Stephen and Timothy Quay ( ; born June 17, 1947) are American

identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

brothers and stop-motion animators who are better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They received the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play ''The Chairs''.

Careers

The Quay Brothers reside and work in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, having moved there in 1969 to study at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

after studying illustration (Timothy) and film (Stephen) 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 prints were irreparably damaged. They spent some time in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

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. In 1980, the trio formed Koninck Studios, which is currently based in London's Old Street area of Hackney.

Style

The Brothers' works from 1979 to the present show a wide range of often esoteric influences, starting with the Polish animators

Walerian Borowczyk Walerian Borowczyk (21 October 1923 – 3 February 2006) was a Polish film director described by film critics as a "genius who also happened to be a pornographer". He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. Borowczyk settled in Paris in 1959. A ...

and Jan Lenica and continuing with the writers

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Bruno Schulz Bruno Schulz (12 July 1892 – 19 November 1942) was a History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jewish writer, fine artist, Literary criticism, literary critic and Art education, art teacher. He is regarded as one of the great Polish (language), Po ...

, Robert Walser and Michel de Ghelderode, puppeteers Wladyslaw Starewicz and Czech Richard Teschner and Czech composers

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, Music theory, music theorist, Folkloristics, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian folk music, Moravian and other Slavs, Slavic music, includin ...

, Zdeněk Liška and Polish 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 Svankmajer''), 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. In a panel discussion with Daniel Bird and Andrzej Klimowski at the Aurora festival in Norwich, they emphasized that a 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'' (1986), based on the short story of the same name by the Polish author and artist Bruno Schulz. This short film was selected by director and animator

Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam ( ; born 22 November 1940) is an American-British filmmaker, comedian, collage film, collage animator, and actor. He gained stardom as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe alongside John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Pa ...

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 critics' poll of 2002). They have made two full-length live action films: '' Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life'' (1996), produced by Keith Griffiths and Janine Marmot, and '' The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'' (2005), produced by Keith Griffiths. They also directed an animated sequence in the film ''

Frida Frida, Frieda, or Freida may refer to: People and fictional characters *Frida (given name), any of several people or characters ** *Frieda (surname), any of several people or characters *Afroditi Frida (born 1964), Greek singer *Frida (singer) ...

'' (2002). With very few exceptions, their films have no meaningful spoken dialogue (most have no spoken content at all, while some, such as ''The Comb (From the Museums of Sleep)'' (1990) include multilingual background gibberish that is not intended to be coherently understood). Accordingly, their films are highly reliant on their music scores, of which many have been written especially for them by the Polish composer Leszek Jankowski. In 2000, they contributed a short film to the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's ''Sound On Film'' series in which they visualised a 20-minute piece by the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Whenever possible, the Quay Brothers prefer to work with pre-recorded music, though Gary Tarn's score for ''The Phantom Museum'' had to be added afterwards when it became impossible to license music by the Czech composer Zdeněk Liška. They have created

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

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"). Their style has been mimicked to the point that audiences mistakenly believed that the Quay Brothers were responsible for several music videos for

Tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...

but those videos were created by Fred Stuhr and member Adam Jones, whose work is influenced by the Quay Brothers. Although they worked on

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

's seminal video " Sledgehammer" (1986) as animators, this was directed by Stephen R. Johnson and the Quay Brothers in order to support their personal projects. Before turning to film, the Quay Brothers worked as professional illustrators. The first edition of

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

' novel ''The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End'', included 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 books while in Philadelphia, the Quay Brothers 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 (, ; ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian novelist and short story writer. His best-known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosm ...

