Suzan Pitt

Suzan Pitt Kraning (born Suzan Lee Pitt; July 11, 1943 – June 16, 2019),[1][2] known professionally as Suzan Pitt, was an American film animator and painter, whose surreal, psychological animated films and paintings have been acclaimed and exhibited worldwide.

Suzan Pitt
Born(1943-07-11)July 11, 1943
Kansas City, Missouri, US
DiedJune 16, 2019(2019-06-16) (aged 76)
Taos, New Mexico, US
EducationCranbrook Academy of Art
Occupation(s)Animated film director, animator, painter, fashion designer.

Early life

Pitt was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and studied painting at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, graduating with a BFA in 1965. In the late 1960s, based in New York, Pitt began experimenting with cutout animation using an 8 mm camera, completing her first short film Bowl, Garden, Theatre, Marble Game in 1970.[3]

Animation

Her best-known film, Asparagus,[4][5] took four years to make, and debuted as part of an installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1979. The installation included the movie-theater set piece used in the film, which held an audience of 15 people.[6][7] Asparagus also screened with David Lynch's Eraserhead for two years on the midnight movie circuit.[2][8][9]

Throughout the 1980s Pitt designed animated projections for various theatrical projects, in particular two groundbreaking operas in Germany: The Magic Flute for the Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 1983 and The Damnation of Faust for the Staatsoper Hamburg in 1988.[10] In addition, she created large-scale multimedia shows, including a collaboration with John Cage at Harvard University in 1976 and at the Venice Biennale in 1980.[6]

Pitt's honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000, a Creative Capital Moving Image Award in 2005, a Rockefeller Fellowship, and three production grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.[11][12][13] She received a retrospective screening at the Museum of Modern Art in 2017, and a Lifetime Achievement Award at Animafest Zagreb in 2019.[14][15]

Fashion

In 1984 and again in 2016, Pitt created editions of hand-painted coats, sold through designer Patricia Field.[16] Pitt also created silk-screen T-shirts printed with an original design, sold through WilliWear Productions by Willi Smith in 1984.[17]

Teaching

Pitt was an associate professor at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard from 1988 through the early 1990s. Starting in 1998, she taught in the Experimental Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts for nearly twenty years, living in Los Angeles and Taos, New Mexico.[18][2]

Preservation

The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Pitt's films, including Joy Street, Asparagus, Whitney Commercial, Crocus, and Bowl, Garden, Theatre, Marble Game.[19]

Filmography
  • Bowl, Garden, Theatre, Marble Game – 1970 (16mm, color, 7 min.)
  • Crocus – 1971 (16mm, color, 7 min.)
  • A City Trip – 1972 (16mm, color, 3 min.)
  • Cels – 1972 (16mm, color, 6 min.)
  • Whitney Commercial – 1973 (16mm, color, 3 min.)
  • Jefferson Circus Songs – 1973 (16mm, color, 16 min.)
  • Asparagus – 1979 (35mm, color, 18 min.)
  • Joy Street – 1995 (35mm, color, 24 min.)
  • El Doctor – 2006 (35mm, color, 23 min.)
  • Visitation – 2011 (digital (from 16mm), b/w, 8 min 50 seconds.)
  • Pinball – 2013 (digital, color, 7 min.)

References
  1. "Suzan Pitt, 75, Wildly Inventive Animation Filmmaker, Dies". New York Times. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  2. Robinson, Chris (June 18, 2019). "Suzan Pitt, Influential American Director Of Animated Films, Dies At 75". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  3. Canemaker, John (January 1, 1979). "Suzan Pitt: Moving, Changing, and Animating" (PDF). John Canemaker's Animated Eye. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  4. Pioneers in film: the art-house films that shaped popular culture|The Independent
  5. "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1979 -". cartoonresearch.com.
  6. Leger, Jackie (February 1997). "Suzan Pitt: An Animator's Journey". Animation World Network. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  7. Buchan, Suzanne (July 11, 2018). "The Animated Female Body, Feminism(s) and 'Mushi'". In Smith, Vicky; Hamlyn, Nicky (eds.). Experimental & Expanded Animation. Springer. p. 206. ISBN 978-3319738734. Retrieved June 18, 2019 – via GoogleBooks.
  8. Fever Dreamer: Susan Pitt's Feminist Fantasies|The Current|The Criterion Collection
  9. Suzan Pitt Collection - Collection - Harvard Film Archive
  10. Chris Robinson (June 3, 2010). Animators Unearthed: A Guide to the Best of Contemporary Animation. A&C Black. pp. 81–. ISBN 978-0-8264-2956-8.
  11. "MoMA Salutes Creative Capital, Supporter of Risk-Taking, Experimental Artists, with an Exhibition". Artdaily.org. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  12. "Famed Painter and Animator Suzan Pitt Dies at 75". Animation World Network. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  13. "El Doctor". Creative Capital. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  14. "An Evening with Suzan Pitt". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  15. "Animafest Zagreb Lifetime Achievement Award Winner". Animafest Zagreb. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  16. "Notes on Fashion". New York Times. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  17. Silva, Horacio (2020). "Artventure". In Cunningham Cameron, Alexandra (ed.). Willi Smith: Street Couture. New York: Rizzoli Electa. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-8478-6819-3.
  18. "Suzan Pitt: Visitation". AnOther Magazine. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  19. "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
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