Larry Clark
About the Artist | liquid blackness in Conversation with Larry Clark | Selected Works | Exhibition History | Passing Through Visual Dossier | Passing Through: The Arts and Politics of the Jazz Ensemble Research Project | Passing Through: The Arts and Politics of the Jazz Ensemble 2015 Events
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Larry Clark is a multi-media artist and professor at San Francisco State University. Clark earned an MFA from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television alongside a cohort of African, African-American, Asian, Chicano, and Native American students now known as the “LA Rebellion.” In notably close proximity to the center of mainstream American filmmaking, Clark and his classmates explored alternative approaches to film study and production.
Clark’s filmmaking and painting pay particular attention to the vitality of black music as an experimental form capable of creating improvisational connections through space and time. As a result, his film Passing Through is considered one of the best jazz films ever made and has been referenced by contemporary black filmmakers who have used the film to explore complex sound-image relations. Additionally, ensembles—both the fictional musical group in Clark’s film and the actual jazz musicians Clark enlisted as collaborators, Horace Tapscott and his Pan-Afrikan People’s Jazz Arkestra—are key to Clark’s political critique. Clark returns to the ensemble, this time in a covert cell of insurgents, in his 1973 film As Above, So Below.
liquid blackness in Conversation with Larry Clark
SELECTED WORKS
Director
Cutting Horse (2002)
Passing Through (1977)
As Above, So Below (1973)
Tamu (1970)
SELECTED DISCUSSIONS
“Charles Burnett and Larry Clark.” 11th Athens Avant Garde Film Festival, October, 2020. http://www.tainiothiki.gr/en/online-events/740-discussion-the-african-american-film-movement-l-a-rebellion-charles-burnett-and-larry-clark.
Passing Through Exhibition History
A story map that visualizes the global exhibition history of Clark’s film, including screening dates and archival images from international film festivals.
Passing Through Visual Dossier
A visual dossier with primary materials from Larry Clark’s papers (courtesy of the artist), including production stills, festival ephemera, and personal photographs.
All images courtesy of the artist and can’t be used without permission.