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Lutz Becker

Lutz Becker was born in Berlin in 1941. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, where he graduated under Thorold Dickinson. Becker has three professions, that of producer/director of documentary films, curator of many notable exhibitions in public institutions, and painter/print maker. His political and art documentaries include Art in Revolution 1971, Double Headed Eagle 1972, Lion of Judah 1981 and Vita Fururista 1987/2009. Becker collaborated with the Hayward Gallery on The Romantic Spirit in German Art 1994 and Art and Power 1995;  and with Tate Modern on Century City 2001. Exhibitions he has curated include the South Bank Centre touring exhibitions Avant-Garde Graphics and the current George Grosz: The Big No. Becker also curated the Estorick Foundation's recent exhibition Cut and Paste - European photomontage 1920-45; and Modern Times: Responding to Chaos at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge and the De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK. Becker is currently reconstructing Sergei Eisenstein's film Que viva Mexico, and restoring his 1975 film made in Belgrade - Kino Beleške (Film Notes) which features numerous protagonists of the New artistic practice in former Yugoslavia, including Marina Abramović.

The Scream is a recent video work by Becker that is a montage of segments from the films of Aleksandr Dovzhenko made between 1927 and 1935. It was featured in the First Kiev biennale held earlier this year. Directed by David Eliott, the Kiev biennale programme was titled The Best of Times, The Worst of Times. Rebirth and Apocalypse in Contemporary Art.

Becker's film Horizon, which will be shown in Screen Practice at England & Co, was made while he was working experimentally with BBC electronics engineer Ben Palmer. Becker hoped 'we might find some kind of visual equivalent to electronic music. We explored ways in which visual effects could be created through utilizing a feedback loop between TV cameras and monitors'. Made in the age of black and white TV, the film had colour added later in an optical film printer, and was transmitted by the BBC in 1968.

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