![]() ![]() Ī 1959 exhibition at the Spatsa Gallery in San Francisco involved an early exploration by Conner into the notion of artistic identity. Conner coined the name as a play on 'Scavengers Protective Society'. Its members included Jay DeFeo, Michael McClure (with whom Conner attended school in Wichita), Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess Collins, Carlos Villa and George Herms. In 1959, Conner founded what he called the Rat Bastard Protective Association. ![]() Conner subsequently made nearly two dozen mostly non-narrative experimental films. In 1994, A Movie was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. He skillfully re-edited that footage, set the visuals to a recording of Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome, and created an entertaining and thought-provoking 12-minute film, that while non-narrative has things to say about the experience of watching a movie and the human condition. A Movie was a "poverty film", in that instead of shooting his own footage Conner used compilations of old newsreels and other old films. Conner's first and possibly most famous film was entitled A Movie (1958). He explicitly titled his movies in all capital letters. ![]() Social commentary and dissension remained a common theme among his later works.Ĭonner also began making short movies in the late 1950s. Erotically charged and tinged with echoes of both the Surrealist tradition and of San Francisco's Victorian past, these works established Conner as a leading figure within the international assemblage "movement." Generally, these works do not have precise meanings, but some of them suggest what Conner saw as the discarded beauty of modern America, the deforming impact of society on the individual, violence against women, and consumerism. A local policeman confronted the gallery owners to get it removed, "as children in the neighborhood might see the painting." The American Civil Liberties Union stood behind the gallery's right to display it, and the matter never became an issue.Ĭonner first attracted widespread attention with his moody, nylon-shrouded assemblages, complex amalgams of found objects such as women's stockings, bicycle wheels, broken dolls, fur, fringe, costume jewelry, and candles, often combined with collaged or painted surfaces. The painting showed a nude inside a form representing a clam shell. One of his paintings, Venus, was displayed in the gallery window. The gallery featured black panels which set off his drawings. The Designer's Gallery in San Francisco held Bruce's third solo show. His first solo shows in San Francisco, in 19, featured paintings, drawings, prints, collages, assemblages, and sculpture. His first solo gallery show in New York City took place in 1956 and featured paintings. In 1955, Conner studied for six months at Brooklyn Museum Art School on a scholarship. Conner worked in a variety of media from an early age.Įarly career (mid 1950s / early 1960s) During this time as a student he visited New York City. ![]() Conner studied at Wichita University (now Wichita State University) and later at University of Nebraska, where he graduated in 1956 with a bachelor of fine arts degree. He attended high school in Wichita, Kansas. His well-to-do middle-class family moved to Wichita, when Conner was four. Biography īruce Conner was born Novemin McPherson, Kansas. University of Nebraska, University of ColoradoĮxperimental film, assemblage, sculpture, painting, collage, photography, drawing, conceptual pranksīruce Conner (Novem– July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography. ![]()
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