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Tony Conrad

{{Short description|American artist, musician, writer (1940–2016)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2016}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Tony Conrad

|image = TonyConrad October2003.jpg

|image_size =

|caption = Tony Conrad at the DeStijl/Freedom From Festival in Minneapolis-Saint Paul in October 2003.

|birth_name = Anthony Schmalz Conrad{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/artsspecial/tony-conrad-experimental-filmmaker-and-musician-dies-at-76.html|last=Hoberman|first=J.|title=Tony Conrad, Experimental Filmmaker and Musician, Dies at 76|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 9, 2016|access-date=April 9, 2016}}

|birth_date = {{birth date|1940|3|7|mf=yes}}

|birth_place =Concord, New Hampshire, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|2016|4|9|1940|3|7|mf=yes}}

|death_place = Cheektowaga, New York, U.S.

|nationality =

|citizenship =

|other_names =

|known_for =

|education =

|alma_mater = Harvard University

|occupation = Filmmaker, musician, composer

|movement = Minimalism, drone music, structural film

|website = [https://web.archive.org/web/20060402211404/http://tonyconrad.net/ Tonyconrad.net]

| module = {{Infobox musical artist

|embed=yes

|background = musician

|years_active=1962–2016

|label = Table of the Elements, Caroline

|instruments = Violin

|associated_acts = Theatre of Eternal Music, The Primitives, Faust, John Cale, Charlemagne Palestine, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Laurie Spiegel, Angus MacLise, Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, David Grubbs, C Spencer Yeh}}

}}

Anthony Schmalz Conrad (March 7, 1940 – April 9, 2016) was an American video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, sound artist, teacher, and writer. Active in a variety of media since the early 1960s, he was a pioneer of both drone music and structural film.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/22/people-thought-we-were-on-drugs-and-we-were-tony-conrad-the-great-avant-garde-adventurer?CMP=share_btn_fb |title='People thought we were on drugs – and we were!' ... Tony Conrad, the great avant-garde adventurer |newspaper=The Guardian |date=February 20, 2015 |access-date=April 10, 2016}} As a musician, he was an important figure in the New York minimalist scene of the 1960s, during which time he performed as part of the Theatre of Eternal Music (along with John Cale, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, Terry Riley, and others).{{cite web |last1=Clark |first1=Phillip |title=Tony Conrad - the minimalist pioneer time forgot |url=http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/concerts-and-events/tony-conrad-the-minimalist-pioneer-time-forgot |access-date=11 April 2016 |publisher=Gramophone}} He became recognized as a filmmaker for his 1966 film The Flicker. He performed and collaborated with a wide range of artists over the course of his career.

Biography

=Early life=

Conrad was born in Concord, New Hampshire, to Mary Elizabeth Parfitt and Arthur Emil Conrad, and raised in Baldwin, Maryland and Northern Virginia. His father worked with Everett Warner during World War II in designing dazzle camouflage for the United States Navy.{{cite web |url=http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Camoupedia/EverettWarner.html |title=Everett Warner (1877–1963) – Ship Camouflage Artist |first=Roy R. |last=Behrens |work=Dazzle Camouflage |access-date=September 9, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516091859/http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Camoupedia/EverettWarner.html |archive-date=May 16, 2008 |df=mdy-all }} Conrad's high school violin lessons with symphony violist Ronald Knudsen introduced him to just intonation and double stop playing.{{cite web |last1=Conrad |first1=Tony |title=Four Violins (1964) |url=http://www.vasulka.org/archive/Artists1/Conrad,Tony/fourviolins.pdf |website=Table of the Elements |access-date=8 November 2020}} After briefly studying violin at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory, Conrad graduated from Harvard University in 1962 with a degree in mathematics.{{Cite web |title=Pioneering artist Tony Conrad dies |url=https://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/stories/2016/04/conrad-obituary.html |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=www.buffalo.edu |language=en}} While studying at Harvard, Conrad was exposed to the ideas of experimental composers John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. After working as a computer programmer, Conrad became involved in New York City's avant-garde arts scene.

