Carmen D'Avino
Encyclopedia
Carmen D'Avino was a pioneer in animated short
film. As one of the leading figures in the avant-garde
film movement of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, his films were regularly seen at Cinema 16
, the most successful and influential membership film society in North American history. His works in oils and sculpture have achieved similar success, part of his always expanding experimentation into shape, color and form.
As a teenager in Connecticut, D'Avino traded an old hunting rifle
for a Kodak movie camera
. The swap was life-altering and the beginning of D'Avino's adventurous, lifelong journey into the world of art.
Beginning in the late 1930s with his studies at the Art Students League in New York City
, and influenced by his teachers Robert Brackman
and Andre l'Hote, D'Avino gravitated toward films and painting. His work with film led to a World War II
job as a combat photographer that climaxed with his filming the Normandy Invasion and the Liberation of Paris
.
D'Avino remained in Paris after the war and was the first American to use the GI Bill to study abroad. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
in Paris.
While studying oil painting
, D'Avino was stimulated by film shorts, especially Alain Resnais
's 1948 film, "Van Gogh", which he saw in cine-clubs in Paris and, in 1950, won the Academy Award for the best documentary. He began to experiment with film, documenting the experiences of postwar France.
In 1947 D'Avino met his future wife, Helena Elfing of Finland, and in 1948, after an extended tour hitchhiking together across Italy, he followed her to India where she had accepted the position of tutor to the son of the newly posted French Ambassador to India.
D'Avino had hoped to continue his art studies in India under the GI Bill, but was unable to find a suitable school. His time in India proved to be extremely educational, nonetheless. Henri Cartier-Bresson
became one of his companions, and their conversations about photography were both enlivened and enlightening. D'Avino also had the opportunity to meet and discuss film with Jean Renoir
who was in Delhi to film the movie, The River
. Their conversations centered on the future possibilities of short films.
He continued his painting and exhibited twice, once in Delhi and once in Bombay. The contrast of strong colors found in D'Avino's work comes out of his time spent in India. He was influenced by Indian miniature paintings, most of all from their ornamental elements and areas covered in pure colors. The same style is apparent in his film animations of the 1960s and 1970s. The contrast of colors remains always lively in his films, where red, orange and yellow details are presented together as a contrast with the cold colors, green and blue. After a stay in India of 18 months, D'Avino returned to Paris.
In the spring of 1950, the sculptor Robert Rosenwald left his small studio at number 8, rue St. Julian le Pauvre, located directly across the street from one of the oldest churches in Paris, and diagonally across the Seine from the towers of Notre Dame, and turned it over to his friend Haywood "Bill" Rivers. Rivers in turn invited a number of his artists friends to join him in turning the studio into a gallery, the only gallery in Paris run by Americans essentially to show the work of U.S. painters, though some others were also shown. The opening of the gallery created considerable excitement and was reported both in the English language
press as well as in a number of French papers. Even Pablo Picasso
is said to have stopped by to see what was going on. In its slightly more than two years of existence more than 50 painters and sculptors exhibited at Galerie Huit, including Carmen D'Avino, Shinkichi Tajiri, Harold Tovish, Oscar Chelimsky, Sydney Geist, Al Held
, Burt Hasan, George Earl Ortman
, Robert Rosenwald.
D'Avino continued his art studies by enrolling at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere, and in 1951 returned to North America, and eventually to New York City. He bought himself a 16 mm Pathe camera and made a short film called "Sunday Afternoon", which won first prize in a competition sponsored by the Creative Film Foundation. The honor of receiving a Creative Film Award was significantly enhanced when Salvador Dalí
presented it to D'Avino, who was now embarking on a career in film that would last the rest of his life.
D'Avino's film making flourished during the personally, politically and artistically liberating years of the 1960s. His films were shown and awarded honors at film festivals in New York, San Francisco, Montevideo, Uruguay
; London, England
; Oberhausen, Germany
; Annecy, France; Mamaia, Rumania; Kraków, Poland
; Edinburgh, Scotland
; and Melbourne, Australia
.
His film "Pianissimo” was selected to open the first night of performances at the first international film festival of New York's newly constructed Lincoln Center in 1963. In 1983, when the Center's film festival celebrated its 20th anniversary, D'Avino was honored once more when the festival again began with his film, “Pianissimo”.
D'Avino's body of work includes films for corporations including IBM, Time-Life
, and the New York Stock Exchange
. He completed a series of short, fully animated films for the Children's Television Workshop including Happy, Sunny, Funny, Library, Flowers, and House and numerous title animations and trailers for movies, including "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich".
As he grew older, D'Avino challenged himself by working in new and, to him, yet untried materials. The sculptures in wood gave way to carvings of stone blocks weighing many tons. Marble led to limestone and then to granite.
