- Marcus Reichert
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Marcus Reichert (1948- ) is an American artist, author, photographer, and film writer/director.
He was given his first exhibition of paintings at the age of twenty-one at the legendary Gotham Book Mart and Art Gallery, New York, home to the Surrealists during WWII. In 1990, he was honored with a retrospective organised by the Hatton Gallery of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne which toured in various forms to Glasgow, London, Paris, and the United States. His Crucifixion paintings have been described by Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, as being among the most disturbing painted in the 20th Century, while the American critic Donald Kuspit has written that both Picasso's and Bacon's pale in comparison. The first neo-noir, Reichert's film Union City, which premiered at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival, was hailed by Lawrence O'Toole, film critic for Time magazine, as "an unqualified masterpiece." His film works are held in the Archive of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Marcus Reichert is the author of three novels, including the cult classic Verdon Angster, and his writing is featured on the internet journals 3:AM Magazine and Newtopia Magazine. His published work, including Diary Of A Seducer with poems by D.A. Blyler, is available from Art Books International, London. Reichert: The Human Edifice by Mel Gooding, with 100 photographs by the artist in colour, is available from The Photographers Gallery, London and amazon.co.uk.
Contents
Films
Background
As a child, Marcus Reichert was first taken to the cinema by his grandmother who often escaped the summer heat of the New Jersey coast by indulging in an air-conditioned matinee. Most “serious” films of the period - the mid 1950’s - were still photographed in black and white and Reichert took particular joy in imagining the unfolding scenes in colour. His grandmother had a taste for “adult” romances, which obviously informs Reichert’s preoccupation in his own films and screenplays with psychologically distorted relationships.
Reichert’s earliest films, shot primarily in 8 mm, concentrate on the formal aspects of the human figure in an abstracted environment. This is particularly apparent in Silent Sonata which he co-directed with fellow-painter Akira Arita. The short films that follow - amputated scenes from scripts never realized in their entirety - have an atmosphere of anticipation about them, as if in pursuit of some barely glimpsed cinematic prey. The first neo-noir, Reichert's Union City was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 1980, and was hailed by Lawrence O'Toole, film critic for Time Magazine, as "an unqualified masterpiece." It has been in distribution ever since.
The film has been hugely influential, especially among younger filmmakers. As the actor Everett McGill (Quest For Fire, Brubaker, Heartbreak Ridge, Twin Peaks, Under Siege II), who played Larry Longacre in Union City, has said, "Before Twin Peaks there was Union City." Now considered a classic, the film was the centre-piece of the neo-noir festival held in 1997 by the American Museum of the Moving Image. Union City is in the Film Archive of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Many individuals who have gone on to substantial careers in the industry were involved in the making of the film, including Kathryn Bigelow, Stefan Czapsky, Edward Lachman A.S.C., Dennis Lipscomb, Everett McGill, Sam McMurray, and Monty Montgomery. No less notably, Deborah Harry made her dramatic debut in the film and Chris Stein of Blondie created the musical score.
Union City has been under contract, in the English language, to the following distribution and television companies: Columbia Tristar, Channel 4, Cinemax, Cineplex, Film4, Fox Lorber Associates / Winstar Home Entertainment, Orion Pictures, Mainline Pictures, and Tartan Video. The film is owned by Marcus Reichert & Co. and the Museum of Modern Art.
Filmography
Selected films of Marcus Reichert:
2004 SUNDAY EVENING, photography, design, and direction by Marcus Reichert for high definition surround sound music DVD; Lazy Curtis, Final Touch Productions Ltd., London (Executive Producer: Chris Smith)
1998 THE SEAWALL MURAL, design and direction by Marcus Reichert for public works fine art project; The Renaissance Project, Thanet Arts Development Office (Advisors: Christina McQuaid, Sam Thomas)
1991 PEOPLE, production design and direction for music video by Marcus Reichert; The Cutaways, Ragin’ Records, Iris Sound / Metropolis Film Studios, Philadelphia (Producer: David Ivory) - MTV Selection
1980 UNION CITY, written and directed by Marcus Reichert; The Tuxedo Company Inc., New York (Producers: Graham Belin, Monty Montgomery, Ron Mutz); owned by Marcus Reichert & Co. and The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1978 WINGS OF ASH (A Dramatization of the Life of Antonin Artaud), pilot for feature film, written and directed by Marcus Reichert; Silver Screen Productions Inc., New York and Mick Jagger, London (Producers: Monty Montgomery, Marcus Reichert)
1977 LE GRAND SILENCE, written, produced, and directed by Marcus Reichert; Silver Screen Productions Inc., New York
1968 SILENT SONATA, written and directed by Marcus Reichert and Akira Arita; Rhode Island School of Design
Photography
Background
STATEMENT BY MARCUS REICHERT
"In a world caught up in the pseudo-sophistication of a new barbarism, the power of the photographic image to transform thought becomes ever more compelling and, in many ways, ominous. There is always for the photographer the will to make sense of chaos - to make it legible - but the conjuring of an image for one’s own philosophical purposes, however calculating or innocent, necessarily constitutes a kind of aesthetic totalitarianism. I regard my photographic work very much as an objectification of the unreal: I perceive an idealised world, in formal and atmospheric terms, that does not exist, at least not until the photograph is taken. When I compose a picture, attempting to remain faithful to my instinct for abstraction, I seek a simplification and hence a purification of what I see. Given the staggering abundance of literally everything - visual detritus strewn everywhere - my job is to isolate and distil whatever peculiar beauty I might find lurking in the miasma. In the camera, when one fastens with determined intent upon another human being, an unfamiliar interior, a darkened building, one can impose all sorts of ulterior meanings on that presence. This proposition - of evoking a new reality - awakens an almost ruthless determination in me. Ultimately, the subject collaborates in the act. Nevertheless, one imposes an egocentric idea of beauty on the subject, and thereby on the eye of the beholder."
Resources
Reichert: The Human Edifice
by Mel Gooding, with 100 images in color, is published by Artmedia Press, London and available from The Photographers Gallery, London and amazon.co.uk and amazon.comMarcus Reichert's Photographs are represented by Michael Hoppen Contemporary (website), London.
Writing
Books about or by Marcus Reichert:
- Marcus Reichert: The Human Edifice, with 100 colour photographs from 30 years of the artist's work and an illuminating text by Mel Gooding, is available from Art Books International, London.
- Rare early editions of Verdon Angster and The Miracle of Fontana’s Monkey are available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.
- Marcus Reichert: Selected Works 1958-1989 is available from Art Books International, London and Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London.
- Diary of a Seducer, Drawings 1970-71 by Marcus Reichert, Poetry by D.A. Blyler, is available from Art Books International, London.
- Displaced Person: Poetry, Pornography & Politics by Marcus Reichert is published by Ziggurat Books, London and is available from Central Books, London. The book features selected writing from 1970 to 2005, including Reichert's controversial political articles for the internet, confessional poetry, and excerpts from his three novels.
- Art & Ego: Marcus Reichert in Conversation with Edward Rozzo is published by Ziggurat Books, London and is available from Art Books International, London.
External links
- www.marcusreichert.com Official Marcus Reichert website, features galleries and additional information.
- IMDb entry on Marcus Reichert
- Interview with Marcus Reichert , by Richard Marshall, 3:AM Magazine
- Press release for Displaced Person and Union City on the Official Blondie Web Site, includes images and additional information
Categories:- American artists
- American photographers
- 1948 births
- Living people
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