| Manny Farber | |
| Birth name | Emanuel "Manny" Farber |
| Born | February 20, 1917 |
| Died | August 18, 2008 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Painting |
Emanuel "Manny" Farber (February 20, 1917 – 18 August 2008) was an American painter, film critic and academic.
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Life and career
Farber was born in Douglas, Arizona.
His film criticism has appeared during stints at The New Republic (from 1942), Time (1949), The Nation (1949-54), New Leader (1958-59), Cavalier (1966), Artforum (1967-71). He has also contributed to Commentary, Film Culture, Film Comment, and City Magazine. He contributed art criticism to The New Republic and The Nation during the 1940s through 1950s.
In his essay "White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art", which originally appeared in 1962 in Film Culture, he writes on the virtues of "termite art" and the excesses of "white elephant art" and eloquently champions the B film and under-appreciated auteurs, which he felt were able, termite-like, to burrow into a topic. Bloated, pretentious, white elephant art lacks the economy of expression found in the greatest works of termite art, according to Farber.
"Termite-tapeworm-fungus-moss art," Farber contends, "goes always forward eating its own boundaries, and, like as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity."[1]
He taught at the University of California San Diego (1970 to 1987). Farber died at his home in Leucadia, near Encinitas, California. [2]
References
- ^ Farber, Manny (1998). Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies, Expanded Edition. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80829-3., p. 135
- ^ Grimes, William (August 19, 2008). Manny Farber, Iconoclastic Film Critic and Artist, Dies at 91. New York Times
Further reading
- Farber, Manny (1998). Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies, Expanded Edition. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80829-3.
- "Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson Interviewed by Richard Thompson, 1977", Screening the Past.
Tributes
- Unattributed (18 August 2008). "Manny Farber, 1917 - 2008". GreenCine Daily. http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006525.html. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
- Sklar, Robert (Spring 2009). "In Memoriam: Manny Farber, 1917-2008". Cinema Journal 48 (3): 66-69. doi:. — Cover story for the Spring issue. Sklar praises Farber's writing and his view that "movies weren't movies anymore" but regrets that "over time his viewpoint proved unworkable as an effective career strategy".
External links
- Manny Farber at the Internet Movie Database
- 'The Elephant vs. The Termite'. 2006 UCSD MFA show at the University Art Gallery, title taken from Manny Farber's writings and inspired by his ideas on art.
- Jonathan Rosenbaum on Manny Farber
- rouge 12, 2008
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