=1960s=

After moving to New York, Conrad became an early member of La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music alongside John Cale, Angus MacLise, Marian Zazeela, and later Terry Riley.Patrick Nickleson, The Names of Minimalism: Authorship, Art Music, and Historiography in Dispute, University of Michigan Press, pp. 56-58 The Theatre of Eternal Music utilized just intonation and drones to produce what the group called "dream music"; Conrad's mathematical knowledge contributed to the Theatre's systematization of just intervals, and he also encouraged the ensemble to adopt electronic amplification.{{Cite journal |last=Bridges |first=Brian |title=Product of Culture-Clash: the Theatre of Eternal Music and the early New York Downtown Scene |url=https://www.academia.edu/10744989}} Conrad would later leave the Theatre in a dispute over Young's attempt to assert more deliberate compositional influence over their performances and refusal to grant him or Cale shared credit for the ensemble's music or access to its recordings, and in 1990 protested a concert by his former bandleader with a manifesto titled "Composer La Monte Young Does Not Understand 'His' Work" outlining his grievances and accusing Young of "orientalism and [a] romanticized personality cult mark[ing] him among the most regressive of contemporary artists."{{cite news |last1=Robin |first1=William |title=Tony Conrad Was Such a Good Minimalist, He Was Almost Forgotten |work=The New York Times |date=March 24, 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/arts/music/tony-conrad-was-such-a-good-minimalist-he-was-almost-forgotten.html |access-date=7 October 2020 }}

In 1963, he joined his former Harvard classmate and Fluxus associate Henry Flynt in his anti-art demonstrations against "elitist" New York cultural institutions.Interview with Henry Flynt in The Village Voice, September 10th, 1964, by Susan Goodman, "Anti-Art Pickets Pick on Stockhausen" .

In 1964, Conrad and Cale were recruited by Pickwick Records to serve as a backing band, The Primitives, to perform the Lou Reed-penned single "The Ostrich"/"Sneaky Pete". Conrad and Cale played guitar and bass, Walter de Maria played percussion, and Reed sang. Conrad and Cale's instruments were tuned to Reed's "Ostrich tuning", with every string the same pitch class. After the Primitives disbanded, Cale and Reed formed The Velvet Underground.

{{cite web

| title= The Primitives

| last= Unterberger

| first= Richie

| website= AllMusic

| url= http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-primitives-mn0001817487

| access-date= March 23, 2016

}}

Conrad was indirectly responsible for the name of The Velvet Underground, although he was never a member of the group; after moving into Conrad's old apartment on Ludlow Street in New York City, Reed and Cale found a copy of The Velvet Underground which Conrad had left in the apartment, and took its name for the band.

{{cite news

| title= 'People thought we were on drugs – and we were!' ... Tony Conrad, the great avant-garde adventurer

| last= Beaumont-Thomas

| first= Ben

| date= March 22, 2016

| newspaper= The Guardian

| language= en-GB

| issn= 0261-3077

| url= https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/22/people-thought-we-were-on-drugs-and-we-were-tony-conrad-the-great-avant-garde-adventurer

| access-date= March 23, 2016

}}

= 1970s =

Conrad's first musical release under his own name was a collaboration with Faust, Outside the Dream Syndicate, released by Caroline in 1973. This remains his best known musical work and is considered a classic of minimalist music and drone music.{{cite web|last1=Sirota|first1=Brent|title=Tony Conrad / Faust Outside the Dream Syndicate|url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1582-outside-the-dream-syndicate/|publisher=Pitchfork|access-date=11 April 2016}}

One of Conrad's early films was Coming Attractions, made with his then-partner Beverly Grant, which was released in 1970. This film led indirectly to the founding of Syntonic Research and the Environments series of natural sound recordings. Grant and Conrad further worked on two films: Straight and Narrow (1970) and Four Square (1971).

Yellow Movies was a project of Conrad's in 1973 of twenty "movies" consisting of rectangular borders painted in black house paint on large pieces of photographic paper, effectively framing each sizable expanse of emulsion whereby the physical aging and transformation of the emulsion itself would constitute a definitively slow-motion moving picture over such an extended period of time.{{cite web|title=Tony Conrad's "Yellow Movie"|url=http://blogs.artinfo.com/lacmonfire/2010/03/21/tony-conrad%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cyellow-movie%E2%80%9D/|publisher=Louise Blouin Media|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528223030/http://blogs.artinfo.com/lacmonfire/2010/03/21/tony-conrad%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cyellow-movie%E2%80%9D/|archive-date=May 28, 2016|url-status=dead}}

Conrad began to work in video and performance in the 1970s as a professor at Antioch College, where he replaced the filmmaker Paul Sharits. In 1976, Conrad joined the faculty at the Center for Media Studies at the University at Buffalo.{{cite web|url=https://www.burchfieldpenney.org/artists/artist:anthony-s-conrad/ |title=Tony Conrad > Artists > Burchfield Penney Art Center |website=Burchfieldpenney.org |access-date=April 10, 2016}} While in Buffalo, Conrad was part of a scene that included Sharits, as well as Hollis Frampton, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Peter Weibel, James Blue, Cathy Steffan and Gerald O'Grady. Their practices in film, video, performance, and other forms were documented in the 2008 book Buffalo Heads: Media Study, Media Practice, Media Pioneers, 1973–1990, edited by Vasulka and Weibel.{{cite book|editor-last1=Vasulka and Weibel|editor-first1=Woody and Peter|title=Buffalo Heads: Media Study, Media Practice, Media Pioneers, 1973–1990|date=2008|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262720502}}

