From Contemplation to Chaos: An Avant-Garde Sampler

This compilation program moves from dreamlike, meditative silence to a joyful, loud frenzy.

Untitled

Norman Mailer, 1947, 9 mins.

Novelist Mailer’s surprisingly assured foray into surrealist cinema, starring Millicent Brower.

Blues

Larry Gottheim, 1969, 8 mins.

A radiant visual study of the changing light in a bowl of blueberries and milk.

Doorway

Larry Gottheim, 1970, 7 mins.

A serene winterscape viewed through a door unlocks a rich world of textures and revelatory

detail.

Body Collage

Carolee Schneemann, 1967, 4 mins.

Schneemann turns her body into a collage to create a visceral “movement-event.”

Meat Joy

Carolee Schneemann, 1964, 11 mins.

An ecstatic document of performance art, filmed during Schneemann’s spectacular erotic rite at Judson Church in 1964.

Jerry’s

Tom Palazzolo, 1976, 10 mins.

A frenetic, verbally abusive deli owner offers his own form of performance art.

Free with museum admission.