I Was a Flawed Modernist: Collected Writings by Paul Sharits, Collected Stories About Paul Sharits

by Paul Sharits, Sarah Markgraf (Editor)

Infamous experimental filmmaker Paul Sharits (1943 – 93) comes to life in two ways in “I Was a Flawed Modernist”: Collected Writings of and Stories about Paul Sharits. One section of the book features oral histories of this colorful artist, many of which come from artists of their own renown, such as Carolee Schneemann, Robert Longo, and Tony Conrad. The other section offers all of Sharits’s available writings, many of them—including letters to Stan Brakhage and Henry Holmes Smith—previously unpublished. Sharits’s writing reveals a powerful intellect while also, at times, a sense of fragility not usually associated with a figure of such flamboyance. In this way, this volume presents a vivid and sometimes contradictory picture of an artist whose films remain radical today.

Paul Sharits was a visual artist pioneer of the structural film movement along with other artists such as Tony Conrad, Hollis Frampton and Michael Snow. Sharits' work focused primarily on installations incorporating endless film loops, multiple projectors and experimental soundtracks.

Sarah Markgraf is Professor of Cinema Studies at Bergen Comunity College in New Jersey. Her writing has appeared in Millennium Film Journal, Afterimage, Film Quarterly, and Metaphor and Symbol.

394 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Evan Pincus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential collection covering the complexities of the work, thought and life of this fascinating artist.