Malcolm Le Grice 1940 – 2024

December 16, 2024

LUX is deeply saddened to share the passing of our dear friend Malcolm Le Grice, a pivotal figure in UK artists’ film whose immense contribution to the field of experimental cinema has had a lasting influence on several generations of British filmmakers and artists. He will be profoundly missed by everyone at LUX.

Originally trained as a painter at the Slade School of Art, Malcolm became a central figure in the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative, one of LUX’s predecessors. He served as a committee member from 1969 to 1976, including as Chair from 1970 to 1973. Early on, Malcolm, alongside a group of like-minded filmmakers, played a crucial role in shaping the Co-op’s direction. At this time the Co-op established its own workshop facilities, creating an infrastructure that became an essential resource for artists exploring experimental filmmaking practices in the UK. Reflecting on the formation of the Co-op’s organisational structure in a 2001 interview with Mark Webber, Malcolm stated : “We wrote a kind of blueprint for the organisation, which had screenings, distribution, workshop, and a study centre or archive”. 

A handwritten organisational diagram is divided into four main sections: Distribution, Production, Publication, and Other and Possible Activities. Distribution includes advertising, film acquisition, maintenance and storage, distribution arrangements, financial recording, and foreign distribution. Production covers stock service, equipment lending, acquisition, storage, marketing, register-file maintenance, security control, and co-operative production facilities (development, printing, editing, sound, premises, previews, and security). It also mentions experiment plans, idea exchange, time organisation, instruction, maintenance, and financial organisation. Publication includes editorial, advertising, publication, and distribution. Other and Possible Activities feature film research, festivals, lectures, film viewing, library services, technical advice, and specialist planning. At the centre, “Full Membership” notes include a committee, co-op internal information, and roles like “Paid Secretary/Treasurer?”. The diagram uses lines and interconnected ideas, with key text underlined or enlarged for emphasis.

Malcolm Le Grice, schematic diagram of proposed London Film-Makers’ Co-operative structure, 1968. Courtesy of British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection at Central Saint Martins.

Innovation and collaboration defined Malcolm’s career. In an interview conducted during his recent exhibition at Velarde Gallery, he reflected on the philosophy underpinning his work: “I wanted to argue that there was a form of politics that comes through the development of culture. The politics of perception were about how you see things, how you understand things from what you’ve seen.”

This belief deeply informed his work and ideas, which challenged boundaries and expanded the possibilities of film as an art form. With a background in music and painting, Malcolm’s interdisciplinary approach deeply enriched this filmmaking practice. This included his involvement with Filmaktion: a group of artists making participatory, expanded cinema that fused experimental film with live performance.

A person stands in a dark room with their back to the camera, arms raised upward in a "V" shape. They are topless, and their silhouette is illuminated by red light projected onto a rectangular surface on the wall. The red light casts a shadow of the person’s raised arms, creating a dramatic double image. The shadow appears larger and more exaggerated compared to the actual figure. The background is dark, with faint silhouettes of seated audience members visible in the lower portion of the image.

Malcolm Le Grice, ‘Horror Film 1’, 1971. Performance at Raven Row, 2017. Photograph by Mark Blower.

Malcolm also embraced new technologies, from early video experiments to his later work with digital media. As Simon Payne observed, “Through Malcolm’s work with video, the incisive qualities of his editing are retained; optical printing has found an analogy in processing digital imagery.” His innovative use of different moving-image forms exemplified his relentless curiosity and commitment to pushing the boundaries of the medium.

Beyond his artistic practice, Malcolm was a prolific writer and theorist. As a dedicated teacher and mentor, he generously shared his knowledge and passion with countless students and collaborators, leaving a deep impression on all who worked with him. Malcolm Le Grice’s innovative vision and tireless advocacy for experimental film have left an indelible mark on the field. His influence continues to resonate and inform the work of LUX to this day.

