Film UbuWebDavid Hall (1937-2014)
This is a Television Receiver (1976) ""A single figure dominates the beginnings of video art in Britain - David Hall.. and his early experiments with broadcast television are unique. Not only are many of his video pieces classics.. but he has made important and often brilliant contributions to experimental film, installation and sculpture. A successful sculptor in the 'new generation' school of the 1960s.. he turned his attention to the less tangible media of photography, film and video. A founding member of the video art movement here in the early 1970s, Hall was an influential activist on behalf of the infant art form..." (1) [Michael O'Pray, Monthly Film Bulletin, British Film Institute, February 1988, and A Directory of British Film and Video Artists, ed. David Curtis, Arts Council of England 1996]
David Hall (b. 1937) studied architecture, Art and Design at Leicester College of Art (1954-60) and sculpture at the Royal College of Art (1960-1964). He was awarded first prize for sculpture at the Biennale de Paris (1965) and took part in the first major exhibition of Minimalist art, Primary Structures, New York (1966) before turning to photography, film and video. His first television interventions appeared on Scottish TV in 1971 and his first video installation was shown in London in 1972. His film and video single screen and installation work has been widely screened and exhibited in the UK and internationally.
He participated in the formation of the Artist Placement Group with John Latham and others in 1966; was co-organiser of the seminal international Video Show exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1975; and was co-curator of the first video installations exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London in 1976. In the same year he initiated and was a founding member of the artists' organisation London Video Arts (now part of LUX).
Appointed Honorary Professor at Dundee University in 2003 he has taught at the Royal College of Art, St Martin's School of Art, Chelsea College of Art, San Francisco Art Institute, Nova Scotia College of Art and many others. He introduced the term 'time-based media' through his writings in Studio International and elsewhere, and created the first time-based art degree option with an emphasis on video at Maidstone College of Art, Kent (now University College of the Creative Arts) in 1972. He has made work for broadcast by, among others, BBC TV, Channel 4 TV, Scottish TV, Canal+ TV and MTV.
Sculpture, films, videotapes and/or related material at the Tate Gallery London, Museum of Modern Art New York, Museo National Reina Sofia Madrid, Gemeente Museum The Hague, West Australia Art Gallery Perth, Venice Biennale Archive, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, British Council, Arts Council of England, Contemporary Arts Society, British Film Institute, Great South West Corporation Atlanta USA, Richard Feigen Gallery New York, Visual Resources Inc. New York, Royal College of Art, Harvard University, ZKM Karlsruhe, Leicestershire Education Committee, and other public and private collections in Europe and the USA. Films and videotapes held by Lux London, British Film Institute, National Film and Television Archive, REWIND archive and Venice Biennale Archive .