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Morgan Hall Fisher (born 1942, in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
) is an American
experimental filmmaker Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...
and artist best known for his structuralist and
minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
films referencing the material processes of celluloid film and the means and methods of producing moving images, including the camera, the director and crew, and the editing process. Since the 1990s, Fisher has also been producing paintings and installation works. His work has been included in three Whitney Biennial exhibitions, 1985, 2004 an
2014
He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1987. Fisher's work has been noted for its relationship to the Southern California landscape and its architecture during a time when the region was staking an aesthetic and intellectual claim in the larger art world. Curator and critic Stuart Comer writes, "Windshields, billboards, movie screens, ocean views, econ-o-box apartment buildings and long expanses of asphalt and concrete form a unique Angeleno vocabulary of monochrome surfaces on which the symbolic configuration called California is played out. This seemingly limitless expanse of flat planes is the arena in which Fisher has staked his challenge to existing regimes of representation and narrative."


Early life and education

Fisher majored in Art History at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
(1960–1964) before moving to the West Coast. He attended
USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...
from 1964 to 1965, and worked toward an MFA in the Motion Picture Division at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
the following year.


Work

After ending his studies, Fisher worked in the
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
film industry, working in support roles on projects by low-budget master
Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
and Oscar-winning cinematographer
Haskell Wexler Haskell Wexler, ASC (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director. Wexler was judged to be one of film history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the Int ...
. Between 1968 and 1974, he created ten of his own films. His 1984 16 mm film, ''Standard Gauge'', was widely acclaimed, and inspired the title for his 2005 exhibition at the
Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude ...
. Fisher cites visual artists, such as
Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...
and
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
, as influences. His 2003 film, '' ()'', consists of a series of inserts—shots from an alternate angle, usually of details, actions, or objects that clarify the action of the main shots—harvested from 16 mm commercial films and assembled according to a system influenced by LeWitt, allowing the order of the shots to be determined by this system. Fisher explains in the film's program notes: "A rule, or a method, underlies ''()'', and I have obeyed it, even if the rule and my obedience to it are not visible." Fisher's work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris, France; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin, Germany; and Generali Foundation, Vienna, Austria. Fisher's paintings have been exhibited at the Generali Foundation in Vienna, Austria; Neuer Aachener Kunstverein in Aachen, Germany; Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Portikus in Frankfurt, Germany; and Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, Germany.


Preservation

The
Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...
has preserved a number of Morgan Fisher's films, including ''Documentary Footage'', ''Turning Over'', and ''Projection Instructions''.


Filmography

* ''The Director and His Actor Look at Footage Showing Preparations for an Unmade Film'', 1968 * ''Screening Room'', 1968 * ''Phi Phenomenon'', 1968 * ''Documentary Footage'', 1968 * ''Production Stills'', 1970 * ''Picture and Sound Rushes'', 1974 * ''Cue Rolls'', 1974 * ''Projection Instructions'', 1976 * ''Color Balance'', 1980 * ''Red Boxing Gloves/Orange Kitchen Gloves'', 1980 * ''Standard Gauge'', 1984 * '' ()'', 2003


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Morgan American experimental filmmakers Collage filmmakers Harvard College alumni University of Southern California alumni UCLA Film School alumni 1942 births Living people People from Washington, D.C.