Brothers Quay
Encyclopedia
Stephen and Timothy Quay (icon ) (born June 17, 1947 in Norristown, Pennsylvania
) are American
identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators. They are the recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design
for their work on the play The Chairs.
, having moved there in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art
, London
after studying illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts
in Philadelphia. In England they made their first short films, which no longer exist after the only print was irreparably damaged. They spent some time in the Netherlands
in the 1970s and then returned to England where they teamed up with another Royal College student, Keith Griffiths, who produced all of their films. The trio formed Koninck Studios in 1980, which is currently based in Southwark
, south London
.
The Quay Brothers' works (1979–present) show a wide range of often esoteric influences, starting with the Polish animators Walerian Borowczyk
and Jan Lenica
and continuing with the writers Franz Kafka
, Bruno Schulz
, Robert Walser
and Michel de Ghelderode
, puppeteers Wladyslaw Starewicz and Richard Teschner and composers Leoš Janáček
, Zdeněk Liška
and Leszek Jankowski, the last of whom has created many original scores for their work. Czech animator Jan Švankmajer
, for whom they named one of their films (The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer), is also frequently cited as a major influence, but they actually discovered his work relatively late, in 1983, by which time their characteristic style and preoccupations had been fully formed. At a panel discussion with Daniel Bird and Andrzej Klimowski at the Aurora festival Norwich they emphasized the more significant influence on their work was Walerian Borowczyk
, who made both animation shorts and live-action features.
Most of their animation films feature puppets made of doll parts and other organic and inorganic materials, often partially disassembled, in a dark, moody atmosphere. Perhaps their best known work is Street of Crocodiles
, based on the short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz
. This short film was selected by director and animator Terry Gilliam
as one of the ten best animated films of all time, and critic Jonathan Romney included it on his list of the ten best films in any medium (for Sight and Sound's 2002 critics' poll). They have made two feature-length live action films: Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life and The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes
. They also directed an animated sequence in the film Frida
.
With very few exceptions, their films have no meaningful spoken dialogue—most have no spoken content at all, while some, like The Comb (From The Museums Of Sleep)
(1990) include multilingual background gibberish that is not supposed to be coherently understood. Accordingly, their films are highly reliant on their music scores, many of which have been written especially for them by the Polish composer Leszek Jankowski. In 2000, they contributed a short film to the BBC
's Sound On Film series in which they visualised a 20-minute piece by the avant-garde
composer Karlheinz Stockhausen
. Whenever possible, the Quays prefer to work with pre-recorded music, though Gary Tarn's score for The Phantom Museum had to be added afterwards when it proved impossible to licence music by the Czech composer Zdeněk Liška
.
They have created music video
s for His Name Is Alive
("Are We Still Married", "Can't Go Wrong Without You"), Michael Penn
("Long Way Down (Look What the Cat Drug In)") and 16 Horsepower
("Black Soul Choir"). Some people mistakenly believe that the Quays are responsible for several music videos for Tool
, but those videos were created by Fred Stuhr and member Adam Jones
, whose work is influenced by the Quays. Although they worked on Peter Gabriel
's seminal video "Sledgehammer
" (1986) as animators, this was directed by Stephen R. Johnson
and the Quays were unhappy with their contribution, believing it to be more imitative of Švankmajer's work than truly distinctive in its own right.
Before turning to film, the Quays worked as professional illustrators. The first edition of Anthony Burgess' novel "The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End", feature their drawings before the start of each chapter. Nearly three decades before directly collaborating with Stockhausen, they designed the cover of the book Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer (ed. Jonathan Cott, Simon & Schuster, 1973). After designing book covers for Gothic and science fiction book cover commissions they did while in Philadelphia, the Quays have created suggestive designs for a variety of publications that seem to reflect not only their own interests in particular authors, covers for Italo Calvino
, Louis-Ferdinand Céline
or Mark le Fanu's study of the films of Andrei Tarkovsky
, but also in themes and motifs that these authors develop. Literary texts are inspirational sources for almost all of their film projects, whether they serve as a point of departure for their own ideas or as a textual basis for filmic scenarios, and not as scripts or screenplays. The prowess in illustration and calligraphy seeps increasingly into many formal elements in their later films, evident as graphic embellishment in the set decoration, or their particular use of patterns in the puppets' costume design. Titles, intertitles and credits appear in a variety of handwritten styles.
