Opening Kenneth Anger

Exhibition: Fri, Jan 25 - Sat, Feb 23

Kenneth Anger
ICONS
25/01/13 – 23/02/13
Sprüth Magers Berlin is delighted to present an exhibition of work by the iconic filmmaker and artist
Kenneth Anger, in his second solo show in Berlin. ICONS will bring together an archive of film,
photographs, scrapbooks, letters and memorabilia from Anger’s personal collection, offering an
insight into the unique vision of an artist widely acclaimed as a pioneering and influential force in
avant-garde cinema, whose influence extends through generations of film makers, musicians and
artists.
Making films continuously since the late 1940s, Kenneth Anger is considered one of the most
original filmmakers of American cinema and a countercultural icon. His groundbreaking body of
work has had a profound effect on mainstream film directors such as George Lucas and Martin
Scorsese, particularly in the application of a cross-cutting editing style and the integral use of pop
music. Furthermore, post-war popular visual culture, from queer iconography to MTV, owes a debt
to Anger‘s art. In particular, Anger has been cited as a major influence on the aesthetic of music
video, with its emphasis on dream sequence and elevated affect, and his own soundtracks have
featured collaborations with Mick Jagger and Jimmy Page, amongst others.
The archive ICONS will be exhibited across two rooms, painted midnight blue and crimson red, to
replicate the way in which the collection was on display at Kenneth Anger’s home in Los Angles. An
occupation with Hollywood began as a child when Anger would visit film sets with his costume
designer grandmother. Ranging from tabloid and magazine covers, to posters and illustrations, the
archival documents on show, gathered over many decades, reveal the extent of Anger’s fascination
with the industry and the Golden Age of Hollywood. Centered on figures such as Greta Garbo and
Rudolph Valentino, the memorabilia evokes the world of the classic studios and the mystique of its
stars, and reveals the inspiration and source material behind the filmmaker’s infamous celebrity
gossip books Hollywood Babylon, published in 1975 and 1984. Delving into Hollywood scandal and
excess, these publications, like his films, serve to highlight the very ambivalent dynamic between
the cinema audience and the stars they worship and destroy. Here, images from contemporary pop
culture and of Hollywood stars are taken out their usual structures of representation and put into a
new, perverse context intended to disturb customary modes of perception.
In addition to works from the archive, the exhibition will include the recent Airship series (2010 -
2012), consisting of three short films. These works, each between two and three minutes in length,
are based on newsreel footage of dirigibles hovering in the sky. The series demonstrates a
characteristic fusion of magick, symbolism, mystery and myth. Using a non-narrative style, Anger’s
abstract films are imbued with a baroque splendor stemming from the heightened sensuality of an
opulent use of colour and mystic imagery. In Airship, the heavy colour ribbing around the outline of
the aircraft imbues the film with an eerie, supernatural quality.
Kenneth Anger was born in Santa Monica, California. His most iconic works include the classic
Fireworks (1947), Eaux D’Artifice (1953), Rabbit´s Moon (1950-1973), Inauguration of the Pleasure
Dome (1954-66), Scorpio Rising (1964), Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) and Lucifer Rising
(1970–81). His work has been featured at the Whitney Biennial 2006, P.S.1 Contemporary Art
Centre, New York in 2009 and the Athens Biennial 2009. The archival material ICONS was
previously exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (13 November 2011 – 27
February 2012).
Sprüth Magers Berlin will also be concurrently presenting the solo exhibitions La Société du
Spectacle by Astrid Klein and Bathroom Sink, Etc. by Analia Saban.