GBH Openvault
Artist's Showcase; Art Talker; Russell Connor's Art Talker
Part of New Television Workshop.
In this commentary on biography, autobiography, and television, Russell Connor uses the medium of video to comment on his own work. Superimposed over an episode of the show "Museum Open House," on the painter James McNeill Whistler, Connor critiques his earlier work. Approximate date: 1980
License Clip
- Series
- Artist's Showcase
- Program
- Art Talker
- Title
Russell Connor's Art Talker
- Series Description
Anthology series of experimental, avant garde video productions. Program titles: "DANCE FOR CAMERA - SHOW I: DISTRICT I and PALE COOL, PALE WARM;" "DANCE FOR CAMERA - SHOW II: TZADDICK;" "DANCE FOR CAMERA - SHOW III: GEORGE'S HOUSE;" "SELECTED WORKS - 1974 - 1975;" "THE GIRL WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR;" "SET OF COINCIDENCE;" "ALL ACROSS BOSTON;" " UNTITLED PERFORMANCE BY ROBERT GOLDMAN;" "QUIDDATAS;" "TELEPORTRAITS;" "FOUR SIDED TAPES;" "AMY LOWELL;" "PRIMORDIAL SOUP;" "HOWARD;" "THIRD TAPE;" "PAST FANTASIES;" "SEMI BUFFET;" "EAST ENDED TAPE;" "A COLOR PIECE FOR TV;" "CONTEXTS AND ONE AND MANY;" "THREE TRANSITIONS;" "CITY SCAPE;" "OUT OF TIME;" "NO TITLE." Series release date: 1975
- Program Description
In this commentary on biography, autobiography, and television, Russell Connor uses the medium of video to comment on his own work. Russell Connor was the host of a WGBH and Boston Museum of Fine Arts show in the early 1960’s entitled “Museum Open House.” In “Art Talker,” Connor’s image is superimposed over an episode of the show from 1963 -- a spot on the painter James McNeill Whistler. The “contemporary” Connor critiques and observes his younger self. He deconstructs the mystique of television, pointing out that rather than reciting biographical information about Whistler from memory, his younger self is actually reading off cue cards. “It’s almost poignant,” Connor tells us at one point, as he responds to his earlier image, “But he was a ham.” Autobiography and biography merge, as Connors simultaneously relays details of Whistler’s life and of his own (referring to himself in the third person). Little credit information is provided.
- Asset Type
Clip
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Connor, Russell
- Biography
- Television
- Whistler, James McNeill, 1834-1903
- Autobiography
- Educational/cultural works
- Topics
- Film and Television
- Publication Information
- WGBH Educational Foundation
- Citation
- Chicago: “Artist's Showcase; Art Talker; Russell Connor's Art Talker,” GBH Archives, accessed April 23, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_35CCA82DBB214D7EADBC4CA6B321FAF9.
- MLA: “Artist's Showcase; Art Talker; Russell Connor's Art Talker.” GBH Archives. Web. April 23, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_35CCA82DBB214D7EADBC4CA6B321FAF9>.
- APA: Artist's Showcase; Art Talker; Russell Connor's Art Talker. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_35CCA82DBB214D7EADBC4CA6B321FAF9