Tony Phillips Collection
Inclusive Dates
1974 – 1978
Abstract
Four short films made by Tony Phillips during his time teaching painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Inspired by filmmakers at SAIC, Phillips began experimenting with time-lapse and high-speed cameras and, from 1974 to 1978, created one Super-8mm and three 16mm films which explored aspects of time in ways he could not with his painting.
Description
The Tony Phillips Collection consists of the four short films painter Tony Phillips made during his time teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Through his association with filmmakers at SAIC, Phillips, a trained painter and faculty member of the Painting and Drawing Department from 1969 - 2021, became interested in the possibilities of film as a way to express his interests in problems he had with time that could not be addressed through painting. What resulted was four films Phillips described as "experiments with time-lapse and high-speed cameras, compressing or expanding time with personal behavior as subject."
Phillips' first film, Inertia (1974), is a Super-8mm exploration of the filmmakers own sense of inertia inspired by Michael Snow's Wavelength and shot over the course of an entire day at a single spot in Monument Valley, Utah.
Of Last Supper/Second Coming (1976) Phillips explained "I like to eat. The fantasy is that, unchecked, I might eat the universe as a great black-hole might - the Big Crunch as Armageddon - God consuming everything. A mouthful of everything, sprayed forth, but rendered in reverse." This film, along with the two that followed, was shot with a 16mm FASTAX high-speed camera.
In Threshold of Doubt (1976) 4 seconds of Phillips' wild movements and facial contortions are slowed and stretched out to several minutes capturing "the struggle [he has] with doubt when attempting to make a decision."
Phillips' final film, Head for Shelter (1978), is the only to include another person, his wife and fellow artist Judith Raphael. In one extremely slowed and emotionally resonant shot the two join together inside a miniature house falling apart in reverse.
Speaking on his brief period of making films, Phillips reflected "Prior to these films I was mainly concerned with the formal and stylistic values in my paintings. I had little thought for their content, for what they might say about my sense of the world and my place in it. These considerations came to the forefront as I engaged the naked directness of the film medium. It helped that I was in psychoanalysis at the time, such that I was given over to uncovering my repressed nature and its stories, my essential content. The films were direct avenues for such revelations, even as they were so singularly discrete. Soon it dawned on me that those media, drawing and painting, in which I had developed so much skill and understanding could afford me way more elaborate possibilities for exploring, shaping and editing, and explicating the content of my life that I was then quite ready to fully deal with. To be able to do such with film would have required years of training and study. Still I am grateful to these single shot adventures with film for allowing me to cut through to the heart of the matter."
Within the collection are 16mm prints of all four films as well as original elements.
Phillips' first film, Inertia (1974), is a Super-8mm exploration of the filmmakers own sense of inertia inspired by Michael Snow's Wavelength and shot over the course of an entire day at a single spot in Monument Valley, Utah.
Of Last Supper/Second Coming (1976) Phillips explained "I like to eat. The fantasy is that, unchecked, I might eat the universe as a great black-hole might - the Big Crunch as Armageddon - God consuming everything. A mouthful of everything, sprayed forth, but rendered in reverse." This film, along with the two that followed, was shot with a 16mm FASTAX high-speed camera.
In Threshold of Doubt (1976) 4 seconds of Phillips' wild movements and facial contortions are slowed and stretched out to several minutes capturing "the struggle [he has] with doubt when attempting to make a decision."
Phillips' final film, Head for Shelter (1978), is the only to include another person, his wife and fellow artist Judith Raphael. In one extremely slowed and emotionally resonant shot the two join together inside a miniature house falling apart in reverse.
