Event

Robert Breer

Considered by some to be the "anti-animator," the artist Robert Breer made some 40 inventive and experimental films that were distinguished by their rapid-fire movements of shapes, lines, letters, figures, live-action images that dart in and out of frame. He became interested in animation while living and exhibiting his hard-edged abstract paintings in Paris in the 1950s, where he discovered the abstract animated films of Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Fernand Léger and Walter Ruttmann. Determined to introduce motion into painting, he began creating flipbooks, stop-action films, and animations that can be described as a barrage of images both abstract and absurd. After moving back to the U.S., Breer, along with Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, and Kenneth Anger, became part of the countercultural film scene dubbed New American Cinema. A true pioneer in animation and a seminal figure in the American avant-garde, Breer's work continues to inspire animators and artists today.