New Blue

[collisionwork]

When I was a fairly young film geek, my dad and stepmom gave me Manny Farber's classic collection of film writing, Negative Space.

I enjoyed a lot of it, but was often hung up by his negative opinions of films and filmmakers I held dear, who he could slight greatly with a brief, cutting remark. So I didn't go back to Farber much for years. Eventually, I did, at an age where I could defend, in my head at least, the artists I loved from Farber's disapprobrium while appreciating his insights, which were great.

His most famous essay, "White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art" is one of the great statements of 20th Century criticism, and I can't recommend it highly enough (even if it too slams artists I revere - the argument is sound, if I think his examples are sometimes off).

Manny Farber died yesterday at the age of 91. The film geek world mourns.

A great overview of Farber and the many reactions to his death (and details of his life and work) can be found HERE at Movie City Indie.

Girish Shambu wrote a piece over two years ago on Farber's most famous essay HERE, and while he has the same problem with some of Farber's distastes for his favorites that I do, he starts a good discussion on the essay (with lengthy quotes) that continues into the comments.

Paul Schrader, film critic-turned-filmmaker, owns a painting by Farber, Untitled: New Blue, and made a short film about it, its creation, and Farber (backed by one of my favorite Philip Glass piano pieces, "Wichita Vortex Sutra"), which can be seen at his site HERE.

. . . [what] termite art aims at: buglike immersion in a small area without point or aim, and, over all, concentration on nailing down one moment without glamorizing it, but forgetting this accomplishment as soon as it has been passed; the feeling that all is expendable, that it can be chopped up and flung down in a different arrangement without ruin.