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Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running

Feb. 18 – Jun. 5, 2022

The Jewish Museum presents the first U.S. museum survey of the Lithuanian-born filmmaker, poet, critic, and institution-builder who helped shape the avant-garde in New York City and beyond.

Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running explores the breadth and import of Mekas’s life, art, and legacy in the field of the moving image. Coinciding with the centennial of his birth, the exhibition surveys Mekas’s 70-year career and includes 11 films presented in an immersive environment, photography, and previously unseen archival materials.

Forced to flee his native Lithuania during the final moments of World War II in 1944, Mekas was unable to return until 1971. After spending five years stateless and homeless in a Nazi work camp and then Displaced Persons camps throughout Germany, Mekas (b. 1922, Semeniškiai, Lithuania; d. 2019, Brooklyn, New York) emigrated to New York City with his brother Adolfas in 1949. A penniless, war-weary refugee, he swiftly integrated into the city’s thriving counterculture nonetheless, becoming a central organizer, and later a prolific filmmaker, within the avant-garde community. Like many emigrés in the aftermath of World War II—as for so many across the globe today—his art was profoundly marked by his refugee experience: the loss, memory, and longing for a home he permanently left behind in 1944. The relationship between exile and creativity is always at the heart of his work and is the exhibition’s central theme.

Over seven decades, Mekas made 93 films and videos, amassing footage that was both a record of his life and a resource for his art. He was the author, founder, and co-founder of numerous artist-run cooperatives, distribution networks, and writings on film: in 1954, he co-founded Film Culture, the first journal of American film criticism; from 1958-71, he penned “Movie Journal,” the first critical column on cinema in the Village Voice; in 1962 he co-founded The Film-makers’ Cooperative, among the earliest organizations to support experimental film production, screening, and distribution on a large scale; in 1969 he co-founded Anthology Film Archives which became—and remains—a focal point for New York’s experimental cinema scene; and finally, between 1968 and 1971, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative presented the screening and conversation series Avant Garde Tuesdays at the Jewish Museum.

In conjunction with Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running, Film at Lincoln Center will present a retrospective of the filmmaker at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St.) from February 17 – 23. Screening tickets go on sale on February 4. For more information about the film series, visit www.filmlinc.org.

 

In the Press
“An innovative retrospective of work by Jonas Mekas reveals the fundamental honesty of his “diary” films.”
— The New York Times

“a bold departure from a typical museum installation”
— The Wall Street Journal

Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running is organized by guest curator Kelly Taxter, with Kristina Parsons, Leon Levy Curatorial Assistant, the Jewish Museum.

Special thanks to Sebastian Mekas and the Estate of Jonas Mekas.

Exhibition design: Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb, New Affiliates
Graphic design: Mark Owens
Lighting: Clint Ross Coller
Producer: Matthew Shattuck
Editors: Andrew Pulaski and Linda Burchill
Systems integrator: Stephen Canella
Special thanks to Anthology Film Archives

Jonas Mekas, The Camera Was Always Running is made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, Lithuanian Council for Culture, the Lithuanian Foundation, a gift from the estate of Gaby and Curtis Hereld, Kazickas Family Foundation, Toby Devan Lewis, Paul Pincus, Lithuanian Culture Institute, the Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, and other generous donors. Additional support is provided by the Melva Bucksbaum Fund for Contemporary Art and the Peter Jay Sharp Exhibition Fund. Closed captioning is made possible by the Lithuanian Film Centre.

Black and white photo of a man in a field of wildflowers, bending forward while holding a film camera.

Jonas Mekas photographed by Antanas Sutkus in Semeniškiai, Lithuania, 1971. © Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / LATGA-A, Vilnius

Exhibition highlights

  • Collage of twelve color film stills featuring Andy Warhol, people with cameras, flowers, Times Square lights, peace protests, and signs reading “PEACE” and “NEW YEAR’S EVENING IN TIMES SQUARE.”

