# Stan Vanderbeek

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**Stan Vanderbeek** (also **VanDerBeek**; January 6, 1927, New York City – September 19, 1984,[1] Baltimore) was an American [independent animator](/source/Independent_animation),[2] [experimental filmmaker](/source/Experimental_film), and [art theoretician](/source/Art_theory) known for his [collage works](/source/Collage_film)[3] and his early use of the digital computer as a creative medium. His *Movie Drome* theater was a [grain silo](/source/Grain_silo) [dome](/source/Dome) or [geodesic dome](/source/Geodesic_dome) where he showed 16mm films mixed with 35mm slides, video and [digital animations](/source/Digital_animation).[4]

## Life

Vanderbeek studied [art](/source/Art) and [architecture](/source/Architecture) at [Manhattan](/source/Manhattan)'s [Cooper Union](/source/Cooper_Union) before transferring to [Black Mountain College](/source/Black_Mountain_College) in [North Carolina](/source/North_Carolina), where he met polymath [Buckminster Fuller](/source/Buckminster_Fuller), composer [John Cage](/source/John_Cage), and choreographer [Merce Cunningham](/source/Merce_Cunningham). Beginning in 1949, he took two terms of photography courses from [Hazel Larsen Archer](/source/Hazel_Larsen_Archer) at the institution.[5]

In the 1950s, he directed independent art films while learning animation techniques and painting scenery and set designs for *[Winky Dink and You](/source/Winky_Dink_and_You)*. His earliest films, made between 1955 and 1965, mostly consist of animated paintings and [collage films](/source/Collage_film), combined in a form of organic development (including his 1959 short *Science Friction*).[6]

Vanderbeek's ironic compositions were created very much in the spirit of the surreal and [Dadaist](/source/Dadaist) collages of [Max Ernst](/source/Max_Ernst), but with a wild, rough informality more akin to the expressionism of the [Beat Generation](/source/Beat_Generation).[citation needed]

In the 1960s, Vanderbeek began working with [Claes Oldenburg](/source/Claes_Oldenburg) and [Jim Dine](/source/Jim_Dine), as well as representatives of modern dance and expanded cinema including [Merce Cunningham](/source/Merce_Cunningham) and [Elaine Summers](/source/Elaine_Summers).[citation needed] Contemporaneously, he designed shows using multiple projectors at his *Movie Drome* theater at [Stony Point, New York](/source/Stony_Point,_New_York).[citation needed] The *Movie Drome* was a grain silo dome which he turned into his "infinite projection screen." In a letter to the [Rockefeller Foundation](/source/Rockefeller_Foundation) fielding support for the *Movie Drome,* he wrote: "The most important concept of this ‘experience machine is to make the world audience ‘self’ conscious of itself, which I think is an essential step in the bringing about of peaceful co-existence."[7] Visitors entered the dome through a trap-door in the floor, and were encouraged after entering to spread out over the floor and lie with their feet pointing towards the center. Once inside, the audience experienced a dynamic inter-dispersal of movies and images around them, created by over a dozen slide and film projectors filling the concave surface with a dense collage of moving imagery.[8] These presentations contained a very great number of random image sequences and continuities, with the result that none of the performances were alike.

His desire for the utopian led him to collaborate with [Ken Knowlton](/source/Ken_Knowlton) at [Bell Labs](/source/Bell_Labs), where dozens of computer-animated films and [holographic](/source/Holograph) experiments were created by the end of the 1960s. These included *[Poem Field](/source/Poem_Field)* (1964-1968), a series of eight [computer animations](/source/Computer_animation).[citation needed]

During the same period, he taught at many universities, researching new methods of representation, from the steam projections at the [Guggenheim Museum](/source/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum) to the [interactive](/source/Interactive) television transmissions of his *Violence Sonata*, broadcast on several channels in 1970. He directed the [University of Maryland, Baltimore County](/source/University_of_Maryland,_Baltimore_County) visual arts program until his death.[citation needed]

## Family

He had two children (August, Maximus) from his marriage to Johanna Vanderbeek. Three additional children from his second marriage to Louise Vanderbeek are Julia Vanderbeek and artists [Sara Vanderbeek](/source/Sara_Vanderbeek) and [Johannes Vanderbeek](/source/Johannes_Vanderbeek).[1][9]

## Legacy

His movie *Breathdeath* (1963)[10][11] was a huge influence on [Terry Gilliam](/source/Terry_Gilliam) (who, nonetheless, once mistakenly referred to it as *Death Breath*).[12]

Vanderbeek's work and legacy have been the focus of several retrospective exhibitions,[13] including:

- *Amazement Park: Stan, Sara and Johannes VanDerBeek* (2009) at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at [Skidmore College](/source/Skidmore_College), Saratoga Springs, NY
- *Stan VanDerBeek – The Cultural Intercom* (2011) at [MIT List Visual Arts Center](/source/List_Visual_Arts_Center), Cambridge, MA (traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, TX)
- *Jon Rafman / Stan VanDerBeek* (2017) at [Sprüth Magers](/source/Spr%C3%BCth_Magers), Los Angeles, CA, curated by Johannes Fricke Waldthausen
- *VanDerBeek + VanDerBeek* (2019) at [Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center](/source/Black_Mountain_College_Museum_%2B_Arts_Center), co-curated by Sara VanDerBeek and Chelsea Spengemann, Director of the Stan VanDerBeek Archive.[14]

The VanDerBeek Archive is represented by the New York City gallery Magenta Plains.[15] In 2023, Magenta Plains hosted *See Saw Seems*, its first solo exhibition of Stan Vanderbeek's work, showcasing his historical collage animation films from 1960 to 1965.[16] In 2024, Magenta Plains presented *Transmissions*, showcasing the artist’s collages, drawings, and films. A central work within the exhibition was *Panels for the Walls of the World: Phase II*, consisting of two 20-foot-long fax murals created by Vanderbeek in the spring of 1970 during his residency at MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies.[17]