, 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. In an interview with Robert K. Elder for his book '' The Best Film You've Never Seen'', the Quay Brothers discuss their creative process, stating: "If project does eventually get approval, then we almost invariably chuck heoriginal proposal out, not out of any cavalierness, but simply because we know that, as we start building the decors and the puppets, the script begins to grow and evolve very organically." 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 Quay Brothers 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 Quay Brothers have created sets and projections for performing arts productions on international stages. Their work at miniature scale has translated into large-scale designs 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 Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme". Their set design for a revival of Ionesco's " The Chairs" was nominated for a

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

in 1998. The Quay Brothers' excursion into feature films and live-action dance films were not an indication of a move away from animation and the literature that inspires them—on the contrary, the 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" which toured the east coast of the United States in 2009, including the originating venue of the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, followed by Parsons The New School of Design, New York,Dormitorium Exhibition Newschool University

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

. Retrieved July 7, 2010 Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA and Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. The Quay Brothers are strongly influenced by literature and the written word – from Eastern-European poetry to South American magic realism. *

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

(''Alice in Not So Wonderland'') * Emma Hauck (''In Absentia'') * Felisberto Hernández (''Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H'', ''The Doll's Breath'') *

(''The Metamorphosis'') * Stanisław Lem (''Maska'') *

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...

(''Eurydice: She, So Beloved'') *

(''Street of Crocodiles'', ''Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass'') * Robert Walser (''The Comb'', ''Institute Benjamenta'') Music is an essential part of the Quay Brothers' films, as they also find inspiration in Eastern European classical music. The Quay Brothers' films feature music by the following composers: *Stefan Cichoński (''Nocturna Artificialia'') * Trevor Duncan (''Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'') *

(''Leoš Janáček: Intimate Excursions'', ''The Sandman'', ''The Metamorphosis'') *Lech Jankowski (''Street of Crocodiles'', ''Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies'', ''Ex-Voto'', ''The Comb'', ''Institute Benjamenta'', ''De Artificiali Perspectiva, or Anamorphosis'') * Zygmunt Konieczny (''Nocturna Artificialia'') * György Kurtag (''The Sandman'') * Zdeněk Liška (''The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer'', ''The Phantom Museum'') * Steve Martland (''Songs for Dead Children'') *

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

(''Eurydice: She, So Beloved'') *Timothy Nelson (''Wonderwood'', ''Through The Weeping Glass'', ''Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.'', ''Vade mecum'', ''Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass'') *

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in p ...

(''Duet'') * Krzysztof Penderecki (''Ein Brudermord'', ''Inventorium of Traces'', ''Maska'') *

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

(''Alice in Not So Wonderland'') * Christopher Slaski (''Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'') * Karlheinz Stockhausen (''In Absentia'') * Igor Stravinski (''Igor, The Paris Years Chez Pleyel 1920–1929'') * Gary Tarn (''The Phantom Museum'', ''Tempus Fugit'') *

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist, impresario of Baroque music and Roman Catholic priest. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lif ...

(''Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'')

Legacy

In 2010, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia received a Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative grant through The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage for an exhibitions project that would include a new work by the Quay Brothers. The Quay Brothers produced a new film entitled ''Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)''. The film is their first made in the United States, produced by Edward Waisnis through his company PRO BONO films in collaboration with Atelier Koninck QBFZ, London and it focuses on the history and collections of the college's famed Mütter Museum. The film, with narration by Derek Jacobi and a musical score by Timothy Nelson, was shot on location in Philadelphia during the summer of 2010 and premiered in autumn 2011, with symposia, at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; New York City's

