Dwightiana (1959)

Menkens 16mm stopmotion tribute to the art of Dwight Ripley was filmed in 1959 in his apartment at 416 East Fiftyeighth Street in New York She used his drawings as flatsThe remarkably contemporary soundtrack for steel drum guitar flute and voice was written for the occasion by Maya Derens young husband Teiji Ito and is available in his album Music for Maya Tzadik Stan Brakhage called Dwightiana a pioneer example of the film portrait abstract rather than narrative the colored pencils represent Ripleys palette Ripley was also a botanist and Menkens unusual title alludes to botanical nomenclature as if Dwightiana might be the name of a species as well as a work about Dwight