Francisco Cinematheque, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco CA. 18 March 2009Bruce Conner’s Explosive Cinema: A Tribute, Part 2, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), Los Angeles, CA. 2 March 2009Bruce Conner’s Explosive Cinema: A Tribute, Part 1, Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA. 28 February 2009Persistence of Vision: A Tribute to Bruce Conner, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Meguro, Japan. 21 February 2009BRUCE CONNER (II), Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France. 21 January 2009Alternative Visions: A Tribute to Bruce Conner (1933-2008), Berkeley Art Museum and Paci c Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, CA. 9 December 2008Bruce Conner, the Last Magician of the 20th Century. Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA. 18 October 2008Film Screening: Bruce Conner, Life on Mars: The 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA. 17 & 18 October 2008A Tribute to Bruce Conner, presented by the 37th annual Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma 2Excentris Movie Theater, Montréal, Québec. 10 October 2008Views from the Avant-Garde, presented by the 46th New York Film Festival, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York, NY. 4 October 2008Bruce Conner Program 1, Center for Contemporary Culture Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. 23 February 200635th edition of Stichting International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands.Loose Ends: The Early Years, Berkeley Art Museum and Paci c Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, CA. 14 September 2004Cinema Regained, 33rd edition of Stichting International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands.BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA. 8 October 2000 – 14 January 2001BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA. 21 May – 30 July 2000BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX. 6 February – 23 April 2000BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. 9 October 1999 – 2 January 2000A MOVIE, Phyllis Wattis Theater, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA. 11, 26 & 28 March 1999San Francisco Renaissance, entre cinéma et poésie, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France. 3 November 1998The Beats: Underground America, Barbican, London, UK. 24 October 1998“The Sixties”: What It Was and What It Wasn’t, Berkeley Art Museum and Paci c Film Archive,University of California, Berkeley, CA. 5 February 1985East and West Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 11 June – 5 July 1958
Collection
Museum of Modern Art, New York NY / San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco CA
Glenstone Museum, Potomac MD
Literature
Hatch, Kevin. Looking for Bruce Conner. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2012. pp. 111-131
Matt, Gerald, and Barbara Steffen. Bruce Conner: the 70s. Nürnberg: Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 2010. pp. 52-53, 56-57, 65-73
Frieling, Rudolf, Stuart Comer, Laura Hoptman, Diedrich Diedrichsen and Gary Garrels. Bruce Conner: It's All True. San Francisco, CA: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2016. pp. 9, 34-35, 348-351
Halbreich, Kathy, Joan Rothfuss and Peter Boswell. 2000 BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II. Minneapolis: Walker Art Centre, 1999. pp. 187-194