Essential writings from the downtown New York legend and polymath, pioneer of both structural film and drone music
Tony Conrad (1940–2016) was a legendary multidisciplinary artist known for his groundbreaking contributions in experimental film, music, and video. Upon moving to New York City in 1962, he began making music with John Cale, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in the Theatre of Eternal Music, a group that helped shape what would come to be known as minimalist music. He later went on to perform with Lou Reed in a pre-Velvet Underground band called The Primitives and cut a classic 1972 record with the German Krautrock band Faust that set a new standard for drone music.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Conrad was perhaps best known for his contribution to film, where he helped to redefine structural filmmaking with The Flicker and Yellow Movies. Conrad went on to create an extensive body of work in a variety of media such as installation, photography, and performance until his death in 2016.
Throughout his life, Conrad also wrote prolifically on topics including his own work (and that of his peers), music, art, media theory and activism. Writings is the first book devoted solely to Conrad's writing, collecting 57 hard-to-find or previously unpublished texts from 1961 to 2012. These writings provide a critical lens into the artist's multitudinous identities and wide-ranging creative pursuits and, as with his diverse artistic output, consistently challenge and dismantle authoritarian notions of culture.
A spread from 'Tony Conrad: Writings.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
4 Columns
Geeta Dayal
The book offers a tantalizing window into the thinking behind Conrad’s most famous works...[he] was uncompromising in his beliefs until the end, sticking to his ideals with tenacious fervor. His music—which often involved vast extended drones and noisy explorations of minimalism—defied mainstream popularity.
4 Columns
Geeta Dayal
a heady read—as eccentric, cerebral, quick-witted, and occasionally baffling as its creator.
The Wire
Jennifer Lucy Allen
The cherry on top of Conrad's writing is the mom and pop humor in his tone, balancing daftness and deftness to achieve the full expression if his ideas
Film Comment
Clinton Krute
That energy, sharply analytic mind, and dry wit are very much on display in Tony Conrad: Writings, a new selection of the artist’s published and unpublished work from 1961 to 2012. Comprised of artist’s statements, reviews, articles, liner notes, and other assorted scribblings, the book is less a typical anthology of writings than a collection of often funny and tirelessly insightful provocations to reconsider the ways we see, speak, write, and make things.
ARTnews
Andy Battaglia
One of many essential books published this year by Primary Information, a long-in-the-making compendium of writings by polyglot artist Tony Conrad...a good deal deals with the kind of droning, drifting music he made an integral part of the avant-garde lexicon.
Los Angeles Review of Books
Griel Marcus
a compact, quietly elegant volume, nearly 600 pages that in your hand feels like something much more modest — is unparalleled in postwar arts criticism for its lack of affect, its clarity, and a coolly surprised humor that seems to run beneath every line.
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In celebration of Tony Conrad: Writings, the editors of the collection—Andy Lampert and Constance DeJong—will read essays from the text at McNally Jackson, Prince Street, at 7 PM on Thursday, February 27. Writings, published by Primary Information, is the first collection to survey Tony Conrad’s diverse and expansive writings. Spanning from 1961–2012, the volume includes 57 pieces: essays originally published in small press magazines, exhibition catalogues, anthologies, and album liner notes, along with other unpublished works. Please join Primary Information and McNally Jackson to celebrate this wonderful achievement. continue to blog
Saturday, January 4 at 3 PM, Artbook and Primary Information present the Los Angeles book launch for Tony Conrad: Writings. Editor Andrew Lampert will be reading from the book and in discussion with filmmaker Tyler Hubby (writer and director of Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present) and writer Tosh Berman (author of Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World). Email bookshw-la@artbook.com or call 213-988-7413 to pre-order a signed copy with free shipping in the U.S.! continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 5 x 7.5 in. / 576 pgs. LIST PRICE: U.S. $24.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $31 ISBN: 9780991558513 PUBLISHER: Primary Information AVAILABLE: 11/26/2019 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Primary Information. Edited by Constance DeJong, Andrew Lampert.
Essential writings from the downtown New York legend and polymath, pioneer of both structural film and drone music
Tony Conrad (1940–2016) was a legendary multidisciplinary artist known for his groundbreaking contributions in experimental film, music, and video. Upon moving to New York City in 1962, he began making music with John Cale, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in the Theatre of Eternal Music, a group that helped shape what would come to be known as minimalist music. He later went on to perform with Lou Reed in a pre-Velvet Underground band called The Primitives and cut a classic 1972 record with the German Krautrock band Faust that set a new standard for drone music.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Conrad was perhaps best known for his contribution to film, where he helped to redefine structural filmmaking with The Flicker and Yellow Movies. Conrad went on to create an extensive body of work in a variety of media such as installation, photography, and performance until his death in 2016.
Throughout his life, Conrad also wrote prolifically on topics including his own work (and that of his peers), music, art, media theory and activism. Writings is the first book devoted solely to Conrad's writing, collecting 57 hard-to-find or previously unpublished texts from 1961 to 2012. These writings provide a critical lens into the artist's multitudinous identities and wide-ranging creative pursuits and, as with his diverse artistic output, consistently challenge and dismantle authoritarian notions of culture.
