Artists Space

Summer Knowledge:
Paul Sharits
Analytical Studies I-IV

Film Screening
December 19, 2009, 3pm

Made between 1971 and 1976, Paul Sharits’ rarely-shown series Analytical Studies consists of four sections, each devoted to a specific aspect of film technology, containing several sub-sections that play through various formal permutations of the given characteristic.

A black and white photograph of a man standing outside, surrounded by trees and grass, with his hand on a tripod.
Paul Sharits [A black and white photograph of a man standing outside, surrounded by trees and grass, with his hand on a tripod.]

Analytical Studies I: The Film Frame, 16mm, 1971-76, 25 mins

A set of pure color studies, each exploring one dominant hue. Their rhythmic structure mimics the “typical fortification illusions preceding a migraine attack.”

  1. Modular Blue
  2. Green Matrix
  3. White Field
  4. Orange Field
  5. Pink Modulation A
  6. Pink Modulation B
  7. Temporal frameworks
  8. Migraine Onset A
  9. Migraine Onset B
  10. Migraine Onset C
  11. Migraine Onset D

Analytical Studies III: Color Frame Passages, 16mm, 1973-74, 22 mins

In this series, the first section becomes the subject matter for the subsequent six, each going back to the original material with varying degrees and forms of reflexivity.

Section I: ‘Specimen’
Section II: ‘Divergent Strip Vectors’
Section III: ‘Document’
Section IV: ‘Strip in Strip’
Section V: ‘Strip of Strip, A’
Section VI: ‘Strip of Strip, B'
Section VII: ‘Strip of Strip of Strip B’ Analytical Studies IV: Blank Color Frames, 16mm, 1975-76, 15 mins

Like Analytical Studies I, these short works each develop a different rhythmic and/or melodic idea using only rapid successions of color frames, here analyzed through rephotography.

Specimen II
Specimen III
Specimen IV
Diagonal Temporality B
Diagonal Temporality C
Temporal Frame B