Jeremy Blake's video for "Round the Bend"

One of my personal favorite video artists is the late Jeremy Blake. I've posted about him before. Every time I listen to Beck's Sea Changes album or watch Punch Drunk Love, I'm reminded of his work again. I'm going to briefly touch on video art in my art appreciation class this week and I decided to break down one of Blake's videos and examine all of the references or similarities to painting. Some of these were more obvious than others...

Still from Jeremy Blake's video for Beck's song "Round the Bend"

Barnett Newman

Still from Jeremy Blake's video for Beck's song "Round the Bend"

Andy Warhol

Still from Jeremy Blake's video for Beck's song "Round the Bend"

Helen Frankenthaler

Still from Jeremy Blake's video for Beck's song "Round the Bend"

Morris Lewis

Still from Jeremy Blake's video for Beck's song "Round the Bend"

Morris Lewis

New Beck Album Today

In memory of Jeremy Blake

Beck's "Round the Bend" video with art by Jeremy Blake



from "Punch Drunk Love" color wash scenes by Jeremy Blake



Excerpt from "1906" by Jeremy Blake

From the September Issue of Art in America:

"Jeremy Blake, 35, video artist, is believed to have taken his own life by drowning at a beach in the Rockaways in New York on July 17. A New York police department spokesperson said that his body was found 4 1/2 miles away in the waters off Sea Girt, N.J., on July 22. Blake's death followed the suicide on July 10 of his girlfriend of 12 years, filmmaker Theresa Duncan. The final entry on her blog, The Wit of the Staircase (theresalduncan.typepad.com), was posted the day of her death. The artist was thought to be devastated by Duncan's death. His clothes, wallet and a note referring to Duncan's suicide were found on the beach on July 17, and witnesses reported seeing him walk into the water.

The couple was described by friends as extremely close. In February they returned to New York from Los Angeles, where they had moved about five years earlier. They had collaborated, with Karen Kilimnik, on the 1999 animated film The History of Glamour, which was written and directed by Duncan. Blake also created sequences for the 2002 film Punch-Drunk Love, and at the time of his death was working with Rockstar Games as an in-house designer."

I know I'm not the first to report this, but his absence is a real loss to film and art. I've always loved those color washes in Punch Drunk Love, and the beauty of the music videos for Beck's "Sea change" album.

Screen Filler

Sometimes when we have company over, I like to just put on a DVD with nice images. It warms up the room and isn't as distracting as putting on a movie that people might actually watch with intent. I usually put on the Beck "Guero" DVD - because it is essentially V-J video noise, and although the music is great, sometimes its nice to put on and turn off the volume. I've seen the "colorcalm" DVD at a travel shop and it has interesting premise - you can select the color of skies and several other options and have your ambient video match your room or mood. They have another video comprised of ambient video called "by Design." I also found this DVD by Brian Eno called "14 Video Paintings," which by its description should serve the same purpose. None of these videos would be very good for entertainment, but all should work well for video background and should be more interesting than the video aquarium or fireplace. Click images for links.