Giving POV to Oddball Art

Sue Schardt, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, launched Margin Media to give emerging artists a platform for expression. In one of her blog posts on the site, for example, Sue Schardt references an article about Manny Farber, a painter whose side job was writing movie reviews.

Manny Farber is best known for naming termite art. Mr. Farber began his career at the University of California, San Diego in 1970, where he taught and worked. His movie criticism was published in the New Republic, the Nation, and elsewhere. His writing style was described as punchy and witty, with a close observation to detail and a keen awareness of the overlooked.

In an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2018, his art work reflects this connection between art and the movies. The show opened with the painter’s stationery, candy, and auteur drawings, which were done using oil, ink, and pastel on paper. Candy reminiscent of that sold in movie theaters and other objects were also subjects of the works.

Mr. Farber makes an obvious connection between the mundane and what appears on the movie screen. He called this termite art because it gave definition to the larger-than-life depictions burrowed in the unpretentious and unfashionable act of watching a film.