David Curtis Livres

This is the story of two short-lived artist-run spaces that are associated with some of the most innovative developments in the arts in Britain in the late 1960s. The Drury Lane Arts Lab (1967-69) was home to the first UK screenings of Andy Warhol's twin-screen 3 hour film Chelsea Girls, challenging exhibitions (John and Yoko/John Latham/Takis/Roelof Louw), poetry and music (first UK performance of Erik Satie's 24-hour Vexations) and fringe theatre (People Show/Freehold/Jane Arden's Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven/Will Spoor Mime Theatre). The Robert Street "New Arts Lab" (1969-71) housed Britain's first video workshop TVX, the London Filmmakers Co-op's first workshop, and a 5-days-a-week cinema devoted to showing new work by moving-image artists (David Larcher/Malcolm Le Grice/Sally Potter/Carolee Schneemann/Peter Gidal). It staged J.G. Ballard's infamous Crashed Cars exhibition and John & Dianne Lifton's pioneering computer-aided dance/mime performances. The impact of London's Labs led to an explosion of new artist-led spaces across Britain. This book relates the struggles of FACOP (Friends of the Arts Council Operative) to make the case for these new kinds of space and these new art-forms and the Arts Council's hesitant response--in the context of a popular press already hostile to youth culture, experimental art and the "underground."

David Curtis is a bestselling author and one of the most successful, celebrated artists working in the UK today. In his latest book he explores and demonstrates his approach to painting on location. He paints on site whenever possible, stating that working directly from the subject gives his work a sense of immediacy, dynamism, light and drama.

Artists’ Film offers a lucid, accessible account of artists’ unique contribution to the art of the moving image in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. International in scope and accessibly written by a renowned authority on the subject, Artists’ Film is an introductory guide to the exciting and expanding field of artists’ film and an alternative history of the moving image, chronicling artists’ ever-evolving fascination with filmmaking from the early twentieth century to now. From early pioneers to key artists of today, writer and curator David Curtis offers a vivid account of the many creators who have been inspired by the cinematic medium and who have felt compelled to interpret and respond to it in their own way. In doing so, Curtis discusses these artists’ widely differing achievements, aspirations, theories, and approaches. Featuring over four hundred international moving-image makers and drawing on examples from across the arts, including experimental film, video, installation, and multimedia, this generously illustrated account offers an incomparable introduction to this continually evolving art form. A perfect read for anyone with an interest in the intersection of contemporary art and film.

Whether you're working on location with a limited palette or in the studio with all the time and materials at your disposal, the author talks you through the ways to capture the essence of a subject matter and the mood or sense of the place.