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13/2/2004

Michel Auder

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown

Chronicles and Other Scenes

The exhibition includes a selection from the artist's vast archive of film and video works from 1969 to 2003.

One of the true pioneers of the video medium, Michel Auder and his camera have been witness to a slice of life many of us can only imagine, the New York art scenes, both underground and mainstream, of the late 1960's through present. Often overlooked in the histories of video art, Auder's work offers a challenging, yet incredibly rewarding experience. Viewers are allowed to get to know his subjects, as Auder himself has done in documenting them. The artist's relationship to his subjects is one of intimacy and trust, not of intrusion or exposure. His presence is felt, but is not overbearing.

Chronicles and Other Scenes highlights a range of Auder's video work over the last three decades. It includes personal diaries of his life, family and friends, known as "chronicles;" travelogues of far flung locales including Morocco, Rome, and California; artist portraits including those of Taylor Mead, Alice Neel, Annie Sprinkle, and Cindy Sherman, to whom Auder was married during the 1980s; and video collages of images collected directly from commercial television. In addition to works made from recently shot tapes, such as the compilation Mondo Cane 5, 2003, Chronicles and Other Scenes includes videos developed from footage that was shot in previous decades and then recently re-edited into completely new works, such as The Cockettes, and Van's Last Performance, both shot in 1971 and released 2002. Accompanying the exhibition will be a brochure with an essay by C. Ondine Chavoya, Assistant Professor of Art, one of the first scholarly investigations of the work of this important and underrepresented artist.

About the Artist
Michel Auder was born in 1944 in Soissons, France. Starting out as a fashion photographer, he began making films at the age of 18. He worked with the Zanzibar Group, a collective of young French filmmakers whose work was influenced by the tumultuous political climate of 1968. Auder also looked to the early films of Jean-Luc Godard and Andy Warhol as inspiration for his own film practice. In 1969 he met, and eventually married Viva, one of the principle stars of many of Warhol's films. The two settled in New York City, living for some time at the Chelsea Hotel alongside other artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers of the day. Auder purchased one of the first commercially available video cameras in 1969 and made the switch from film to video, allowing for a more immediate approach to image making. Since that time, he has accumulated thousands of hours of footage from which he culls to create individual videos.

The exhibition was organized by Lisa Dorin, Assistant Curator and C. Ondine Chavoya, Assistant Professor of Art.

Related Programming
Lecture by Michel Auder
Wednesday, April 21 at 4:00 p.m. at the Williams College Museum of Art.

Michel Auder will show excerpts of his videos and talk about his art making process over the last 30 years. This program is free and open to the public.

Publicity Images Available
Publicity images for Michel Auder: Chronicles and Other Scenes and other current exhibitions are available for use. Images include video stills from Keeping Busy, 1969 and Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol, 1971-1976, released 1994. They can be found at http://www.wcma.org/press.

The Williams College Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and the museum is wheelchair accessible.

In the image: 'Full Metal Jacket'. Series of 2, Digital C-Print, 20 x 24. 1971. No. 01

Williams College Museum of Art
15 Lawrence Hall Drive, Ste 2
Williamstown, MA 01267
t: 413.597.2429 f: 413.458.9017
open tu-sa 10-5, su 1-5
free admission, wheelchair accessible

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