Quail Creek Editions

Jose de Rivera, Sculptor

photographed by Emilio Amero in New York, the Summer of 1961

Emilio Amero   |  DVD (B&W - with introduction and voice over added ) (Run time 18:28)   |  $30
ISBN13: 978-0-9788570-4-2
 
Jose de Rivera, Sculptor
 

Jose de Rivera. This is the final film of two known surviving films created by the legendary (and somewhat mysterious) multifaceted artist, printmaker, photographer, painter and cinematographer Emilio Amero (1901 -1976). Completed in 1961, the film by Amero documents the works and working methods of Jose de Rivera (1904-1985), the American born sculptor known for his work with the Mobius strip which he made brilliant use of in his pioneering works in public sculpture. (De Rivera did works for the World’s Fair in 1964 and his sculpture installed on the Mall in Washington was the first commission given an abstract artist by the Smithsonian.)

Amero is known for his early experimental films (none of which survive) and for his film script collaborations with two of the giants of literature, Gilberto Owen for whom the Owen Prize in Literature in Mexico is named, and the Spanish poet and playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca. He collaborated with Owen in 1928 on the film-script El río sin tacto, and worked with Garcia Lorca on the script for Trip to the Moon the following year.

Besides this film and the earlier, How to Make a Color Lithograph, only fragments or incomplete working prints of Amero’s films survive.