Pat O’Neill

Born in Los Angeles, 1939.  Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Long recognized as a pioneer in avant-garde film, Pat O’Neill is probably the first American to receive an MA in moving image art. O’Neill began his studies at the University of California (Los Angeles, CA) in 1957, working with renowned designer Henry Dreyfuss. In 1961, he began studying with Robert Heinecken, who like O’Neill, was coming out of design. Heinecken was, according to O’Neill, “bringing photography and Pop Art together and breaking the mold for what was acceptable in photography at that time.” O’Neill collaborated with Heinecken, and fellow students Carl Cheng and Darryl Curran on a multi-screen slide projector work, “American/Image Ideal,” for the 1963 Aspen Design Conference, organized by Charles and Ray Eames. O’Neill recalls that Heinecken “welcomed transgressions of the purity of the medium. We were encouraged to distort the technology, cook the negative, cut up the print, and even use its surface to paint upon.”