In the mid-1970s, Conrad began performing film. With Sukiyaki Film he decided that the film should be prepared immediately before viewing. Sukiyaki was chosen as the paradigm for the work because it is a dish often cooked immediately before eating, in front of the diners. Conrad cooked sukiyaki in front of an audience: egg, meat, vegetables, and 16mm film; and literally "projected" onto the screen behind him.{{cite web|last1=Sanders|first1=Jay|title=Tony Conrad by Jay Sanders|url=http://bombmagazine.org/article/2752/tony-conrad|publisher=Bomb Magazine|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=March 31, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331065738/http://bombmagazine.org/article/2752/tony-conrad|url-status=dead}}

=Later life=

Table of the Elements released a number of Conrad's archival recordings in the 1990s and 2000s, including Four Violins (1964), Fantastic Glissando, and Joan of Arc.{{cite web |last1=Masters |first1=Marc |title=Tony Conrad - Joan of Arc |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/9545-joan-of-arc/ |access-date=11 April 2016 |publisher=Pitchfork}} Slapping Pythagoras, an album of new music commissioned by Table of the Elements, was recorded with Jim O'Rourke and Steve Albini at Electrical Audio and released in 1995.{{Cite web |title=Slapping Pythagoras |url=https://www.tableoftheelements.org/tcc-04-slapping-pythagoras |access-date=2023-09-14 |website=Table of the Elements |language=en-US}} Early Minimalism, Vol. 1, released in 1997, was an attempt to reconstruct the sound of Theatre of Eternal Music recordings withheld by La Monte Young.{{cite web |last1=Gardner |first1=Drew |date=November 2, 2006 |title=Moving Waves: Listening to Tony Conrad's Early Minimalism |url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/11/music/moving-waves-listening-to-tony-conrads-i |access-date=11 April 2016 |publisher=Brooklyn Rail}} He also issued two archival CDs featuring the work of late New York filmmaker Jack Smith, with whom he was associated in the 1960s.{{cite web|last1=Shirley|first1=David|title=Jack Smith, Les Evening Gowns Damnées and Silent Shadows on Cinemaroc Island (Table of the Elements, 1997)|date=May 7, 2009|url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/05/music/jack-smith-les-evening-gowns-damnes-and-silent-shadows-on-cinemaroc-island-table-of-the-elements-1997|publisher=Brooklyn Rail|access-date=11 April 2016}}

Conrad collaborated with artists such as Charlemagne Palestine,{{cite web|last1=Currin|first1=Grayson|title=Charlemagne Palestine and Tony Conrad - An Aural Symbiotic Mystery|url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/9742-an-aural-symbiotic-mystery/|publisher=Pitchfork|access-date=11 April 2016}} Genesis P-Orridge, Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, David Grubbs, C Spencer Yeh, Tovah Olson, MV Carbon, and numerous others.{{cite web|last1=Kreps|first1=Daniel|title=Tony Conrad, Pioneering Musician and Filmmaker, Dead at 76|date=April 9, 2016|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tony-conrad-pioneering-musician-and-filmmaker-dead-at-76-20160409|publisher=Rolling Stone|access-date=11 April 2016}} Conrad was chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they curated in May 2011.{{cite web|title=Tony Conrad plays London ahead of Animal Collective ATP|date=May 10, 2011|url=http://www.factmag.com/2011/05/10/tony-conrad-plays-london-ahead-of-animal-collective-atp-win-tickets-inside/|publisher=Fact Magazine|access-date=11 April 2016}} In 2012 Conrad was part of the line-up of the touring avant-garde festival Sonic Protest that took place in five cities in France.{{cite web|title=Trois raisons (et plus) d'assister au festival Sonic Protest|date=April 2015|url=http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/musique/trois-raisons-et-plus-d-assister-au-festival-sonic-protest_1665257.html|publisher=l'express|access-date=11 April 2016}} In 2013 Conrad visited Genoa to open his first solo exhibition in Italy.{{cite web|url=http://genova.mentelocale.it/51259-tony-conrad-genova-mostra-farsi-citta-intervista/ |title=Tony Conrad a Genova con la mostra 'Farsi la città': l'intervista – Mentelocale.it |language=it|website=Genova.mentelocale.it |access-date=April 10, 2016}}

