photo by Barinda Samra, 1999

View Philip Stapp's Homage à François Couperin (Butterflies) ,  Picture in Your Mind , and  Symmetry  on the Internet Archive

One of the most original and creative animators ever to work in the educational genre, Philip Stapp was born in Madison, Indiana on 13 April, 1908.  After studying music and fine arts, he was awarded a traveling scholarship for European study by the Maryland Institute of Fine and Applied Arts.  While in Europe, he worked briefly with designer Jules Bouy.  In the 1930s, he began teaching art at the prestigious Greenwich (CT) Country Day School, where he remembers making a small, hand-drawn picture book of Chaucer's Tales for a little boy who had fallen ill (that boy, future president George H.W. Bush, still has the book).  Stapp then evidenced an avocation for furniture design, contributing drawings for an international competition in Germany in the early 1930s, resulting in the crafting of several pieces which were displayed as part of the exhibition (in 1987, Stapp would design a table and chair made specifically to view his scrolls.) 

In the 1940s, Stapp worked briefly at Bennington College, Vermont, with dancer Martha Graham, where he designed the set for her "Every Soul is a Circus" performance.  In 1946, Stapp, increasingly drawn to film, free-lanced at Julien Bryan's International Film Foundation, where he made his first film, Boundary Lines, an abstract study of the physical and cultural limitations placed on individuals by political and social forces.  Stapp's contribution to animated film involved designing "a consecutive flow of drawn images calculated to be photographed in strict counterpoint to musical score", often contributed  by composer Gene Forrell. 

   Stapp-designed scroll-viewing table with chair   

Such films, with assistance from Alfred Barr of New York's Museum of Modern Art, and dancer Graham, helped Stapp win a Guggenheim fellowship, and he was later invited to join the Information Division of the Marshall Plan Organization, under Stuart Schulberg, to help train animators in its film unit's animation studio in Paris.  In 1953, he contributed animation to the John Halas/Joy Batchelor award-winning film version of George Orwell's Animal Farm.  Returning to the States in 1956, he would, over the next two decades, contribute finely-crafted elements to many films in the IFF catalogue, from illustrated maps and titles to more complex animated sequences, thereby setting the standard for creativity in animating the educational film. 

Stapp, whose importance as an animator is underestimated due to both his relatively low film output, as well as school, rather than commercial distribution, was influenced by elements as disparate as the work of  Scot-Canadian animator Norman McLaren, Japanese Ukiyo-e "floating world" paintings, and dancers such as Graham.  As opposed to the static animation style inherent in many contemporary educational films, Stapp’s figures instead float, split apart, dissolve, spin, and vaporize in a constant state of metamorphosis.  In addition to animating the films of others, he also occasionally directed films, and his First Americans: Some Indians of the Southlands (1976) is a good indicator of his highly stylized technique, resplendent with oriental/geometrical elements (Stapp’s most inventive film may have been his abstract-yet-geometrical Symmetry, distributed in 1966 by Contemporary Films). 

In addition to his film work, Stapp's graphic output included a series of five three-part panels defining musical structure as embodied by abstract dancing figures representing melody, harmony, and meter.  The figures evolve, diminish, and soar in a "milky-way" like background; as opposed to being seen from a distance as individual large pieces, the works are meant to be seen as the viewer, barely two feet away from the panels, tracks the movement horizontally, moving from left-to-right.   Created painstakingly on transparent paper and transferred via a reversal charcoal process, they are precursors to the more intimate scrolls made by Stapp in the 1980s, and were generously donated to ciné16, which hopes to display them publicly in a future gallery program dedicated to the films and graphic work of the artist.

Today, we can see two distinct phases to Stapp's style.  In the Representational phase, lasting until roughly 1960, Stapp's figures are often highly stylized, but still retain recognizable human facial characteristics.   They often exist on Tanguy-like watercolor-washed plains containing surrealistic elements, changing states through shifting line, color, and shape.  In the Abstract style occurring from approximately 1960 onward, Stapp's characters are anthropomorphic dance-like figures, often pointillist, as are the seas and spaces through which they float, dance, and cavort.  Unlike the figures of the earlier era, Stapp's images are now in a constant state of transformation, whether lying in a stationary plane, or evolving through forward movement.  Inspired by dance and music, these latter figures often climb and descend contrapuntally, often splitting into several figures to represent various voices in the musical score itself. 

