Video History Project

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Lillian Schwartz

Lillian Schwartz, resident artist and consultant at Bell Laboratories (New Jersey), 1969-2002. During the 70s and 80s Schwartz developed a catalogue of visionary techniques for the use of the computer system by artists. Her formal explorations in abstract animation involved the marriage of film, computers and music in collaboration with such luminaries as computer programmer Kenneth Knowlton and computer musicians Jean?Claude Risset, Max Mathews and Richard Moore.

Schwartz's films have been shown and won awards at the Venice Biennale, Zagreb, Cannes, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and nominated and received Emmy nominations and awards. Her work has been exhibited at, and is owned by, The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), The Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Centre Beauborg (Paris), Stedlijk Museum of Art (Amsterdam), and the Grand Palais Museum (Paris). Lumen has collaborated with Lillian Schwartz and curator Gregory Kurcewicz to compile a touring package of these important works.

A Beautiful Virus Inside the Machine features animations restored to video. The Artist and the Computer, 1976, 10 mins is a documentary about her work. Produced by Larry Keating for AT&T, "The Artist and the Computer is an excellent introductory informational film that dispels some of the 'mystery' of computer-art technology, as it clarifies the necessary human input of integrity, artistic sensibilities, and aesthetics.... Ms. Schwartz's voice over narration explains what she hoped to accomplish in the excerpts from a number of her films and gives insight into the artist's problems and decisions." - John Canemaker

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"Lillian Schwartz." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/lillian-schwartz.

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Summary

Lillian Schwartz was resident artist and consultant at Bell Laboratories (New Jersey) from 1969 to 2002; in the 1970s and 1980s she developed computer-based techniques for artists and made abstract animations combining film, computers and music with collaborators including Kenneth Knowlton. Her films were shown and awarded at Venice Biennale, Zagreb and Cannes and by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; they received Emmy nominations and awards and are held by institutions including The Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lumen and curator Gregory Kurcewicz assembled a touring package that includes restored animations and the 1976 documentary The Artist and the Computer, produced by Larry Keating for AT&T.

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Last modified 18 June 2011

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