Manny Farber
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Manny Farber is an American painter and film critic, born in 1917 in Douglas, Arizona. He taught at the University of California San Diego.
His film criticism has appeared during stints at The New Republic (late 1940s), 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 Film Culture, he writes on the virtues of "termite art" and the excesses of "white elephant art." In an essay originally published in 1962, he 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.
"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."
[edit] Further reading
- Farber, Manny (1998). Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies, Expanded Edition. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80829-3.
- Debt. San Diego Reader. May 25, 2006. Film critic Duncan Shepherd on Farber.
[edit] External links
- [1]. '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.
