Luther Price

American experimental filmmaker (1962–2020)

Luther Price (pseudonym) (January 26, 1962 – June 13, 2020) was an experimental filmmaker and visual artist.[1]

Biography

Price was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts in 1962.[1] He received a BFA in Sculpture and Media/Performing Arts from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he studied with Saul Levine.[2] Before taking the name Luther Price, he worked under various pseudonyms, including Brigk Aethy, Fag, and Tom Rhoads.[3] While at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Luther collaborated with students in the Studio for Interrelated Media on many projects including creating events, performance art, music projects[4] and exhibitions. He was an experimental filmmaker whose work has been widely screened in the United States and Europe at such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Cinematheque. He was an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts teaching his popular "Hand-made Films" curriculum.

Price's Super 8mm and 16mm films are usually constructed from found footage[5][6] and often include controversial subject matter, such as pornography, surgical footage, and psychodramatic performances,[7] as well as physical interventions into the actual material of the film stock.[8][9][10] Later in his career he began crafting individual 35mm slides shown on slide projectors. His work was featured prominently in the 2012 Whitney Biennial. Roberta Smith of the New York Times called him "one of the Biennial's stars."[11] Ed Halter selected his Inkblot films as the Best Film of 2011, noting "[his films] struggle through the projector with an unsettlingly existential corporeality."[12] His films are distributed by Canyon Cinema in San Francisco, The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York, and Light Cone in Paris. He was represented by Callicoon Fine Arts.[13] He died at his home in Revere, Massachusetts on June 13, 2020, at the age of 58.[1]

Selected works

  • Green (1988) (as Tom Rhoads) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 36 minutes
  • Warm Broth (1988) (as Tom Rhoads) Super 8mm, color, sound, 30 minutes
  • Sodom (1989) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 21 minutes
  • Clown (1991) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 13 minutes
  • Meat (1992) Super 8 mm on video, color, sound, 60 minutes, also a 2-hour performance
  • Bottle Can (1993) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 20 minutes
  • Eruption Erection (1994) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 10 minutes,
  • Jellyfish Sandwich (1994) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 17 minutes
  • Run (1994) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 13 minutes
  • A. (1994) Super 8 mm, b&w, sound, 60 minutes
  • Me Gut No Dog Dog (1994) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 42 minutes
  • Meat Situation 04 (1997) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 4 minutes
  • Mother (1998–1999) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 25 minutes
  • Home (1990–1999) Super 8 mm, b&w, sound, 13 minutes
  • Ritual 629 (1990–1999) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 15 minutes
  • Recitations (1999) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 10 minutes
  • Yellow Goodbye (1999) Super 8 mm, color, sound, 10 minutes
  • Meat Blue 03 (1999) Super 8 mm, color, sound
  • Res hat ions (2000) Super 8mm, b&w, sound, 10 minutes
  • #5, (2000) Super 8mm, color, sound
  • I'll Cry Tomorrow, Parts 1 and 2 (2000) Super 8mm, color, sound, 20 minutes
  • Dead Ringer (2000) Super 8mm, color, sound, 3 minutes
  • A Patch of Green (2004) 16mm, 4 minutes
  • Nice Biscotts #2 (2005) 16mm, 10 minutes
  • September Song (2005) 16mm, 5 minutes
  • Dipping Sause (2005) 16mm, 8 minutes
  • Turbulant Blue (2005-6) 16mm, 9 minutes
  • Inside Velvet K (2006) 16mm, 10 minutes
  • Fancy (2006) 16mm, 12 minutes
  • Tamponia (2007) 16mm, 8 minutes
  • Suffering Biscuits (2007) 16mm, 20 minutes
  • Shelly Winters (2010) 16mm, 11 minutes
  • After the Garden: Silking (2010) 16mm, 6 minutes

Notes

References

  1. ^ a b c Smith, Roberta (20 July 2020). "Luther Price, Experimental Artist and Filmmaker, Is Dead (with portrait)". New York Times. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  2. ^ Hoberman, J. (February 23, 1999), "Flesh and Fantasy", The Village Voice
  3. ^ "Squarespace - Claim This Domain". Archived from the original on 14 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  4. ^ "Labyrinth demo". SoundCloud.
  5. ^ Lee, Nathan (September 18, 2007), "It Is What It Is", The Village Voice, ISBN 978-0-06-084339-7
  6. ^ Halter, Ed (July 10, 2008), "Recycle It", Moving Image Source
  7. ^ "Dirty Looks NYC". Archived from the original on 12 June 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  8. ^ Halter, Ed (October 27, 2008), "Outward Bound", Artforum
  9. ^ Morris, Gary (July 2000), "Home Movies from Hell: The Films of Luther Price", Bright Lights Film Journal, 29
  10. ^ Mangin, Daniel (November 1, 1995), "Underground Cinema", SF Weekly
  11. ^ Smith, Roberta (March 1, 2012). "A Survey of a Different Color" – via NYTimes.com.
  12. ^ "Ed Halter". www.artforum.com.
  13. ^ "Luther Price - Artists - Callicoon Fine Arts". www.callicoonfinearts.com.

Bibliography

  • Gangitano, Lia; Myles, Eileen (1998), Luther Price: Imitation of Life, New York: Thread Waxing Space, ISBN 1-891027-06-9
  • Hansen, James (2013), The Fall of Days: Luther Price's Nine Biscuits (2004-08), Millennium Film Journal, Issue 58, Fall 2013: 124-29
  • Jones, William E. (2020), Passages: Luther Price (1962–2020), ArtForum, online

External links

  • San Francisco Cinematheque program notes from the Prelinger Archives
  • Canyon Cinema
  • Light Cone
  • Film-makers Cooperative
  • California College of the Arts Lecture, 2012
  • 2012 Whitney Biennial short: Luther Price
  • Rain n Shines Labyrinth Demo on SoundCloud
  • Eulogy from Mostra Internacional de Cinema Periférico organization
  • Luther Price: Light Window screening at MassArt, 2015
  • Luther Price MassArt Alumni Award, 2015
  • Luther Price, from Here to Eternity, 2020
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  • Museum of Modern Art