    Jonas Mekas. Grid of stills from Walden (Diaries, Notes, and Sketches) (1969). 16mm film, color, sound. 180 minutes. Estate of Jonas Mekas.

  • John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and a young child lie together in bed, wearing white clothing, in a softly lit, intimate scene.

    Jonas Mekas. Still from Walden (Diaries, Notes, and Sketches) (1969). 16mm film, color, sound. 180 minutes. Estate of Jonas Mekas.

  • A collage of stills showing an older man outdoors wearing a hat and white shirt, drinking from a can of Grain Belt beer, standing on a lawn with a house in the background.

    Jonas Mekas. Grid of stills from Self Portrait (1980). Analog video on digital video, color, sound. 20 minutes. Estate of Jonas Mekas.

  • An elderly man in a dark shirt sits indoors near a door, gesturing with one hand while a video camera is positioned close to his face, partially in frame.

    Jonas Mekas. Still from A Letter from Greenpoint (2004). Digital video, color, sound. 80 minutes. Estate of Jonas Mekas.

  • Open identification document with handwritten German text on the left and a black-and-white portrait photo of a young man in a suit on the right. The document includes official Nazi-era stamps with swastikas.

    Temporary foreign passport of Jonas Mekas, issued by the German Third Reich, listing his profession as worker and his address as Elmshorn, c. 1944. Estate of Jonas Mekas.

  • Two small notebook pages with handwritten text in blue and black ink, written in a neat cursive script on yellowed grid paper. The upper page has faded text, while the lower page is darker and more legible.

    Poetry notebook of Jonas Mekas, c. 1943. Estate of Jonas Mekas.

  • Ornate hallway with tall, white classical columns leading to double doors with a large black-and-white image of a man in a hat waving, seen from behind. Above the doors, bold black text reads

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Exhibit wall with a display case containing photographs, documents, and open books related to Jonas Mekas. On the right wall, exhibition text titled “Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running” provides biographical context.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Gallery room with walls covered in large vertical strips of film frames arranged in dense grids. A person stands in the room viewing the installation, which is dramatically lit from below and behind the film panels.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Darkened gallery space with multiple large projection screens displaying video clips and text, including phrases like

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Dark gallery with multiple projection screens displaying images of a purple flower, swans in water, lilacs, a potted plant on stairs, and a stone statue of a veiled figure. Curved black benches are placed in the center of the room.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Dark gallery with multiple projection screens showing video footage of a man in a white shirt and dark hat standing outdoors. Subtitles and the text “Self Portrait, 1980” appear on some screens. Curved black benches are in the center of the room.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Dark gallery space with multiple projection screens showing different video scenes, including a man carrying a child, a man standing at a church altar, a woman's face, and a screen with the text “Sunday morning 17th St Dec. 1973.” Curved black benches are positioned in the center of the room.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Dark gallery space with multiple large projection screens displaying different video scenes: a woman in a red sweater standing outdoors by a body of water, a person photographing flowers, a patriotic banner, a misty scene through a car windshield, and an interior view of a person seated at a desk. A curved black bench sits in the foreground.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Dark gallery space featuring multiple large projection screens showing scenes from Guns of the Trees (1962). The left screen displays the film title in black text on a white background. Other screens show black-and-white urban and portrait imagery. Curved black benches are placed in the foreground.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Dark gallery space with multiple large projection screens showing a close-up of Jonas Mekas's face, repeated across the room. The screens display subtitles reading “[vibrant bird soundscape].” Curved black benches are placed in the foreground.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.

  • Gallery space with large projected video screens. On the right screen is Jonas Mekas’s handwritten signature with “© 1980” underneath. On the left screen is a video of Mekas outdoors, wearing a hat and speaking, with subtitles partially reading “and then we roll a little bit.” The text “Self Portrait, 1980” appears on the center panel.

    Installation view of Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running at the Jewish Museum, NY, February 18-June 5, 2022. Photo by Dario Lasagni.