The critical success of Street of Crocodiles gave the Quay Brothers artistic freedom to explore a shift in subject matter, in part originating in literary and poetic sources that led to exploration of new aesthetic forms, but also because they were able to make extensive experiments in technique, both with cameras and on large stage sets. The Quays are best known for their puppet and feature length films. Less known, but no less incisive in their creative development is their intense engagement in stage design for opera, ballet and theatre: since 1988, the Quays have created sets and projections for performing arts productions on international stages. Their work at miniature scale has translated into large-scale decors for the theatre and opera productions of director Richard Jones: Prokofiev's
The Love for Three Oranges
; Feydeau's
"A Flea in Her Ear"; Tchaikovsky's
Mazeppa
; and Molière
's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.". Their set design for a revival of Ionesco's
"The Chairs
" was nominated for a Tony Award
in 1998. The Quays' excursion into feature films and live-action dance films are by no means an indication of a move away from animation and the literature that inspires them—on the contrary, this next film explores the potential which slumbers in the combination of these cinematic techniques. Their puppet animation set designs have been curated as an internationally touring exhibition called 'Dormitorium' and most recently on display in 2010 at Parsons School of Design, New York.
The Quay Brothers are regular guests at film festivals, art colleges and universities, most recently at The European Graduate School
in Saas-Fee
, Switzerland.
In June, 2010, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
received a grant from the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts for $287,000. The Quays were commissioned to produce a new film entitled Anatomica Asthetica. The film is their first produced in the United States, and focuses on the history and collections of the College's famed Mütter Museum
. It is expected to be released in Fall 2011 with symposia at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; New York City's Museum of Modern Art
; and the Museum of Jurassic Technology
in Los Angeles.
The interdisciplinary performance artist
, dancer, and multiple amputee Lisa Bufano
lists the animation of the Quay Brothers as an influence in her artist's statement.
The Brothers Quay have been commissioned by Leeds Canvas, a group of eight cultural organisations in Leeds, UK, to create a major city-wide art installation, OverWorlds & UnderWorlds in May 2012. The commission is one of twelve Artists Taking the Lead projects around the UK, Arts Council England's flagship contribution to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Short films
Appearances
Hammond, Paul. 'In Mystery, Shrouded: On the Quays’ New Film.' Vertigo Magazine, Vol. 1 No.5 (1995): 18-20
Hammond, Paul. 'In Quay Animation.' Afterimage 13, Autumn 1987: 54-67
Academic essays on the Quay Brothers
Books on the Quay Brothers
Catalogues
DVD
Norristown, Pennsylvania
Norristown is a municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, northwest of the city limits of Philadelphia, on the Schuylkill River. The population was 34,324 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County...
) are American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators. They are the recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee composed of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...
for their work on the play The Chairs.
Careers
The Quay Brothers reside and work in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, having moved there in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
after studying illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts
University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
The University of the Arts is one of the United States' oldest universities dedicated to the arts. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia...
in Philadelphia. In England they made their first short films, which no longer exist after the only print was irreparably damaged. They spent some time in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
in the 1970s and then returned to England where they teamed up with another Royal College student, Keith Griffiths, who produced all of their films. The trio formed Koninck Studios in 1980, which is currently based in Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
, south London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
The Quay Brothers' works (1979–present) show a wide range of often esoteric influences, starting with the Polish animators Walerian Borowczyk
Walerian Borowczyk
Walerian Borowczyk was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. His career as a film director was mainly in France.-Biography:...
and Jan Lenica
Jan Lenica
Jan Lenica was a Polish graphic designer and cartoonist.A graduate of the Architecture Department of Warsaw Polytechnic, Lenica became a poster illustrator and a collaborator on the early animation films of Walerian Borowczyk. From 1963 - 1986 he lived and worked in France, while from 1987 he...
and continuing with the writers Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
, Bruno Schulz
Bruno Schulz
Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher born to Jewish parents, and regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. Schulz was born in Drohobycz, in the province of Galicia then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and spent...
, Robert Walser
Robert Walser (writer)
Robert Walser , was a German-speaking Swiss writer.-1878–1897:...
and Michel de Ghelderode
Michel De Ghelderode
Michel de Ghelderode was an avant-garde Belgian dramatist, writing in French.-Career:...