In his final years, Stapp was engaged in designing mammoth scrolls based on geometrical abstracts and musical structures, such as the 30-foot long scroll "Homage to Matthew Shepard", and a 70-foot scroll displayed at New York's Cathedral of St. John.  Intensely personal in nature, the scrolls are designed to be seen by one viewer at a time, the "action" unfolding, then disappearing in segments approximately 18 inches in length.  Stapp designed a specialized table (above) on which to view the scrolls, and dedicated the last several years to this vision of a very personal art which, through its slow unfolding in the hands of the viewer, can truly be experienced to its greatest extent solely by the person engaged in unrolling the artifact.  Philip passed away at the age of 95 on October 2, 2003.

The Academic Film Archive of North America's ciné16 Film Series held an evening dedicated to his work and films on July 27, 2000.

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                                                Filmography

Compiling Stapp's filmography is an ongoing process.  Philip never kept records of many of the films on which he worked, thus compiling his filmography is an ongoing process.  Please contact us if you're aware of a film on which Stapp worked that we haven't listed.

 Many of the Stapp-animated films listed below were made by other directors, when indicated.

                                                                          Detail from the film 'Symmetry'' (1966)

'South American' titles (1940-5) Julien Bryan was hired by the U.S. Government to make a series of twenty-three films covering the many positive cultural aspects of South American countries, to which Stapp contributed the main titles, and flat and relief maps.

Boundary Lines (1946, directed and written by Stapp).   In this, the first Stapp-produced film emerging from his European period, we see the emergence of two techniques that would come to fruition three decades later: the animated musical "line", and the evolving scroll. The former, consisting of an animated line that rises and falls in conjunction with musical pitch, suddenly bursts in accompaniment to composer Gene Forrell’s multiple voices. While never again appearing in Stapp’s films, this technique re-appeared in his  two-dimensional multi-panel paintings of the 1970s, suggesting dance figures propelled by converging and diverging lines based on the structure of musical forms. In the latter, an arrow shot by a primordial hunter races across an animated continuum of time, changing its payload to represent the armament of choice throughout time, eventually ending as an atomic bomb, ready to descend on a city. ‘Boundary Lines’ refers to the imaginary lines of prejudice that separate individuals, races, and countries. Their legacy is represented by lynchings and concentration camps; Stapp’s statement is so powerful that we doubt that in our time, as we try to protect the kiddies from the naked bodies that might show up on library computer screens, this graphically arresting animated discourse on the bitter fruit of the tree of hate could easily be shown in the classrooms for which it was created.

Picture in Your Mind (1948) Sent by the U.S. government as a participant in the Marshall Plan with a specific mission to assist the French in re-gearing their animation studios, Stapp discovered a Europe much-decimated by war, but in further danger of annihilation by nuclear weapons. Returning to the U.S., he produced this alarming-yet-hopeful film, replete with its lonely, Tanguy-inspired landscapes peopled with static figures casting long shadows across charcoal-colored plains. While taking the risk of leaning a bit toward didacticism, Stapp managed to urgently convey the thought that world destruction was not necessarily inevitable, provided that people embrace, rather than reject their cultural and racial differences. ‘Picture’ is a unique document resulting from the sometimes dreamy, sometimes nightmarish vision of the artist in a war-torn land, with the spectre of death hovering ever-so-slightly ahead.

Animal Farm (1953)  Contributed animation to this John Halas/Joy Batchelor adaptation of Orwell's story.

To Your Health (1953?)  In a film directed by Stapp for Halas and Batchelor, animators Brian Berthwick and John Smith present a beautifully animated, but often preachy tale about the perils of alcohol consumption. Produced by Mary Losey for the World Health Organization.