When in his 80s he began to produce films on his newly acquired Apple computer
and he marveled at the relative ease and affordability that today's film makers enjoyed: "When I think of all the images I didn't record because I couldn't afford the film, and see how cheaply it can be accomplished today, I am amazed and somewhat saddened that it came too late for me. I know, though, that some young person will use this new medium in a unique and exciting way.”
No matter the medium, D'Avino transports viewers of his art to a whimsical, non-threatening, yet distracting place where eyes and minds are never at rest. What they see is pleasing, sometimes comical, but disturbing, with the ability to agitate. With the grain of wood or his palette of vivid colors, D'Avino can engulf people in a tapestry of intricate designs, rich with detail and texture, which grow with organic vitality.
His success at invigorating those who view his work comes from the energy D'Avino transfers from himself to each piece. In order to sculpt, he first needs to get the wood ... chop the tree, cut the log, carve, file, sand ... and through the sweat of toil he converts his energy into the sculpture. It is the same way with his painting and his film and his life. D'Avino transfuses his art with his spirit and it is a symbiotic relationship. It is the doing that is the real art and when creativity is nourished, it can sustain as well. It is all part of the process he would say.
D'Avino believed all you need is food, work and love. "To keep busy is a marvelous answer to some dull existence. Life is a great adventure no matter what you do. Life is a joy".
Carmen's films are in the process of being restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Film Archive. As of March 2009, his films "Pianissimo" (1963), "The Room" (1958–59), and "A Trip" (1960) have been restored, and Background (1973) is currently in progress.
Scott MacDonald Cinema 16: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society Temple University Press, 2002
Though this is a reference to Carmen's life, Helena never mentions Carmen's first wife, Elsie or their son, Anthony Carmen D'Avino, who was born in 1943. She also fails to mention that Carmen left his wife Elsie and son Anthony to fend for themselves so that he could pursue his passions. He played a miniscule role in Anthony's life, that however, was many years later.
YouTube Animated short films
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
film. As one of the leading figures in the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
film movement of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, his films were regularly seen at Cinema 16
Cinema 16
Cinema 16 was a New York city based film society founded by Amos Vogel. From 1947 until 1963, he and his wife Marcia ran the most successful and influential membership film society in North American history, at its height boasting 7000 members....
, the most successful and influential membership film society in North American history. His works in oils and sculpture have achieved similar success, part of his always expanding experimentation into shape, color and form.
As a teenager in Connecticut, D'Avino traded an old hunting rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
for a Kodak movie camera
Movie camera
The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film which was very popular for private use in the last century until its successor, the video camera, replaced it...
. The swap was life-altering and the beginning of D'Avino's adventurous, lifelong journey into the world of art.
Beginning in the late 1930s with his studies at the Art Students League in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and influenced by his teachers Robert Brackman
Robert Brackman
Robert Brackman was an artist and teacher of Russian origin, best known for large figural works, portraits, and still lifes.-Biography:Born in Odes'ka Oblast, Ukraine, he emigrated from the Russian Empire in 1908....
and Andre l'Hote, D'Avino gravitated toward films and painting. His work with film led to a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
job as a combat photographer that climaxed with his filming the Normandy Invasion and the Liberation of Paris
Liberation of Paris
The Liberation of Paris took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the surrender of the occupying German garrison on August 25th. It could be regarded by some as the last battle in the Battle for Normandy, though that really ended with the crushing of the Wehrmacht forces between the...
.
D'Avino remained in Paris after the war and was the first American to use the GI Bill to study abroad. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
in Paris.
While studying oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
, D'Avino was stimulated by film shorts, especially Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais is a French film director whose career has extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...
's 1948 film, "Van Gogh", which he saw in cine-clubs in Paris and, in 1950, won the Academy Award for the best documentary. He began to experiment with film, documenting the experiences of postwar France.
In 1947 D'Avino met his future wife, Helena Elfing of Finland, and in 1948, after an extended tour hitchhiking together across Italy, he followed her to India where she had accepted the position of tutor to the son of the newly posted French Ambassador to India.
D'Avino had hoped to continue his art studies in India under the GI Bill, but was unable to find a suitable school. His time in India proved to be extremely educational, nonetheless. Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography...
became one of his companions, and their conversations about photography were both enlivened and enlightening. D'Avino also had the opportunity to meet and discuss film with Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
who was in Delhi to film the movie, The River
The River (1951 film)
The River is a 1951 film directed by Jean Renoir. It was filmed in India and was seminal to the launching of the careers of Satyajit Ray , who assisted on the film, and Subrata Mitra, Ray's cinematographer whom he met during the filming of The River.A fairly faithful dramatization of an earlier...
. Their conversations centered on the future possibilities of short films.
He continued his painting and exhibited twice, once in Delhi and once in Bombay. The contrast of strong colors found in D'Avino's work comes out of his time spent in India. He was influenced by Indian miniature paintings, most of all from their ornamental elements and areas covered in pure colors. The same style is apparent in his film animations of the 1960s and 1970s. The contrast of colors remains always lively in his films, where red, orange and yellow details are presented together as a contrast with the cold colors, green and blue. After a stay in India of 18 months, D'Avino returned to Paris.