Please find below a selection of tributes to Malcolm:

“Malcolm was a friend for more than 60 years, our very different lives intersecting at the Slade, the Arts Labs, the Arts Council and again at St Martins where together we set up the Study Collection. But we are all in his debt. He was absolutely central to the development of a strong experimental film culture in the UK. The LFMC film workshop was his creation. He was absolutely convinced of its necessity, and he and his St Martins student Fred Drummond physically built its first prototype at the Robert st Arts Lab in 1969 almost single-handedly. It became a model for artist-run production spaces around the country. His lobbying had a huge impact on film-funding policy at the BFI at a crucial early stage. He pioneered new pathways in film education at Goldsmiths, St Martins and Harrow, becoming the valued friend of many future artists. He spent hours in committee at the degree-validating body the CNAA, helping it recognise that artists had different needs, so they should expect different outcomes. He was a patient chair of our Arts Council film & video committees. And he did it all with such tireless good humour. That’s how he persuaded so many people.  He could be angry when frustrated by his superiors’ lack of imagination but I never saw him making a bad-tempered judgement.  He was extraordinary. We were so lucky to have him.” – David Curtis 

“ Malcolm and I were very close for over half a century, not the past tense really still the present.

We loved each other’s company at those roughly  twice yearly meals in town, or the hilarious attempts to rephrase each other’s names, via misaligned anagrams,  Malcolm’s far more inventive and funny than mine though I tried to keep up. 

and just all the friendship and fun – and serious talking – when going to Sweden together or Vienna, or receiving a card or photo from him out of the blue (not to mention in the 70’s together in the dark with high speed intensity together grading/printing room film 73  at the co-op)…

Through all these years, every moment wonderful. 

He was one of the very few people about whom I recall saying 40 or so years ago I would go through the fire for him, no questions asked, I had complete trust in him, that kind of love.

Amazingly as we were ostensibly entirely different in every possible way we agreed on just about everything aesthetically and politically without much ado….

As to his films, from the 60s till now – whether “early legrice” (his mutually agreed name during the 60’s/70’s/80’s) or “late legrice” i.e. now –  I feel, think, and know he was/is the best experimental filmmaker of all.” – Peter Gidal

“Malcolm Le Grice became my tutor during my final year as a painting student at Saint Martin’s School of Art in 1970. His energy and enthusiasm were inspirational as he shared his own films, paintings and early experiments in computer art with his students. He introduced us to the London Filmmakers Co-op where he had established the workshop where he made some of his most memorably colourful films on the co-op printer such as Berlin Horse and Horror Film 1 and generously sharing techniques with his students such as Annabel Nicolson, Gill Eatherley, me and countless others. By 1976, I was teaching part-time with Malcolm at Saint Martin’s where I came to see his extraordinary gift for persuading the powers that be that film should be an academic priority in higher education. Malcolm transformed the sector not only through his practice and teaching but through his work with the Arts Council, BFI and Independent Filmmakers Association.

Malcolm is deservedly regarded as the great originator of experimental film in Britain. In September 2024, Malcolm had a large show of his drawings, paintings and film at the Velarde Gallery in Kingsbridge, Devon that was curated by Oliver Le Grice. This and the catalogue that accompanies the show, offers an extraordinary perspective on Malcolm seen through the eyes of his son. Malcolm has remained a lifelong friend and over the course of fifty years, we have performed many shows together in the UK and Europe. Malcolm lived life to the full and though it is right to remember him for his pioneering work, he loved to entertain with good food and wine always part of the picture.” – William Raban

“Malcolm has been an inspiration and a close friend for so many years since that day he clicked the Bolex Shutter for me so many hundreds of times  to make Hand Grenade.

He will be so terribly missed but please lets show his Wonderful Films forever and ever..and ever…”- Gill Eatherley

 

“LUX would not have existed without Malcolm. His unconditional support and particularly his vision for filmmaking as a collaborative and community-based practice where ideas would be developed and shared through the screen was an inspiration for us. Always humble and generous, he was endlessly willing to share his knowledge and support new generations of filmmakers, and had a profound understanding of the possibilities of film, working with a truly alchemic sense of intuition and creativity to produce some of the great defining works of experimental film.” – Benjamin Cook

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