Kurt Kren

Kurt Kren was born in 1929, Vienna, Austria from a Jewish father and a French mother. From 1939 till the end of World war II, Kren lived à Rotterdam, where he was sent to with one of the Children's Transport. En 1947 Kren returned to Vienna, and his father provided him a job at the National Bank. He began making film en 1957. 2/60 48 Têtes Du Szondi -Test (1960) ce qui his first serial film and 3/60 des Arbres d'Automne (1960) confirmed this structural d'orientation. He realized in the 1960s his most famous film with the Viennese actionists, where his skill of short film blossomed. En 1966, he took part in the « Destruction in Art Symposium » organized by Boucher à Londres. En 1968 he visited the USA for the first time, showing his film à New York et Saint-Louis. This very year he became a founder of the Austria Filmmakers Cooperative. After a participation in a happening "l'Art et la Révolution" ("Art et Révolution") at the University of Vienna, en 1968, Kren s film were confiscated and he was fired from the National Bank. He participated in 1970, the International Underground Film Festival (Londres) et en 1971, dans the Cannes Film Festival. He then moved to Cologne for five years. Retrospectives were set up by the London National Film Theatre en 1976, and the New York Museum of Modern Art, en 1979. He was also involved in the Documenta 6 of Kassel, en 1977. From 1978 to 1989, Kren lived in the USA and presented lectures for universities and schools. He did many jobs, such as security officer in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Within this period he made his bad home movies as he used to call them inspired by his travels across the country. He finally returned to his native Vienna, en 1990. He died from pneumonia in Vienna en 1998.