, puppeteers Wladyslaw Starewicz and Richard Teschner and composers Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
, Zdeněk Liška
Zdenek Liška
Zdeněk Liška was a Czech composer who produced a large of number film scores across a prolific career that started in the 1950s.Liška was born in Smečno...
and Leszek Jankowski, the last of whom has created many original scores for their work. Czech animator Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others.- Life and career :Jan...
, for whom they named one of their films (The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer), is also frequently cited as a major influence, but they actually discovered his work relatively late, in 1983, by which time their characteristic style and preoccupations had been fully formed. At a panel discussion with Daniel Bird and Andrzej Klimowski at the Aurora festival Norwich they emphasized the more significant influence on their work was Walerian Borowczyk
Walerian Borowczyk
Walerian Borowczyk was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. His career as a film director was mainly in France.-Biography:...
, who made both animation shorts and live-action features.
Most of their animation films feature puppets made of doll parts and other organic and inorganic materials, often partially disassembled, in a dark, moody atmosphere. Perhaps their best known work is Street of Crocodiles
Street Of Crocodiles
Street of Crocodiles is a 21-minute-long stop-motion animation short subject directed and produced by the Brothers Quay and released in 1986....
, based on the short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz
Bruno Schulz
Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher born to Jewish parents, and regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. Schulz was born in Drohobycz, in the province of Galicia then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and spent...
. This short film was selected by director and animator Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
as one of the ten best animated films of all time, and critic Jonathan Romney included it on his list of the ten best films in any medium (for Sight and Sound's 2002 critics' poll). They have made two feature-length live action films: Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life and The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, released in 2005, was the second feature-length film by the Brothers Quay and their first film in over ten years. It features of Amira Casar, Gottfried John and Assumpta Serna.-Plot:...
. They also directed an animated sequence in the film Frida
Frida
Frida is a 2002 biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera....
.
With very few exceptions, their films have no meaningful spoken dialogue—most have no spoken content at all, while some, like The Comb (From The Museums Of Sleep)
The Comb (From The Museums Of Sleep)
-The Comb:The Comb is a 17-minute-long stop-motion animation short subject directed and produced by the Brothers Quay. It is featured in both color and black and white and was released in 1990...
(1990) include multilingual background gibberish that is not supposed to be coherently understood. Accordingly, their films are highly reliant on their music scores, many of which have been written especially for them by the Polish composer Leszek Jankowski. In 2000, they contributed a short film to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Sound On Film series in which they visualised a 20-minute piece by the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
composer Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. Whenever possible, the Quays prefer to work with pre-recorded music, though Gary Tarn's score for The Phantom Museum had to be added afterwards when it proved impossible to licence music by the Czech composer Zdeněk Liška
Zdenek Liška
Zdeněk Liška was a Czech composer who produced a large of number film scores across a prolific career that started in the 1950s.Liška was born in Smečno...
.
They have created music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s for His Name Is Alive
His Name Is Alive
His Name Is Alive is an experimental rock band/project from Livonia, Michigan. After several self-released cassettes, they debuted on 4AD Records in 1990, starting a long run at the label...
("Are We Still Married", "Can't Go Wrong Without You"), Michael Penn
Michael Penn
Michael Penn is an American singer, songwriter and composer. He is the eldest son of actor/director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of actors Sean Penn and the late Chris Penn.-Career:...
("Long Way Down (Look What the Cat Drug In)") and 16 Horsepower
16 Horsepower
16 Horsepower was an American alternative country music group based in Denver, Colorado. Their music often invoked religious imagery dealing with conflict, redemption, punishment, and guilt through David Eugene Edwards's lyrics and the heavy use of traditional bluegrass, gospel, and Appalachian...
("Black Soul Choir"). Some people mistakenly believe that the Quays are responsible for several music videos for Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
, but those videos were created by Fred Stuhr and member Adam Jones
Adam Jones (musician)
Adam Thomas Jones is a three time Grammy Award-winning Welsh-American musician and visual artist, best known for his position as the guitarist for Grammy-Award winning band Tool. Jones has been rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stone and placed 9th in Guitar World's Top...
