Kurt Kren (20 September 1929 – 23 June 1998 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

) was an Austrian avant-garde filmmaker. He is best known for his involvement with the Vienna Aktionists and the group of films that resulted, although this accounts for only a part of his career, and he later returned to the Structural roots of his third film ''3/60: Bäume Im Herbst''.

Biography

Kren was born in 1929 in

, Austria to a Jewish father and German mother. From 1939 until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Kren lived in

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, where he was sent with one of the Children's Transports. In 1947 Kren returned to

, and his father provided him a job at the National Bank, where he was also an employee. He began his film career in the early 1950s, creating experimental short 8mm films. In 1957 he moved to the 16mm format. In 1966, Kren participated along with artists like

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

Wolf Vostell Wolf Vostell (14 October 1932 – 3 April 1998) was a German painter and sculptor, considered one of the early adopters of video art and installation art and pioneer of Happenings and Fluxus. Techniques such as blurring and Dé-coll/age are ...

, Peter Weibel and

Al Hansen Alfred Earl "Al" Hansen (5 October 1927 – 20 June 1995) was an American artist. He was a member of Fluxus, a movement that originated on an artists' collective around George Maciunas. He was the father of Andy Warhol protégé Bibbe Ha ...

in the

Destruction in Art Symposium The Destruction in Art Symposium (a.k.a. DIAS) was a gathering of a diverse group of international artists, poets, and scientists to London from 9–12 September, 1966. Included in this number were representatives of Fluxus and other counter-cult ...

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 ...

led by

Gustav Metzger Gustav Metzger (10 April 1926, Nuremberg – 1 March 2017, London) was a statelessness, stateless artist and political activist who developed the concept of Auto-Destructive Art and the Art Strike. Together with John Sharkey, he initiated the ...

. In 1968 he visited the United States for the first time, showing his films in

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and

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. After a participation in a happening "Kunst und Revolution" ("Art and Revolution") at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

in 1968, Kren's films were confiscated and he was fired from the National Bank. Kren participated in 1970 in the International Underground Film Festival (

, UK) and 1971 in the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. He moved to

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, Germany for five years. Retrospective screenings of his work took place in 1976 in

National Film Theatre BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the United Kingdom, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Ins ...

, 1978 in

, 1979 in

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 ...

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. From 1978 until 1989 Kurt Kren lived in the United States, sometimes just in a car, traveling, making presentations and lectures at universities, film schools and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. In the early 1980s Kren alternated between living in Austin, Texas and Houston, Texas. He began frequenting the Texas punk rock clubs and became a fixture of the early Houston punk rock scene. Kren became good friends with punk rock band Really Red and often would show his films as a backdrop to their Texas shows. The band paid tribute to their collaborator on their '' New Strings for Old Puppets'' EP with the song "Ode to Kurt Kren". From 1983 until 1989 Kren worked as a security officer at the Museum of Fine Arts (

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, United States). Kren returned to his native Vienna in 1989. In the 1990s his works were presented worldwide, also by the major museums and cinemas. He was a co-founder of the Vienna Institute of Direct Art and the Austria Filmmakers Cooperative. He died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

in his home city of Vienna in 1998.

Filmography

* ''Das Walk'' (1956) * ''Rom (Fragment)'' (1956) * ''Klavier Salon 1. Stock'' (1956) * ''Mobiles'' (1957) * ''1/57: Versuch mit synthetischem Ton (Test)'' / ''1/57: Experiment with Synthetic Sound (Test)'' (1957) * ''2/60: 48 Köpfe aus dem Szondi-Test'' / ''2/60: 48 Heads from the Szondi-Test'' (1960) (see Szondi test) * ''3/60: Bäume im Herbst'' / ''3/60: Trees in Autumn'' (1960) * ''4/61: Mauern-Positiv-Negativ und Weg'' (1961) * ''5/62: Fenstergucker, Abfall, etc.'' / ''5/62: People Looking Out of the Window, Trash, etc.'' (1962) * ''6/64: Mama und Papa (Materialaktion Otto Mühl)'' / ''6/64: Mom and Dad (An Otto Mühl Happening)'' (1964) * ''7/64: Leda mit dem Schwan'' / ''7/64: Leda and the Swan'' (1964) * ''8/64: Ana – Aktion Brus'' / ''8/64: Ana: Action Brus'' (1964) * ''9/64: O Tannenbaum'' / ''9/64: O Christmas Tree'' (1964) * ''10/65: Selbstverstümmelung'' / ''10/65: Self-Mutilation'' (1965) * ''10b/65: Silber – Aktion Brus'' / ''10b/65: Silver: Action Brus'' (1965) * ''10c/65: Brus wünscht euch seine Weihnachten'' (1965) * ''11/65: Bild Helga Philipp'' (1965) * ''12/66: Cosinus Alpha'' (1966) * ''13/67: Sinus Beta'' (1967) * ''14/67: Kurdu (Gebetsmühle)'' (1967) (The DVD distributor INDEX lists this film as lost in its biography of Kurt Kren.) * ''15/67: TV'' (1967) * ''16/67: 20. September'' / ''16/67: September 20'' (1967) * ''17/68: Grün - rot'' (1968) * ''18/68: Venecia kaputt'' (1968) * ''19/68: White-black'' (1968) * ''20/68: Schatzi'' (1968) * ''21/68: Danke'' (1968) * ''22/69: Happy End'' (1969) * ''23/69: Underground Explosion'' (1969) * ''24/70: Western'' (1970) * ''25/71: Klemmer und Klemmer verlassen die Welt'' (1971) * ''26/71: Zeichenfilm - Balzac und das Auge Gottes'' / ''26/71: Cartoon: Balzac and the Eye of God'' (1971) * ''27/71: Auf der Pfaueninsel'' (1971) * ''28/73: Zeitaufnahme(n)'' (1973) * ''29/73: Ready-made'' (1973) * ''30/73: Coop Cinema Amsterdam'' (1973) * ''31/75: Asyl'' / ''31/75: Asylum'' (1975) * ''32/76: An W+B'' / ''32/76: To W+B'' (1976) * ''33/77: Keine Donau'' (1977) * ''34/77: Tschibo'' (1977) * ''35/77: Dogumenta'' (1977) * ''36/78: Rischart'' (1978) * ''37/78: Tree Again'' (1978) * ''38/79: Sentimental Punk'' (1979) * ''39/81: Which Way to CA?'' (1981) * ''40/81: Breakfast im Grauen'' (1981) * ''41/82: Getting warm'' (1982) * ''42/83: No Film'' (1983) * ''43/84: 1984'' (1984) * ''44/85: Foot'-age Shoot'-out'' (1985) * ''45/88: Trailer'' (1988) * ''46/90: Falter 2'' (1990) * ''47/91: Ein Fest'' (1991) * ''48/94: Fragment W.E.'' (1994) * ''49/95: Tausendjahrekino'' / ''Thousand-Years-Cinema'' (1995) * ''50/96: Snapspots (for Bruce)'' (1996)

External links

*
Sixpack Film
Vienna-based distributor of Kren's work

(also used as one of the sources for this article)
About Kurt Kren in Bright Lights Film Journal

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kren, Kurt 1929 births 1998 deaths Film people from Vienna Austrian experimental filmmakers Austrian Jews