Speaking on his brief period of making films, Phillips reflected "Prior to these films I was mainly concerned with the formal and stylistic values in my paintings. I had little thought for their content, for what they might say about my sense of the world and my place in it. These considerations came to the forefront as I engaged the naked directness of the film medium. It helped that I was in psychoanalysis at the time, such that I was given over to uncovering my repressed nature and its stories, my essential content. The films were direct avenues for such revelations, even as they were so singularly discrete. Soon it dawned on me that those media, drawing and painting, in which I had developed so much skill and understanding could afford me way more elaborate possibilities for exploring, shaping and editing, and explicating the content of my life that I was then quite ready to fully deal with. To be able to do such with film would have required years of training and study. Still I am grateful to these single shot adventures with film for allowing me to cut through to the heart of the matter."
Within the collection are 16mm prints of all four films as well as original elements.
Collection Items
To request more information about the items in this collection, please contact the archive at
info@chicagofilmarchives.org.
Items with Viewable Media
- Four Films by Tony Phillips
- Head For Shelter
- Head for Shelter: Camera Original
- Head for Shelter: Woman standing only
- Inertia
- Inertia: Extra Titles Footage
- Inertia: Master from Super8mm original
- Inertia: Original Master
- Last Supper/Second Coming
- Last Supper/Second Coming: Camera Original
- Threshold of Doubt
- Threshold of Doubt
Collection Identifier
C.2022-07
Extent of Collection
7 reels of 16mm totaling approximately 1,125 feet, 2 reels of Super-8mm totaling approximately 175 feet, and one DVD.
Language Of Materials
English
Subject
Custodial History
The films were kept in Tony Phillips' studio in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago until, with the assistance of Josh B. Mabe, they were donated to CFA in 2022.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open to on-site access. Appointments must be made with Chicago Film Archives. Due to the fragile nature of the films, only video copies will be provided for on-site viewing.
Use Restrictions
Chicago Film Archives holds the copyright for the films in this collection. No restrictions.
Creators
Phillips, Tony
(was created by)
Tony Phillips (Anthony Stewart Wiley Phillips) was born in 1937 in Miami Beach, Florida to architect Edgar Phillips and writer/businesswoman Marion Goodwin Phillips. He was raised in Rochester, NY and is a graduate of Trinity College, (Hartford, CT) and Yale University School of Art. He lived in New York City from 1963 to 1968, except for 3 months in Big Sur, California. Phillips taught at the School of Visual Arts from 1965-'68, then held a post-graduate fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania from 1968-'69.
Phillips accepted a position teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1969, where he taught until retiring as Professor and Chair of the Painting and Drawing Department in 2001. He made experimental films there in the mid-1970s. As Emeritus he continued to teach a painting class until 2021, by then the oldest, longest serving member of the faculty.
His most active career as a painter was in the 1980s to the 2000s. His work was represented by Marian Deson Gallery, Lyons Wier Gallery, and Gescheidle Gallery, and showed at many venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Both of these museum collections, among others, hold his work. Prizes and fellowships include the Jacob and Bessie Levy Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago, two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, grants from the Illinois Arts Council, and awards for his films of the '70s. He held the Milton and Sally Avery fellowship at the MacDowell Colony as well as residencies at Yaddo, the Djerassi Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Arts.
Phillips has been married to artist Judith Raphael since 1980. They have lived in a combined studio/living loft in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago for four decades .
Phillips accepted a position teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1969, where he taught until retiring as Professor and Chair of the Painting and Drawing Department in 2001. He made experimental films there in the mid-1970s. As Emeritus he continued to teach a painting class until 2021, by then the oldest, longest serving member of the faculty.
His most active career as a painter was in the 1980s to the 2000s. His work was represented by Marian Deson Gallery, Lyons Wier Gallery, and Gescheidle Gallery, and showed at many venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Both of these museum collections, among others, hold his work. Prizes and fellowships include the Jacob and Bessie Levy Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago, two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, grants from the Illinois Arts Council, and awards for his films of the '70s. He held the Milton and Sally Avery fellowship at the MacDowell Colony as well as residencies at Yaddo, the Djerassi Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Arts.
Phillips has been married to artist Judith Raphael since 1980. They have lived in a combined studio/living loft in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago for four decades .