, whose work is influenced by the Quays. Although they worked on Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
's seminal video "Sledgehammer
Sledgehammer (song)
"Sledgehammer" is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. It hit number one in Canada on 21 July 1986 where it spent four weeks; number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on 26 July 1986; and number four in the UK singles chart, thanks in part to a...
" (1986) as animators, this was directed by Stephen R. Johnson
Stephen R. Johnson
Stephen R. Johnson is a director. As well as directing several episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse, he has directed music videos for singles such as "Big Time," Sledgehammer, and Steam , Road to Nowhere and The Bug...
and the Quays were unhappy with their contribution, believing it to be more imitative of Švankmajer's work than truly distinctive in its own right.
Before turning to film, the Quays worked as professional illustrators. The first edition of Anthony Burgess' novel "The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End", feature their drawings before the start of each chapter. Nearly three decades before directly collaborating with Stockhausen, they designed the cover of the book Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer (ed. Jonathan Cott, Simon & Schuster, 1973). After designing book covers for Gothic and science fiction book cover commissions they did while in Philadelphia, the Quays have created suggestive designs for a variety of publications that seem to reflect not only their own interests in particular authors, covers for Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
, Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of French writer and physician Louis-Ferdinand Destouches . Céline was chosen after his grandmother's first name. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and...
or Mark le Fanu's study of the films of Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
, but also in themes and motifs that these authors develop. Literary texts are inspirational sources for almost all of their film projects, whether they serve as a point of departure for their own ideas or as a textual basis for filmic scenarios, and not as scripts or screenplays. The prowess in illustration and calligraphy seeps increasingly into many formal elements in their later films, evident as graphic embellishment in the set decoration, or their particular use of patterns in the puppets' costume design. Titles, intertitles and credits appear in a variety of handwritten styles.
The critical success of Street of Crocodiles gave the Quay Brothers artistic freedom to explore a shift in subject matter, in part originating in literary and poetic sources that led to exploration of new aesthetic forms, but also because they were able to make extensive experiments in technique, both with cameras and on large stage sets. The Quays are best known for their puppet and feature length films. Less known, but no less incisive in their creative development is their intense engagement in stage design for opera, ballet and theatre: since 1988, the Quays have created sets and projections for performing arts productions on international stages. Their work at miniature scale has translated into large-scale decors for the theatre and opera productions of director Richard Jones: Prokofiev's
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
The Love for Three Oranges
The Love for Three Oranges (Prokofiev)
The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33, also known by its French language title L'amour des trois oranges , is a 1919 satirical opera by Sergei Prokofiev...
; Feydeau's
Georges Feydeau
Georges Feydeau was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his many lively farces.-Biography:Georges Feydeau was born in Paris, the son of novelist Ernest-Aimé Feydeau and Léocadie Bogaslawa Zalewska. At the age of twenty, Feydeau wrote his first comic...
"A Flea in Her Ear"; Tchaikovsky's
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
Mazeppa
Mazeppa (opera)
Mazeppa, properly Mazepa , is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Victor Burenin and is based on Pushkin's poem Poltava....
; and Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.". Their set design for a revival of Ionesco's
Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd...
"The Chairs
Les Chaises
Les Chaises is an absurdist "tragic farce" by Eugene Ionesco. It was written in 1952 and debuted the same year.- Plot :The play concerns two characters, known as Old Man and Old Woman, frantically preparing chairs for a series of invisible guests who are coming to hear an orator reveal the old...
" was nominated for a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
in 1998. The Quays' excursion into feature films and live-action dance films are by no means an indication of a move away from animation and the literature that inspires them—on the contrary, this next film explores the potential which slumbers in the combination of these cinematic techniques. Their puppet animation set designs have been curated as an internationally touring exhibition called 'Dormitorium' and most recently on display in 2010 at Parsons School of Design, New York.
The Quay Brothers are regular guests at film festivals, art colleges and universities, most recently at The European Graduate School
European Graduate School
The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
in Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
, Switzerland.
In June, 2010, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is the oldest private medical society in the United States. Founded in 1787 by 24 Philadelphia physicians "to advance the Science of Medicine, and thereby lessen human misery, by investigating the diseases and remedies which are peculiar to our country"...
received a grant from the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts for $287,000. The Quays were commissioned to produce a new film entitled Anatomica Asthetica. The film is their first produced in the United States, and focuses on the history and collections of the College's famed Mütter Museum
Mütter Museum
The Mütter Museum is a medical museum located in the Center City area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It contains a collection of medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment. The museum is part of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. The...
