Yvonne Andersen.

As an animation artist, teacher, filmmaker and author, Yvonne Andersen has influenced the lives and work of hundreds of people. From organizing exhibitions and experimental film screenings, to teaching animation to children and adults at her Yellow Ball Workshop, she has been a radical and innovative pioneer in everything she's done. I spent some time talking with Yvonne and a few of her students and collaborators to learn more about her fascinating life.

The Sun Gallery
In 1955, Yvonne Andersen and her husband, Dominic Falcone, opened The Sun Gallery, a revolutionary art space on the tip of Cape Cod, in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Set up in a storefront, and open only in the summertime, the gallery featured weekly exhibitions of work by up and coming avant-garde artists of the time. "Our goal was to find new artists, who possibly hadn't had shows before, who had interesting work." Yvonne recollects. Red Grooms, Lester Johnson, Robert and Mary Frank, Vera Williams, Tony Vevers and Alex Katz were among the 100 artists who exhibited at The Sun Gallery during its five year life span, 1955-59. Many of these went on to have great renown and extensive careers in the art world. "I was criticized for some of the people we gave first one-man shows to," she recalls, "but after the second year, everyone wanted to have a show in our gallery, because people were becoming famous."

One such artist was Red Grooms, formerly known as Charles Rogers Grooms. He adopted the nickname "Red" after being renamed for his first one-man show at The Sun Gallery, and the name stuck with him. Today, Grooms is a established New York artist, with paintings lithographs, sculptures and other works selling for tens of thousands of dollars a piece. (Yvonne recalls that they didn't sell a single piece at his first one-man show!). "Yvonne Andersen was one of the paramount influences on my life as an artist," Grooms said recently. "I was lucky enough to meet Yvonne and Dominic upon my arrival in Provincetown the summer of 1957, when their magical Sun Gallery was in full bloom. Yvonne not only showed me the way to the future of art, she also taught me carpentry."

Events, Screenings and Installations
In addition to exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, and other static works, The Sun Gallery was also host to events such as installations, classes, performance art, and film screenings. "The gallery was run almost like a theater," recalls Andersen. "We didn't just have exhibitions, we had possibly the first environment." One of the visiting artists was Alan Kaprow, an early pioneer in the American performance art movement known for his "happenings." Grooms also presented several performances in these years, of which he said "[I was] plunging into the unknown, something existential, just letting it happen. It was the opposite of literary theater; rough, crude, but stimulating."

At that time, Andersen was also presenting programs of experimental films at night; she said that, "The film screenings were highly controversial. Even in New York, people were hearing about what we were showing." Renting 16mm prints from many now-defunct distributors like Brandon and Contemporary Films, Andersen was disappointed by the limited selection of animated films. She recalls, "I was always trying to get good variety for my programs: documentary, fiction, maybe a few features, and animation. But there wasn't too much high-quality animation. And what little there was, was very expensive. That's when I said, 'Well, I'll just make some stuff for the show.' I had never animated before. I couldn't even run a movie projector." So, Yvonne invested in a camera and some equipment, learning by trial and error. "I found out it wasn't quite as easy as I thought it might be. But that's how I started." she adds.