Flare Out: Aesthetics 1966–2016 is a collection of essays by Peter Gidal that includes Theory and Definition of Structural/Materialist Film and other texts on metaphor, narrative, and against sexual representation. Also discussed in their specificity are works by Samuel Beckett, Thérèse Oulton, Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol. Throughout, Gidal’s writing attempts a political aesthetics, polemical as well as theoretical. One of the foremost experimental film-makers in Britain since the late 1960s, Peter Gidal was a central figure at the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative, and taught advanced film theory at the Royal College of Art. His previous books include Andy Warhol: Films and Paintings (1971), Understanding Beckett (1986) and Materialist Film (1989).
Contents: Preface - Mark Webber Introduction - Peter Gidal Essays: Theory and Definition of Structural/Materialist Film (1975) Further Footnotes (1976) Problems ‘relating to’ Warhol’s Still Life 1976 (1978) The Anti-Narrative (1979) Technology and Ideology in/through/and Avant-Garde Film: An Instance (1980) Samuel Beckett’s Ghost Trio (1981) Against Sexual Representation in Film (1984) Fugitive Theses re Thérèse Oulton’s Paintings (1984) Dialogue and Dialectic in Godot (1986) The Anti-Zoom (A Little Polemic Against Metaphor) (1987) In Representation or Out? Some Condensed Notes on Aesthetics and Politics (1988) Endless Finalities (Richter’s Abstract Paintings) (1993) The Polemics of Paint (Richter in the Nineties) (1995) NO EYE: Theoretical Reflections on the Eye, Metaphor and Film/Video (1995) Once is Never: Warhol’s Saturday Disaster & Blow Job (2001) Against Metaphor (1998, revised 2005/2015) Miscellany: Letter to Artforum (1971) Letter to Screen (1976) Letter to Afterimage (1976) Eight Hours or Three Minutes (1971) Notes on my Film Work (1975) Images: 16 pages of colour and black & white images including film stills, manuscripts, archive documents, and paintings by Thérèse Oulton, Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol Peter Gidal Filmography Peter Gidal Bibliography
About the Author: Peter Gidal is a renowned writer, theorist and film-maker. He was born in 1946, and studied theatre, psychology and literature at Brandeis University, Massachussets (1964-68) and the University of Munich (1966-67). He was a student of the Royal College of Art from 1968-71 and went on to teach Advanced Film Theory there until 1984. An active member of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative since 1969, he was its cinema programmer from 1971-74. He was a co-founder of the Independent Film-Makers’ Association in 1975, and served on the British Film Institute Production Board from 1978-81. Peter Gidal’s films have been screened widely, and were featured in retrospectives at the London ICA (1983), Paris Centre George Pompidou (1996), and DocPoint Helsinki (2014). He was the recipient of the Prix de la Recherche Toulon (1974), and his most recent film not far at all (2013) won the 2015 L’Âge d’Or Prize at Cinematek Brussels. Books by Peter Gidal include Andy Warhol: Films and Paintings (Studio Vista, 1971), Structural Film Anthology (BFI, 1976), Understanding Beckett: Monologue and Gesture (Macmillan, 1986), Materialist Film (Routledge, 1988) and Andy Warhol: Blow Job (Afterall, 2008). Gidal’s writings have been published extensively in journals such as Studio International, Screen, October and Undercut, and the exhibition catalogues of Gerhard Richter, Cerith Wyn Evans and Thérèse Oulton.
About the Editor: Mark Webber is a film curator based in London, who has been responsible for major screening events or touring programmes hosted by institutions such as Tate Modern, LUX and ICA (London), Whitney Museum (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Kunsthalle Basel, Oberhausen Kurzfilmtage, IFFR Rotterdam and many international festivals, museums and art centres. He was a programmer for the BFI London Film Festival from 2000-12, and is the editor of Two Films by Owen Land and Film as Film: The Collected Writings of Gregory J. Markopoulos
