Stan VanDerbeek's Work

Stan VanDerBeek, A La Mode Collage

The MIT List Visual Arts Center’s current collection by Stan VanDerbeek highlights the work of a new media art pioneer. VanDerBeek was at the forefront of many new media art forms and was inspired by innovations in science and technology.

The first thing that caught my attention upon entering the exhibit was a selection of collages that VanDerBeek created between 1955-1983. He used these images as animation frames in some of his most well known films including: Breath Death, Ala Mode and Science Friction.

Stan VanDerBeek, A La Mode Collage

I think VanDerBeek’s ironic collage compositions were created very much in the spirit of the surreal and Dadaist movements. On a plane of bare white skin VanDerBeek drew a small bird exiting a hole that looked like it was coming out of her body. I thought this was very creative and it caught my attention because of its beauty. All three pieces demonstrate his aesthetic skill, style and wit.  They are complex in nature and well executed. VanDerBeek understood the power of the image and used it in conjunction with technology to educate others.  He created images that assisted in executing the meaning of the film.

Stan VanDerBeek, Breath Death Collage

VanderBeeks own words explain why I believe he understood the power of the image.

 “The purpose and effect of such image flow and image density (also to be called “visual velocity”) is both to deal with logical understanding and to penetrate to unconscious levels, to reach for the emotional denominator of all men, the non-verbal basis of human life, thought, and understanding, and to inspire all men to goodwill and ‘inter-and-intro-realization’.”

 -Stan VanDerBeek, 1965

http://www.theboxla.com/exhibitions/past/stan_vanderbeek/index.html#

-Robin