Parker and Alexeieff

Claire Parker (1910–1981), a well-to-do American art student and graduate of MIT came to France in 1931 to study art. She saw Alexieff's work in a bookshop window and got the name of the artist as well as his address from the owner of the bookstore. She was so impressed she arranged to meet him and came to Vaux-le Penail where the Alexeieffs lived. She recalled later, "I figured I would meet an old, dignified man with a white beard... but [instead] I saw this tall, brown, handsome, aristocratic 30-year-old guy. Our first lesson ended on the banks of the Seine, hand in hand; and there was never a second one.".^[7]

Alexeieff and his wife agreed to take Claire as a boarder and as a student. After a few months, Claire became Alexeieff's lover. Grinevsky accepted the situation with difficulty. They moved to Paris and rented several artist studios on The Left Bank. They collaborated on various projects. When they started to make films, Claire became the camera person and Grinevsky built and painted the props and sets for the films. However, after the first large pin screen was built, Parker and Alexeieff worked on it alone.

Alexeieff, Parker and Grinevskaya made about 25 stop motion-animated commercials to sustain themselves financially, though they reportedly did not see much difference between their "artistic" and "commercial" films. At times, when making traditional animated films and commercials they also had a fourth partner, animator Etienne Raik.^[4] Although most of the commercial and art films are credited to Alexeieff and Parker, it is difficult to separate the contributions of each of the individuals who had formed Alexeieff's team. The group included Alexandra Grinevsky, Etienne Raik, Pierre Gorodich and Georges Violet.

Both Grinevsky and Parker greatly contributed to the success of the films. Alexandra was more critical and had a sharper eye, Claire had better technical and mathematical skills. She was more patient with Alexeieff and praised him frequently while Grinevsky looked the other way^[2] Claire was quoted by her biographer as saying, ""Between us, he's the genius."^[7]

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