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

; and the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. The film was subsequently shown at the Wellcome Collection, London, England; the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, Canada; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; and at the Wexner Center of the Arts at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. It was reviewed in both ''Sight & Sound'' and ''Film Comment''. The 35mm negative and print were selected for inclusion in the film collection of the Museum of Modern Art. The Quay Brothers were commissioned by Leeds Canvas, a group of eight cultural organisations in Leeds, UK, to create in May 2012 a major citywide art installation, OverWorlds & UnderWorlds. The commission was one of twelve 'Artists Taking the Lead' projects around the UK, Arts Council England's flagship contribution to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Later in the same year, the Quay Brothers were the subject of a grand retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York entitled ''Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets'' which featured work spanning their entire career, tracing back as early as childhood, with much of the material shown for the first time. Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Associate Curator of MoMA's Film Department, the exhibition ran from August 12, 2012, through January 7, 2013 and included a full coinciding film program. In 2013, the Quay Brothers were recipients of a residency program award at the Wexner Center of the Arts, Columbus, Ohio. The project they undertook coinciding with this residency was a puppet animation film entitled: ''Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.''–that revolves around the work and life of Uruguyan writer Felisberto Hernández, often referred to as the father of 'magic realism', and for whose work the Quay Brothers share an affinity. The production was overseen by Edward Waisnis through PRO BONO films, in collaboration with Atelier Koninck QBFZ, and the support of the Fundación Felisberto Hernández, and features a score composed by Timothy Nelson, who has worked with the Quay Brothers previously. As of January 2014, the Quay Brothers have been in production with The Digital Toy Company on a joint film/video-game project entitled ''Asleep: I Hear My Name''. The Quay Brothers' work was exhibited in two further major international exhibitions in 2013/2014. The first, ''The Quay Brothers' Universum'' was the Quay Brothers' first 'solo' exhibition in Europe and took place at the EYE Film Institute Netherlands,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

from December 15, 2013 – March 9, 2014. The second, ''Metamorfosis. Visiones Fantásticas de Starewitch, Švankmajer y Los Hermanos Quay'' was held at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

(25 March – 7 September 2014) and La Casa Encendida (2 October 2014 – 11 January 2015),

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, respectively. The exhibition was curated by Spanish animation curator, programmer and historian Carolina López Caballero and was a major exploration of the art of stop motion animation, placing the Quay Brothers' work alongside Russian-born puppet animation godfather Ladislas Starevich and Czech surrealist master Jan Švankmajer. Hollywood director

Christopher Nolan Sir Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmma ...

revealed himself to have been an admirer of the Quay Brothers' work since coming across their films late at night when they were originally screened on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in the UK. In 2015, Nolan curated a theatrical tour showcasing newly restored 35mm prints of the Quay's films ''

In Absentia ''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the f ...

'', ''The Comb'' and '' Street of Crocodiles''. The programme also included the eight-minute 'documentary' ''

Quay A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

'' (2015) which Nolan directed as an homage to the twins. The programme and Nolan's short received critical acclaim, with '' Indiewire'' writing in their review that the Quay Brothers "will undoubtedly have hundreds, if not thousands more fans because of Nolan, and for that ''The Quay Brothers in 35mm'' will always be one of latter's most important contributions to cinema". Directly after the launch of the 35mm programme in the states, the Quay Brothers were celebrated at the Bristol Festival of Puppetry, UK (August – September 2015). A retrospective of their work was curated by animation director Joseph Wallace, who also hosted a conversation with the Quay Brothers about the relationship between their animation and stage work at Watershed (Bristol). Wallace, along with Puppet Place (the organisation behind the festival), also commissioned the Quay Brothers to create an installation which ran for the duration of the festival and was displayed in a disused control room on a bridge in the centre of Bristol entitled: ''Homage To The Framed Perspective of an Abridged Conversation Between the Painters Sassetta & Uccello and the Mystical Occurrence that Happened Before Your Arrival.''. The Quay Brothers collaborated with Louis Andriessen in 2016 and designed decors for his opera ''Theatre of The World'' which premiered at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles before playing at the Carré Theatre in

as part of the Holland Festival. As well as the design, the Quay Brothers also produced animated projections which accompanied the performance. In October 2016, a two disk

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

collection of the Quay Brothers films dating 1979–2013 entitled "Inner Sanctums" was released by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

. The edition includes 24 of the Quay Brothers' short films, of which three are UK premieres and five are world premieres, along with a disk of special features including footnotes, interviews, rare behind the scenes films and Christopher Nolan's short portrait of the brothers; ''

'' (2015).