In the spring of 1950, the sculptor Robert Rosenwald left his small studio at number 8, rue St. Julian le Pauvre, located directly across the street from one of the oldest churches in Paris, and diagonally across the Seine from the towers of Notre Dame, and turned it over to his friend Haywood "Bill" Rivers. Rivers in turn invited a number of his artists friends to join him in turning the studio into a gallery, the only gallery in Paris run by Americans essentially to show the work of U.S. painters, though some others were also shown. The opening of the gallery created considerable excitement and was reported both in the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
press as well as in a number of French papers. Even Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
is said to have stopped by to see what was going on. In its slightly more than two years of existence more than 50 painters and sculptors exhibited at Galerie Huit, including Carmen D'Avino, Shinkichi Tajiri, Harold Tovish, Oscar Chelimsky, Sydney Geist, Al Held
Al Held
Al Held was an American Abstract expressionist painter. He was particularly well known for his large scale Hard-edge paintings.-Background and education:...
, Burt Hasan, George Earl Ortman
George Earl Ortman
George Earl Ortman is an American painter, printmaker, constructionist and sculptor. His work has been referred to as Neo-Dada, Pop art,Minimalism, and Hard Edge...
, Robert Rosenwald.
D'Avino continued his art studies by enrolling at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere, and in 1951 returned to North America, and eventually to New York City. He bought himself a 16 mm Pathe camera and made a short film called "Sunday Afternoon", which won first prize in a competition sponsored by the Creative Film Foundation. The honor of receiving a Creative Film Award was significantly enhanced when Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
presented it to D'Avino, who was now embarking on a career in film that would last the rest of his life.
D'Avino's film making flourished during the personally, politically and artistically liberating years of the 1960s. His films were shown and awarded honors at film festivals in New York, San Francisco, Montevideo, Uruguay
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
; London, England
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
; Oberhausen, Germany
Oberhausen
Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
; Annecy, France; Mamaia, Rumania; Kraków, Poland
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
; Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
; and Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
His film "Pianissimo” was selected to open the first night of performances at the first international film festival of New York's newly constructed Lincoln Center in 1963. In 1983, when the Center's film festival celebrated its 20th anniversary, D'Avino was honored once more when the festival again began with his film, “Pianissimo”.
D'Avino's body of work includes films for corporations including IBM, Time-Life
Time-Life
Time–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales....
, and the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
. He completed a series of short, fully animated films for the Children's Television Workshop including Happy, Sunny, Funny, Library, Flowers, and House and numerous title animations and trailers for movies, including "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich".
As he grew older, D'Avino challenged himself by working in new and, to him, yet untried materials. The sculptures in wood gave way to carvings of stone blocks weighing many tons. Marble led to limestone and then to granite.
When in his 80s he began to produce films on his newly acquired Apple computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
and he marveled at the relative ease and affordability that today's film makers enjoyed: "When I think of all the images I didn't record because I couldn't afford the film, and see how cheaply it can be accomplished today, I am amazed and somewhat saddened that it came too late for me. I know, though, that some young person will use this new medium in a unique and exciting way.”
No matter the medium, D'Avino transports viewers of his art to a whimsical, non-threatening, yet distracting place where eyes and minds are never at rest. What they see is pleasing, sometimes comical, but disturbing, with the ability to agitate. With the grain of wood or his palette of vivid colors, D'Avino can engulf people in a tapestry of intricate designs, rich with detail and texture, which grow with organic vitality.
His success at invigorating those who view his work comes from the energy D'Avino transfers from himself to each piece. In order to sculpt, he first needs to get the wood ... chop the tree, cut the log, carve, file, sand ... and through the sweat of toil he converts his energy into the sculpture. It is the same way with his painting and his film and his life. D'Avino transfuses his art with his spirit and it is a symbiotic relationship. It is the doing that is the real art and when creativity is nourished, it can sustain as well. It is all part of the process he would say.
D'Avino believed all you need is food, work and love. "To keep busy is a marvelous answer to some dull existence. Life is a great adventure no matter what you do. Life is a joy".
Carmen's films are in the process of being restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Film Archive. As of March 2009, his films "Pianissimo" (1963), "The Room" (1958–59), and "A Trip" (1960) have been restored, and Background (1973) is currently in progress.
Books
Helena D’Avino Carmen My Destiny 1998Scott MacDonald Cinema 16: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society Temple University Press, 2002
Though this is a reference to Carmen's life, Helena never mentions Carmen's first wife, Elsie or their son, Anthony Carmen D'Avino, who was born in 1943. She also fails to mention that Carmen left his wife Elsie and son Anthony to fend for themselves so that he could pursue his passions. He played a miniscule role in Anthony's life, that however, was many years later.
Online Postings of animated short films
North Country Public Radio Art Without Borders: Carmen D’Avino Interviews and nine animated short filmsYouTube Animated short films