Video & Film Collection

Video Excerpts
Robert Vickrey: Lyrical Realist

Robert Vickrey is known for resurrecting the medium of egg tempera. These excerpts from the film, Robert Vickrey: Lyrical Realist, reveal some of the secrets of mastering his craft.

The Films of Robert Vickrey

Always the creative polymath, Robert Vickrey was a cinema addict whose interest in films and filmmaking inspired many of the recurring themes found in his work. He modestly refers to his efforts as simple, amateurish films, that gave way to complex amateurish films.
The films Robert Vickrey made in the ’50s and were distributed by Grove Press. He was part of the underground film movement with people like Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, and Shirley Clark. Many of these films were shown in theaters as shorts around the world.
We invite you to view these early films and see if you can identify the moods and thematic elements embedded in his paintings.

Playground – A Short Film

In this short film by Robert Vickrey, he explores many of the thematic elements found in his paintings of playgrounds.
“I have ambivalent feelings about playgrounds. Basically, they are little jails, which look like they are something out of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, or something.”
– Robert Vickrey, Lyrical Realist

Featured

Ellen in Windowland

A young girl, Ellen, goes on a journey looking at all the Xmas windows in NYC. The film provided many images that Vickrey later used in his paintings.

Interview: The Life Of Robert Vickrey

In 2011, we interviewed Bob Vickrey at age 82, during the opening of his 31st annual exhibit at the Harmon-Meek Gallery in Naples, FL.

Robert Vickrey: Lyrical Realist

Described by John Canaday, art critic of the New York Times, as “the world’s most proficient craftsman in egg tempera”, Robert Vickrey is observed creating several of his Magic Realist paintings.

“Most painters are intimidated by the demands of the Renaissance technique,”

Says Vickrey, while demonstrating that it can be mastered with practical ease.