Awards and honours

Filmography

Feature films *'' Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life'' (1995) *'' The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'' (2005) *''Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass'' (2024) Short films *''Nocturne Artificialia: Those Who Desire Without End'' (1979) *''Rain Dance'' (1980) – a short film for ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'' *''Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy'' (1980) *''Ein Brudermord'' (1980) *''The Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode'' (1981) *''Igor, The Paris Years Chez Pleyel'' (1983) *'' Leoš Janáček: Intimate Excursions'' (1983) *'' The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer'' (1984) *'' The Epic of Gilgamesh, or This Unnameable Little Broom'' (1985) Full title: ''Little Songs of the Chief Officer of Hunar Louse, or This Unnameable Little Broom, being a Largely Disguised Reduction of the Epic of Gilgamesh'' *'' Street of Crocodiles'' (1986) *''Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies'' (1988) *''Stille Nacht I: Dramolet'' (1988) *''Ex-Voto'' (1989) *''The Comb (From the Museums of Sleep)'' (1990) *''De Artificiali Perspectiva, or Anamorphosis'' (1991) *''The Calligrapher'' (1991) – an ident commissioned by

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

which was later rejected and never broadcast *''Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?'' (1991) *''Stille Nacht III: Tales From Vienna Woods'' (1992) *''Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You'' (1993) *''The Summit'' (1995) *''Duet'' (2000) *'' The Sandman'' (2000) *''

'' (2000) *''Stille Nacht V: Dog Door'' (2001) *''

'' (2002) – animated contribution (dir: Julie Taymor) *''Songs for Dead Children'' (2003) *''The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection'' (2003) *''Alice in Not So Wonderland'' (2007) *''Eurydice: She, So Beloved'' (2007) *''Inventorium of Traces'' (2009) *
Maska
' (2010) *'' Bartók Béla: Sonata for Solo Violin'' (2011) *''Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)'' (2011) *''The Metamorphosis'' (2012) *''Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.'' (2013) *''The Doll's Breath'' (2019) *''Vade mecum'' (2020) *''11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem'' (2021) Music videos *'' Sledgehammer'' –

(1986) – animated contribution (dir: Stephen R. Johnson) *''Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?'' – His Name is Alive (1991) *''Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In)'' – Michael Penn (1992) *''Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You'' – His Name is Alive (1993) *"''Black Soul Choir'' – 16 Horsepower (1996) *''Stille Nacht V: Dog Door'' – Sparklehorse (2001) *'' Ubu Roi'' – Pere Ubu (2008) – projected music video for live show *''Muslingauze'' – DJ Spooky (2008–2010) *''Stille Nacht V: Starman'' – Sabisha (2008–2010) Commercials *''The Repeat Prescription Report'' (2017) Pharmacy2U *''Tempus Fugit'' (2016) Slow Time, Leffe *''Wonderwood'' (2010) Comme des Garçons *''Kinoteka, 1st Polsk Filmfestival ident'' (2009) Polish Institute, London *''Mistletoe Kisses'' (2007) Galaxy, Mars, Inc. *''NHL, Laundromat'' (2001) Fox Sports *''NHL, Library'' (2001) Fox Sports *''Magnets'' (2001) Chili's *''Rice Krispies Treats – Float'' (2000) Kellogg's *''Pitney Chairs'' (1999) Pitney *''Northern Rock'' (1999) Northern Rock *''Mars Celebration'' (1998) Mars, Inc. *''Fox and Crow'' (1998) Badoit *''Lion and Zebra'' (1998) Badoit *''Weed Families'' (1998) Roundup *''Weeds'' (1998) Roundup *''Doritos idents'' (1997) Frito-Lay *''The Wooden Box That Collapses'' (title sequence) (1997) The End *''Lockets Metallica'' (1996) Mars, Inc. *''Swallow'' (1996) Murphy's Irish Stout *''Warriors'' (1996) Murphy's Irish Stout *''Brainfreeze'' (1995) 7-Eleven Slurpee *''Blue Cross'' (1995) Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. *''Dolls'' (1994) The Partnership for a Drug Free America *''Trees'' (1993) Coca-Cola *''Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme'' (title sequence) (1993) The End *''Fun Touch'' (1989) Nikon *''Zenith'' (1988) MTV *''MTV ident'' (1988) MTV *''BFI ident'' (1998) British Film Institute *''Skips'' (1988) K.P. Skips *''Dulux'' (1987) Dulux *''Walkers Crisps'' (1986) Walkers *''Honeywell'' (1986) Honeywell Computers Brothers Quay Filmography/Videography – AWN
/ref> Appearances *'' The Falls'' (1980) *''

