Alan Scarritt (1945–2023) was an artist active in California in the late 20th century. He is best known for his conceptual art projects, mixed-media works on paper, video installation, and sound art.
Early life and education Scarritt was born in Oak Park, Illinois to Ralph Scarritt Jr. and Natalie Bell Scarritt. He attended Brown University where he received a bachelor's degree in 1967, and went on to attend the California College of the Arts, where he received an MFA degree in 1972. He later took post-graduate courses at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Work Scaritt co-founded a studio called Site (later known as Site, Cite, Sight, Inc.) in San Francisco, along with artists Marilyn Bogerd and Mike Roddy.Grace, Sharon & Cohn, Terri. In Conversation: Sharon Grace with Terri Cohn. SF Aqueous Festival. June 2014. Retrieved from https://www.sfaq.us/2014/06/in-conversation-sharon-grace-with-terri-cohn/San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Receipt of Delivery 4. Open Space: SFMOMA Blog. July 2012. Retrieved from https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2012/07/receipt-of-delivery4/ Site was "a non-profit space for artists in San Francisco".Myers, Julian, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, and California College of the Arts Curatorial Practice Program. 2011. Give Them the Picture : An Anthology of La Mamelle and ART COM, 1975-1984. Edited by Liz Glass and Susannah Magers. San Francisco, CA: California College of the Arts.
In 1979, Scarritt was a featured artist in Space/Time/Sound: Conceptual Art in the Bay Area, the 1970s, an exhibition curated by Suzanne Foley at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.Ouzounian, Gascia. , 2008. "Sound Art and Spatial Practices: Situating Sound Installation Art since 1958." Order No. 3291983, University of California, San Diego.Atkins, Robert. "SF Moma: Space Time Sound—The Seventies." Live 5, no. 3 (1980): 24-26. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/655516.
In 1981, Scarritt had a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art, Seven from Three (For Go). A multi-media installation, it repurposed video that Scarritt had contributed to Send/Receive, a project organized by Liza Bear and Keith Sonnier from September 10–11, 1977, where "communications between artists in verbal, visual, dance, musical forms took place for 15 hours via NASA satellite."Tacata, Ryan David. "La Mamelle: Early Bay Area Conceptual Performance Art and the Alternative Art Archive." Order No. 28119845 Stanford University, 2015. United States -- California: ProQuest. Web. 9 Jan. 2026.London, Barbara. 1985. “Video: A Selected Chronology, 1963-1983.” Art Journal 45 (3): 249–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1985.10792306.Send/Receive: Liza Bear and Willoughby Sharp After A/V. Rhizome. November 29, 2012. Retrieved from https://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/nov/29/sendreceive-liza-bear-and-willoughby-sharp-after-a//Alan Scarritt Audio-Visual Installation at MoMA. Museum of Modern Art Press Archive. Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/5915/releases/MOMA_1981_0046_47.pdfLoeffler, Carl E., and Darlene Tong. 1989. Performance Anthology : Source Book of California Performance Art. Updated ed. San Francisco: Last Gasp Press : Contemporary Arts Press. In the later part of the 1980s, he began to focus on sculpture and photography, moving away from the audio-visual work he produced throughout the 1970s. Artforum International; Los Angeles Vol. 29, Iss. 7, (Mar 1, 1991): 130-131.
Death Scarritt died on July 1, 2023.
Collections Museum of Modern Art Davis Museum at Wellesley College
References