Artist Bruce Conner, 74; Avante-Garde Filmmaker

From film scraps he bought at a camera store, he made what is regarded as his early masterpiece, "A Movie" (1958), which leans heavily on visual puns inspired by the Marx Brothers as well as scenes of war and doom. Decades later, the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress chose it for preservation because of its cultural significance.

But for much of the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Conner struggled to make a living far outside mainstream tastes. In 1967, he parodied a feature in Art News that showcased prominent artists at work, such as "Hans Hofmann Paints a Picture." His reply was "Bruce Conner Makes a Sandwich," his detailed preparation of a peanut butter, banana, bacon, lettuce and Swiss cheese sandwich that he claimed was widely heralded as a "masterpiece."

By decade's end, after several years in Mexico fueled by peyote and psychedelic mushrooms and creating art of found objects, he was selling beads on San Francisco's Haight Street, helping coordinate light shows for the city's Avalon Ballroom and working as a janitor.

After a period of self-imposed exile from the art world, he picked up his craft again and concentrated on elaborate inkblot drawings and more meditative films. Among them was "Crossroads" (1976), which repeats at decreasing speeds official footage of the hydrogen bomb detonation on Bikini Atoll until the effect becomes lyrical and poetic.

In 1999, Mr. Conner's work was the subject of a major retrospective, "2000 BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II," at Minneapolis's Walker Art Center. It also traveled to other major museums.

The retrospective won terrific notices, but Mr. Conner disdained promotion. At times, he left his name off works, passed them off under the name of a friend, actor Dennis Hopper, or promoted them at exhibits as "Works by the Late Bruce Conner."

He liked to confound those writing about him. He told a critic who asked about those who had inspired him: "I typed out about 250 names [but] limited space prevents us from printing the remaining 50,003 names on Mr. Conner's list of influences."

Survivors include his wife, Jean Sandstedt Conner, whom he married in 1957, of San Francisco; a son; a sister; a brother; and a granddaughter.