Neelon Crawford, Filmmaker, Exhibition Opens July 24 at MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art presents Neelon Crawford, Filmmaker, an exhibition and Virtual Cinema film series introducing the multimedia artist Neelon Crawford (American, born 1946) to contemporary audiences from July 24, 2021 through Spring, 2022.

Crawford was a member of the New York, San Francisco and Ohio independent filmmaking scenes from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Describing his work from this period as "experiments in the geometry of abstraction made possible by the movie camera," Crawford's 16-millimeter films reflected his interests in light, movement and landscape as well as dance, and early computer graphics.

Installed in the Titus galleries as a timely meditation on climate crisis and sustainability, the nine newly-restored films on view include KMK Cane (1976), La Selva (1974), Laredo Sugar Mill (1976), Lago Agrio Gas Burn (1977), Banana Leaves (1977), Ship Side Steel Plate Lights (1974), Light Pleasures (1970), Passing (1974), and Paths of Fire II (1976). Neelon Crawford, Filmmaker is organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, and Brittany Shaw, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film.

Crawford's early years as an artist were distinguished by his restlessness, simultaneously trying his hand at photography, drawing, and painting, and as a filmmaker finding inspiration in various avant-garde moving image scenes. Crediting experimental filmmakers like Nathaniel Dorsky and Bruce Baillie as sources of inspiration, Crawford's treatment of light and motion also reflects his kinship with filmmakers such as Ernie Gehr and Andrew Noren. Supporting his efforts with freelance work in film sound recording led to an infamous encounter with the Hell's Angel's recorded in the Maysles' famous Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter (1970).