. It is expected to be released in Fall 2011 with symposia at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; New York City's Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
; and the Museum of Jurassic Technology
Museum of Jurassic Technology
The Museum of Jurassic Technology is an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the lower jurassic...
in Los Angeles.
The interdisciplinary performance artist
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, dancer, and multiple amputee Lisa Bufano
Lisa Bufano
Lisa Bufano, is a disabled American interdisciplinary performance artist whose work incorporates elements of doll-making, animation, and dance.-Early life:...
lists the animation of the Quay Brothers as an influence in her artist's statement.
The Brothers Quay have been commissioned by Leeds Canvas, a group of eight cultural organisations in Leeds, UK, to create a major city-wide art installation, OverWorlds & UnderWorlds in May 2012. The commission is one of twelve Artists Taking the Lead projects around the UK, Arts Council England's flagship contribution to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Filmography
Feature films- Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995)
- The Piano Tuner of EarthquakesThe Piano Tuner of EarthquakesThe Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, released in 2005, was the second feature-length film by the Brothers Quay and their first film in over ten years. It features of Amira Casar, Gottfried John and Assumpta Serna.-Plot:...
(2005)
Short films
- Nocturna ArtificialiaNocturna Artificialia-Introduction:Nocturna Artificialia is the first credited film directed and produced by the Brothers Quay, Timothy and Stephen. "This British fraternal directing team is known for their avant-garde puppet films." Rather than dialog, this film uses shadows and music to create the dream-like state of...
(1979) - Punch And Judy (Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy) (1980)
- Ein Brudermord (1981)
- The Eternal Day Of Michel de Ghelderode (1981)
- Stravinsky - The Paris Years (1983)
- Leoš Janáček: Intimate Excursions (1983)
- The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer (1984)
- The Epic of Gilgamesh, or This Unnameable Little BroomThe Epic of Gilgamesh, or This Unnameable Little BroomThe Epic of Gilgamesh, or This Unnameable Little Broom is a 1985 stop motion short film by The Brothers Quay. The film is loosely based on the first tablet of The Epic of Gilgamesh....
(1985) aka Little Songs of the Chief Officer of Hunar Louse - Street of CrocodilesStreet Of CrocodilesStreet of Crocodiles is a 21-minute-long stop-motion animation short subject directed and produced by the Brothers Quay and released in 1986....
(1986) - Stille Nacht I: Dramolet (1988)
- Rehearsals For Extinct Anatomies (1988)
- Old Piano (1988) - an ident for MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
- Ex-Voto/The Pond (1989)
- The Comb (From The Museums Of Sleep)The Comb (From The Museums Of Sleep)-The Comb:The Comb is a 17-minute-long stop-motion animation short subject directed and produced by the Brothers Quay. It is featured in both color and black and white and was released in 1990...
(1990) - Rain Dance (1990) - a short film for Sesame StreetSesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
- De Artificiali Perspectiva, or Anamorphosis (1991)
- The CalligrapherThe CalligrapherThe Calligrapher is the debut novel of Edward Docx, published in 2003. Highly praised, it has been translated into eight languages. It was selected by Matt Thornas his Summer fiction choice in The Independent and by both San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury as a 'Best Book of the Year'...
(1991) - an ident commissioned for the BBC2BBC TwoBBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
television channel, but never broadcast - Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1991)
- Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In) (1992)
- Stille Nacht III: Tales From Vienna Woods (1992)
- Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You (1993)
- The Summit (1995)
- In AbsentiaIn Absentia (film)- In Absentia :In Absentia, a short film commissioned by the BBC as a part of a series called “Sound on Film International”, was a collaboration with the filmmakers The Brothers Quay and musical composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, elder statesman of the twentieth-century musical avant-garde. Keith...
(2000) - Duet (2000)
- Stille Nacht V: Dog Door (2001)
- The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection (2003)
- Inwentorium śladów (2009) Poland (23')
- Maska (2010)
- Through the Weeping Glass (2011)
Appearances
- The FallsThe FallsThe Falls is a 1980 film directed by Peter Greenaway. It was Greenaway's first feature-length film after many years making shorts. It does not have a traditional dramatic narrative; it takes the form of a mock documentary in 92 short parts.-Plot:...