File:Tony Conrad (2012).jpg

Conrad's work has been shown at many museums including the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; the Louvre in Paris; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; and many others.{{cite web|url=http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/attachment/en/53da626f69921a805e010656/TextOneColumnWithFile/549095bea1c1385026a7d8b6|title=Tony Conrad biography|date=February 2016|website=Greene Naftali Gallery|access-date=March 23, 2016}} Specifically, his film The Flicker was included in the Whitney Museum of American Art's exhibition, The American Century; he participated in the 2006 Whitney Biennial; and one of his Yellow Paintings was featured in the museum's 2015–2016 exhibition "Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner."{{cite web|url=http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/TheWestreichWagnerCollection|title=Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner {{!}} Whitney Museum of American Art|website=whitney.org|access-date=March 23, 2016}}

Conrad's artwork is represented by Greene Naftali Gallery in New York City,{{cite web|url=http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/artists/tony-conrad |title=Tony Conrad |website=Greenenaftaligallery.com |date=February 3, 1973 |access-date=April 10, 2016}} and by Galerie Buchholz in Germany.{{cite web|url=http://www.galeriebuchholz.de/artists/tony-conrad/ |title=Galerie Buchholz |website=Galeriebuchholz.de |access-date=April 10, 2016}}

Conrad had been a faculty member in the State University of New York at Buffalo since 1976, and continued to teach there in the Department of Media Study until his death.{{cite web | url = http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol38/vol38n8/articles/ConradFeature.html | date = October 19, 2006 | last = Fryling | first = Kevin | title = Conrad breaks boundaries in art. | publisher = University at Buffalo Reporter | access-date = January 3, 2007}} Several of his students at Buffalo formed the indie rock band Mercury Rev in 1989.{{cite news |last1=Miers |first1=Jeff |date=April 23, 2018 |title=Mercury Rev found magic in UB professor Tony Conrad's alchemy |language=en |work=The Buffalo News |url=https://buffalonews.com/entertainment/mercury-rev-found-magic-in-ub-professor-tony-conrads-alchemy/article_554f2fc9-f5e8-566e-a309-6b44958c5294.html |access-date=23 July 2021}}

Death

Conrad died at a hospice in Cheektowaga, New York, on April 9, 2016, after receiving treatment for prostate cancer.{{cite web|last1=Dabkowski|first1=Colin|title=Tony Conrad, avant garde pioneer and UB professor, dies at 76|url=http://buffalo.com/2016/04/09/news/art/tony-conrad-avant-garde-pioneer-ub-professor-dies-76/|website=The Buffalo News|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=April 10, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410154257/http://buffalo.com/2016/04/09/news/art/tony-conrad-avant-garde-pioneer-ub-professor-dies-76/|url-status=dead}}

The Tony Conrad estate is represented by Greene Naftali, New York,{{Cite web |title=Tony Conrad {{!}} Greene Naftali |url=https://greenenaftaligallery.com/artists/tony-conrad |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=Tony Conrad {{!}} Greene Naftali |language=en}} and Galerie Bucholz, Cologne.{{Cite web |last=Buchholz |first=Galerie |title=Tony Conrad — Galerie Buchholz |url=https://www.galeriebuchholz.de/artists/tony-conrad |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=www.galeriebuchholz.de |language=de}}

Partial discography

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

{{Commons category|Tony Conrad}}

{{Wikiquote}}

  • [http://www.galeriebuchholz.de/artists/Tony-Conrad/ Tony Conrad at Galerie Buchholz]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20060402211404/http://tonyconrad.net/ Tony Conrad Website]
  • [http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/intervs/conrad.html Interview with Tony Conrad, 1996]
  • [http://hosting.zkm.de/mindframes_e/stories/storyReader$20 "About Tony Conrad"] from the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany
  • {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027022639/http://geocities.com/hstencil/tonyconradintro.html |date=October 27, 2009 |title=The Tony Conrad Project }}
  • [https://www.vdb.org/artists/tony-conrad Tony Conrad] in the Video Data Bank
  • {https://film-makerscoop.com/filmmakers/tony-conrad/bio Tony Conrad] at The Film-Makers' Cooperative
  • [https://www.myspace.com/slappingpythagoras Tony Conrad's MySpace Page]
  • [https://archive.today/20090215043146/http://mediastudy.buffalo.edu/conrad.php Tony Conrad faculty page at University at Buffalo]
  • [http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/53/1024 Yellow Movies via moma.org]

=Video=

  • [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8758735960803632595 PUNKCAST#1143-02] Live @ Swiss Institute NYC on May 2, 2007. (Flash)

{{Video art}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conrad, Tony}}

Category:1940 births

Category:2016 deaths

Category:American experimental filmmakers

Category:Artists from Baltimore

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:American noise musicians

Category:People from Concord, New Hampshire

Category:University at Buffalo faculty

Category:American video artists

Category:The Velvet Underground

Category:American avant-garde musicians

Category:American experimental musicians

Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in New York (state)

Category:Dais Records artists