'' (2015)

Opera, ballet and stage

*''The Birthday Party'' (2018) By Harold Pinter, directed by Ian Rickson at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London. *''Theatre of the World'' (2016) By Louis Andriessen, directed by Pierre Audi. Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam/Holland Festival, Amsterdam. *''An Evening at the Talk House'' (2015) By Wallace Shawn, directed by Ian Rickson at the National Theatre, London. *''Overworlds & Underworlds'' (2012) A Leeds Canvas initiative for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Leeds. *''I looked back when I reached halfway'' (2011) Collaboration with violinist Alina Ibragimova on Béla Bartók's Sonata for Violin (1944). Chetham's School of Music/Manchester International Festival, Manchester; Wilton's Music Hall, London. *''Bring Me the Head of Ubu Roi'' (2008) Projections for Pere Ubu. Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. *''Paul Bunyan'' (2007) By Benjamin Britten, directed by Nicholas Broadhurst. Theater am Kornmarkt Bregenz/Theater Luzern. *''Pinocchio'' (2006) By Martin Ward, choreographed and directed by Will Tuckett. Royal Opera House, London. *''The Cricket Recovers'' (2005) By Richard Ayres, directed by Nicholas Broadhurst. Aldeburgh Festival, Suffolk, and Almeida Opera, London. *''The Anatomy of a Storyteller'' (2004) Ballet by Kim Brandstrup. Royal Opera House, London. *''Death and Resurrection'' (2003) By J. S. Bach and Steve Martland, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Steve Martland. Four short films illustrating Martland's Street Songs. Tate Modern and St. Paul's Cathedral, London. *''The Wind in the Willows'' (2002) Ballet by Will Tuckett. Royal Opera House, London. *''Queen of Spades'' (2001) Ballet by Kim Brandstrup. Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Montreal. *''Baa-Laamsfest'' (1999) By Olga Neuwirth, directed by Nicholas Broadhurst. Wiener Festwochen, Vienna. *''The Chairs'' (1997) By Eugène Ionesco, directed by Simon McBurney. Theatre de Complicité and Royal Court, London and John Golden Theater, New York. (The Quay Brothers won the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Best Design and were also nominated for a Tony award) *''Cupid & Psyche'' (1997) Ballet by Kim Brandstrup. Royal Danish Ballet, Copenhagen. *''The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other'' (1996) By Peter Handke. Theater ballet directed by Kim Brandstrup. Malmo Dramatiska Theatre, Sweden. *''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1996) By William Shakespeare, directed by Jonathan Miller. Almeida Theatre, London. *''Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme'' (1992) By Molière, directed by Richard Jones. Royal National Theatre, London *''Mazeppa'' (1991) By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, directed by Richard Jones. Bregenz Festival/Nederlands Opera *''A Flea in Her Ear'' (1989) By Georges Feydeau, directed by Richard Jones. Old Vic, London. *''The Love For Three Oranges'' (1988) By Sergei Prokofiev, directed by Richard Jones. Opera North, Leeds/English National Opera, London. *''Dybbuk'' (1988) Ballet by Kim Brandstrup. The Place, London.

References

External links

Quay Brothers
profile at European Graduate School, biography, bibliography and video lectures *Senses of Cinem
Great Directors Critical Database
*Senses of Cinem

Interview with the Quay Brothers * *
The Short Films of The Quay Brothers
at Zeitgeist Films *
From Lutosławski to Silence
Interview with the Quay Brothers
Official short films trailer on VimeoCriterion Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quay, Brothers 1947 births 2012 Cultural Olympiad Alumni of the Royal College of Art American expatriates in England American experimental filmmakers American identical twins American stop motion animators Animation duos Brother duos Drama Desk Award winners Identical twin males Living people Opera designers People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Sibling filmmakers