Nearest Star (1960) Stapp animated some of the solar sequences in this film produced by the National Academy of Sciences.

Tropical Africa (1961) Stapp produced animation for this Bill Claiborne-directed film.

Water (1961) Produced by the United Nations, this utopian view of international cooperation over water rights was written and animated by Stapp, combining small amounts of live-action footage with artistically-treated still photography and Stapp's pointillist-inspired floating images.

Africans All (1963, directed by Greg Knowles)  Stapp introduces stereotypes (white explorers in cooking pot, etc) and occasional graphics in this travelogue.   

Ancient Egyptian (1963)  Stapp animated the introductory sequence.

Israel (1965) Stapp here depicts the history of the Jewish people from early times through WWII. Approximately 13 minutes of te opening of this film are Stapp's alone.  The remainder consists of live footage.

Symmetry (1966)  In perhaps his greatest film, Stapp's stylized and pointillist-inspired abstract images dance in a surrealist floating world reminiscent of Japanese "ukiyo-e" illustration, the "stage" seen from three perspectives (overhead, direct, and diagonal), the figures continually rotating, dividing, and converging. 

First Americans (Part I): And Their Gods (1969) Utilizing pointillist, abstract, and multiplanar split-image figures, Stapp describes Mayan and Aztec cultures, unfolding in codex-like form, accompanied by ethno-concrète music by Thomas Wagner & Arthur Burrows.

Ancient Africans (1970) With mostly live footage by Sam Bryan accompanied by music from Thomas Wagner,  Stapp's fine animation accents the story of Kush, Axum, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and others.

It's the Greatest Little City (1970)  This funny animated short, a cynical look at the excesses of commercialism in city and town planning, was produced at Ohio State University, with animators Thomas Crane, Terry Campbell, and Elizabeth Lloyd,  directed by Stapp. 

Ancient Chinese: An Introduction (1974) Although written, directed, and animated by Stapp, this film is largely based on old prints and live footage, with a bare-minimum of Stapp graphics.

First Americans (Part II): Some Indians of the Southlands (1976) Stapp's pointillist style here has matured since the first of the series, done in 1969.  Here, he also makes extensive use of parallel images converging and diverging on the multi-plane camera.

Sea Within Us, The (1976, prod. Sid Milstein).  Stapp animated this Sid Milstein-produced film, detailing fluid systems within the human body, made for Searle & Co. by Aegis Productions.

Homage à François Couperin (1978) Also known as "Butterflies".  A three-minute fantasy of butterflies and dragonflies cavorting amongst the pussywillows, Japanese-inspired animation accompanied by two variations on keyboard works by the Baroque composer.

High Blood Pressure: A Game of Chance (1979, dir. Sid Milstein) We’re not sure what we liked best, the big floating pointillist steak and egg platter, or the galaxy-like arteries collecting all that cholesterol. In this animated ode to heart disease produced by the American Heart Association, Stapp takes us on a dizzying ride through the heart, lungs, and blood vessels, stopping briefly for cigarette, ice-cream, and fatty meat breaks.

High Blood Pressure: If Only It Hurt a Little (1979, dir. Sid Milstein) Stapp's pointillist body parts and functions are a highlight of this fun film directed by Sid Milstein for Aegis Productions and the American Heart Association.

High Blood Pressure: What it Is, What it Can Do to You (1979, dir. Sid Milstein).  Lots of Stapp animation on the circulatory system.

High Blood Pressure: What You can Do About it (1979, dir. Sid Milstein) Another film in this four-part series, with lots of Stapp animation

Stapp also contributed animation to various other titles made for educational film companies, often uncredited, including films such as Defining Democracy (1954, EB).

Middle Ages: Rise of Feudalism (1966, prod. George Vicas)  This film is an edited educational version of the NBC televison program "The Middle Ages," which aired in May, 1966.  Much, if not all of the animation was done by Stapp.

Copyright (c) 2008 Geoff Alexander,  All rights reserved.