Biography

Born in 1933 in McPherson, Kansas, Conner earned a B.A. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1956 and attended the Brooklyn Museum of Art School and the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 1957, he moved to San Francisco and lived in the same building on Fillmore Street as Michael McClure, Bill and Joan Brown, Wally Hedrick, and Jay DeFeo. Conner soon became a pivotal figure among the Beat poets, writers, artists, and performers. During his lifetime, he had numerous solo exhibitions including most recently, 2000 B.C.: The Bruce Conner Story Part II, organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. His work is featured in the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; among others. Conner died in San Francisco in 2008.

This would be the first large-scale work by the artist to enter the Museum’s collection. The Museum’s holdings currently include one small mixed-media collage, one ink drawing, two lithographs, two posters, and one book (co-authored by Michael McClure). (SJMA Collections Committee, 2011)


From Getty ULAN List biography below:
American artist active in San Francisco was first known for his assemblages made of discarded and seemingly decaying objects. He studied at Wichita University and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln where he received a BFA 1956. He also studied at Brooklyn Art School, and the University of Colorado. He was a prolific filmmaker, and was a pioneer in the use of "found footage." Most of his films are constructed from images shot by others and cut to new soundtracks, including popular or underground music. His film "Crossroads" was made entirely with official footage shot of a hydrogen bomb test in the Bikini Atoll set to a soundtrack by Terry Riley. Many of his films are considered precursors to what would become the music video genre. In the 1960s, Conner began making highly detailed ink drawings, referred to as the Mandala Series. In the 1970s and 1980s, concurrent with his filmmaking, he would create two-dimensional collages from 18th and 19th century etchings. He created large-scale photograms of human figures, and a series of black and white photographs documenting underground music in San Francisco during the late 1970s. His later work often incorporated obsessively created inkblots on paper, made with an accordion fold technique.

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