*Hyperallergic* highlighted the work in their review of *Transmissions*, noting "Like the best of the artist’s work, “Panels for the Walls of the World” is an exercise in self-transcendence, an attempt at vaulting cognition beyond the body’s traditional borders."[18]

## Public collections

Stan Vanderbeek's work is featured in the collections of:

- [The Arts Council of Great Britain](/source/Arts_Council_of_Great_Britain), London, UK
- [The Art Institute of Chicago](/source/Art_Institute_of_Chicago), Chicago, IL
- [Centre Pompidou](/source/Centre_Pompidou), Paris, FR
- [Los Angeles County Museum of Art](/source/Los_Angeles_County_Museum_of_Art), Los Angeles, CA
- [LUMA Foundation](/source/LUMA_Foundation), Zurich, CH
- [Museum of Modern Art](/source/Museum_of_Modern_Art), New York, NY
- [Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia](/source/Museo_Nacional_Centro_de_Arte_Reina_Sof%C3%ADa), Madrid, ES
- The National Library of Australia Film Collection, Parkes (Canberra), AU
- [The Pennsylvania State University](/source/Pennsylvania_State_University), State College, PA
- Thoma Foundation, Santa Fe, NM
- [Walker Art Center](/source/Walker_Art_Center), Minneapolis, MN
- [Whitney Museum of American Art](/source/Whitney_Museum_of_American_Art), New York, NY
- Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK
- [ZKM, Center for Art and Media](/source/ZKM_Center_for_Art_and_Media_Karlsruhe), Karlsruhe, DE[19]

## See also

- [Cutout animation](/source/Cutout_animation)
- [Computer animation](/source/Computer_animation)

## References

1. ["Stan Vanderbeek Dies at 57; Made Experimental Movies"](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/22/obituaries/stan-vanderbeek-dies-at-57-made-experimental-movies.html). *The New York Times*. New York Times. September 22, 1984. Retrieved December 17, 2018.

1. ["The Unnatural History of Independent Animated Films on 16mm."](https://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.10/2.10pages/2.10cohen.html). *www.awn.com*

1. [Underground Film Journal](https://www.undergroundfilmjournal.com/tag/stan-vanderbeek/)

1. [Stan VanDerBeek](https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/from-the-archives-stan-vanderbeek-computer-new-talent-1234666966/) in [Art in America](/source/Art_in_America)

1. Thomson, Julie J. (2017). *Begin to see: the photographers of Black Mountain College*. Asheville, NC. p. 84. ISBN 9781532325724. [OCLC 973560357](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/973560357)

1. ["MoMA | An Auteurist History of Film: Independent Animation, 1947–60"](https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/12/25/an-auteurist-history-of-film-independent-animation-1947-60/). *www.moma.org*

1. Scott, Felicity (1 March 2023). ["Culture Intercom: Stan VanDerBeek's Movie-Drome"](https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/845). *[The Museum of Modern Art](/source/The_Museum_of_Modern_Art)*. Retrieved 2025-01-10.

1. Claus, Jürgen (2003). "Stan VanDerBeek: An Early Space Art Pioneer". *Leonardo*. **36** (3): 229. [doi:10.1162/002409403321921451](https://doi.org/10.1162/002409403321921451)

1. Kino, Carol (September 14, 2010). ["Putting Memories to New Use"](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/arts/design/19kino.html). *The New York Times*. New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2018.

1. [Breathdeath-Stan Vanderbeek|Underground Film Journal](http://www.undergroundfilmjournal.com/breathdeath-by-stan-vanderbeek/)

1. [Intermedia Art: A La Mode, Science Friction, Breath Death, Poemfield # 2](http://www2.tate.org.uk/intermediaart/StanVanDerBeek.shtm), tate.org. Accessed January 25, 2023.

1. ["Terry Gilliam picks the 10 best animated films of all time"](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/apr/27/culture.features1), theguardian.com. Accessed January 25, 2023.

1. ["The BOX Gallery | Stan VanDerBeek"](http://theboxla.com/artist.php?id=4612). *theboxla.com*. Retrieved 2019-09-28.

1. ["VanDerBeek + VanDerBeek"](http://www.blackmountaincollege.org/vanderbeek-vanderbeek/). *Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center*. 2018-11-29. Retrieved 2019-08-10.

1. [Stan VanDerBeek Archive](https://magentaplains.com/exhibitions/stan-vanderbeek) at Magenta Plains

1. ["Magenta Plains | Stan VanDerBeek"](https://magentaplains.com/exhibitions/stan-vanderbeek). *magentaplains.com*. Retrieved 2025-01-10.

1. ["Magenta Plains | Stan VanDerBeek: Transmissions"](https://magentaplains.com/exhibitions/stan-vanderbeek-transmissions). *magentaplains.com*. Retrieved 2025-01-10.

1. Curl, Julia (2024-04-09). ["Stan VanDerBeek's Virtual Windows on the World"](https://hyperallergic.com/898270/stan-vanderbeeks-virtual-windows-on-the-world/). *Hyperallergic*. Retrieved 2025-01-10.

1. ["Magenta Plains | Bio"](https://magentaplains.com/artists/stan-vanderbeek/bio). *magentaplains.com*. Retrieved 2025-01-10.

## External links

- [Stan Vanderbeek](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0066388/?ref_=tt_ov_dr) on [IMDb](/source/IMDb)
- [Stan VanDerBeek Estate](http://stanvanderbeek.com/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Stan Vanderbeek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Vanderbeek) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Vanderbeek?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.