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Maya Deren

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Also known as Eleanora Derenkowskaia, Eleanora Derenkowsky, Eleonora Derenkowsky

Ukranian-born American avant-garde filmmaker (1917–1961)

OverviewAI-generated

Maya Deren was a female artist from the United States whose work period began in 1940. She is associated with the tags Ukraine, Avant-Garde, tribal, field recordings, and ethno. Her creative output includes works such as *Divine horsemen; Voodoo gods of Haiti*, *The voodoo gods*, *El Universo Dereniano*, *Der Tanz des Himmels mit der Erde*, and *No Title Exists*.

Born in 1917, Deren died in 1961. Her work has been referenced by 452 other encyclopedia articles. She has a recorded playcount of 2909 and 503 listeners on Last.fm.

Synthesized by Vinony from 19 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Last.fm, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Open Library, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works
8

Top works

  • Divine horsemen; Voodoo gods of Haiti
  • The voodoo gods
  • El Universo Dereniano
  • Der Tanz des Himmels mit der Erde
  • No Title Exists

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Female
Origin
United States
Active from
1917-04-29
Active to
1961-10-13

Discography

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
503
Total plays
2,909

Tags

UkraineAvant-Gardetribalfield recordingsethno

Maya Deren (April 29, 1917 – October 13, 1961), born Eleanora Derenkowskaia (Russian: Элеоно́ра Деренко́вская), was one of the most important American experimental filmmakers and entrepreneurial promoters of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer and photographer. The function of film, Deren believed, like most art forms, was to create an experience; each one of her films would evoke new conclusions <a href="https://w

via Last.fm · Maya Deren

Key facts

Born
Eleonora Derenkovskaya , May 12 [ O.S. April 29 ] 1917, Kiev , Russian Empire
Died
October 13, 1961 (1961-10-13) (aged 44), New York City, U.S.
Alma mater
New York University New School of Social Research Smith College
Notable work
Films: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) At Land (1944) A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945) Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) Meditation on Violence (1947) Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1953) The Very Eye of Night (1955) Books: An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film (1946)
Movement
Avant-garde cinema
Spouses
Gregory Bardacke ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1935 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1939 ) ​ Alexandr Hackenschmied ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1942 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1947 ) ​ Teiji Itō ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1960 ) ​
Awards
Guggenheim Fellowship 1946 Grand Prix International for Avant-garde Film, Cannes Film Festival 1947

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Maya
Gender
female
Citizenship
Russian Empire
Place of birth
Kyiv
Place of death
New York City
Spouse
Teiji Ito
Occupation
writer
Educated at
Smith College
Languages spoken
English language
Field of work
cinematography
Image
Maya Deren.jpg
Work location
United States
Show 11 more facts
date of birth
1917-05-12
date of death
1961-10-13
Commons category
Maya Deren
cause of death
cerebral hemorrhage
manner of death
natural causes
has works in the collection
Whitney Museum of American Art
Commons Creator page
Maya Deren
start of work period
1940-00-00
writing language
English language
pseudonym
Maya Deren
Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~31 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Maya Deren (/ˈdɛrən/; born Eleonora Solomonovna Derenkovskaya; Russian: Элеонора Соломоновна Деренковская; May 12 [O.S. April 29] 1917 – October 13, 1961) was a Russian-born American experimental filmmaker and important part of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer, and photographer.

The function of film, Deren believed, was to create an experience. She combined her expertise in dance and choreography, ethnography, the African spirit religion of Haitian Vodou, symbolist poetry and gestalt psychology (as a student of Kurt Koffka) in a series of perceptual, black-and-white short films. Using editing, multiple exposures, jump-cutting, superimposition, slow-motion, and other camera techniques to her advantage, Deren abandoned established notions of physical space and time, innovating through carefully planned films with specific conceptual aims.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Maya Deren” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.