The Brothers Quay

Who are "The Brothers Quay"? 

Stephen and Timothy Quay were born  June 17, 1947 and are American identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators. They are also the recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play The Chairs.

What are they famous for?

The Brothers Quay have been working in collaboration since at least 1969, when they first moved to London from the United States, their stop-action films have introduced a generation of viewers to a lyrical darkness not often associated with animation. Influenced heavily by Central European writers and artists their work reflects the dark psychology resulting from a century of industrial warfare, surrealist art and dialectical politics. For example, they have especially been inspired by figures like the Polish killed by a German Nazi officer Bruno Schultz (1892 - 1942), on whose story Street of Crocodiles (1986) is based. As well as the German Dada painter Max Ernst (1891 - 1976), but also the influential multimedia Czech filmmaker and puppeteer Jan Švankmajer (1934 - ).

They have also worked in advertising for big names like Nikon or Coca-Cola, as well as in music, and example of their work there is the video clip for the famous British musician Peter Gabriel (1950) song Sledge Hammer (1986), which went as high as number 4 on the UK music charts and reached number 1 in the US, ironically knocking out Genesis’ “Invisible Touch”. The song itself dealt with sex and sexual relations. The inseparable filmmakers would also do work for MTV.