(1980)
Further reading
Journal articles on the Quay Brothers-
- Buchan, Suzanne, 'Liberation of the Mistake: A Glimpse into the Quay Brothers' Research Process', in: Proof, Vol 3 No 1 (2008): 16-20
- Costatini, Gustavo. 'De Artificali Perspectiva: The Brothers Quay’s Use of Sound and Music.' Filmwaves Magazine, Issue 32 (2007): 43-47
- Buchan, Suzanne H. 'Choreographed Chiaroscuro, Enigmatic and Sublime.' Film Quarterly, Spring (1998): 2–15.
- Nichols Goodeve, Thyrza. 'Dream Team: Thyrza Nichols Goodeve Talks with the Brothers Quay.' Artforum, April (1996)
Hammond, Paul. 'In Mystery, Shrouded: On the Quays’ New Film.' Vertigo Magazine, Vol. 1 No.5 (1995): 18-20
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- Atkinson, Michael. 'The night countries of the BROTHERS QUAY.' Film Comment, September/October (1994): 36-44
- Atkinson, Michael. 'Unsilent night: The Brothers Quay.' Film Comment, Vol. 30 No. 5, September/October (1995): 25-38
- Romney, Jonathan. 'The Same Dark Drift.' Sight and Sound, Vol. 1, No. 11 (1992): 24-27
- Romney, Jonathan. 'Brothers in Armature.' City Limits. No. 446 (1990): 16-17
- Atkinson, Michael. 'Stirrings in the Dust.' Afterimage, No. 13 (1987): 4-9
Hammond, Paul. 'In Quay Animation.' Afterimage 13, Autumn 1987: 54-67
Academic essays on the Quay Brothers
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- Buchan, Suzanne. 'The Animated Spectator: Watching the Quay Brothers' 'Worlds'. In Suzanne Buchan (Ed) Animated Worlds, pp 15–38. Eastleigh: John Libbey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 086196 6619
- Weiner, Steve. 'The Quay Brothers' The Epic of Gilgamesh and the 'Metaphysics of Obscenity' in J. Pilling (Ed.), A Reader in Animation Studies London, John Libbey & Company, 1997.
Books on the Quay Brothers
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- Mikurda, Kuba and Prodeus, Adriana (Eds). Trzynasty miesiąc. Kino Braci Quay. Cracow-Warsaw: Korporacja Ha!art & IFF Era New Horizons, 2010. ISBN 978-83-61407-62-1. (in Polish)
- Buchan, Suzanne. The Quay Brothers. Into a Metaphysical Playroom. University of Minnesota Press, 2010. ISBN 0816646597
- Pilling, Jayne and Fabrizio Liberti (Eds). Stephen e Timothy Quay. Bergamo: Stamperia Stefanoni, 1999.
Catalogues
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- Costa, Jordi. (Ed) 'Quay Brothers'. Sitges: Sitges Festival Internacionale de Cinema de Cataluna, 2001.
DVD
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- Brooke, Michael (Ed), Quay Brothers—The Short Films 1979-2003. London: BFI, 2006. ISBN/EAN: 5035673006535
- The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993. DVD Region 1 / NTSC. Kino Video. Release date 2000. 120 minutes. ISBN 6305957681
- Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995) DVD Region 1 / NTSC. Kino. Release date 2000. B/w, 104 minutes. ISBN 630595769X
- Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995) VHS PAL. ICA Projects Ltd. Release date 1996. B/w, 104 min.
- The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes (2005) Zeitgeist Films. Region 1 /NTSC. Release date 2007. Colour and b/w, 99 minutes.
- The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes (2005). DVD Region 2 / PAL. Artificial Eye. release date 2006. Colour and b/w, 99 minutes.
- L'Accordeur de tremblements de terre DVD Region 2 / PAL. E.D. distribution. Release date 2007. Colour and b/w, 99 minutes.
External links
- Quay Brothers profile at European Graduate SchoolEuropean Graduate SchoolThe European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
, biography, bibliography and video lectures - Senses of Cinema. Great Directors Critical Database
- Senses of Cinema. Through a Glass Darkly Interview with the Quay Brothers
- The Short Films of The Quay Brothers at Zeitgeist Films
- Videos by Brothers Quay