Jaime Davidovich
Jaime Davidovich | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 29, 1936 |
| Died | August 27, 2016(aged 79) |
| Nationality | Argentine-American |
| Other names | Dr. Videovich |
| Education | National College University of Uruguay School of Visual Arts |
| Occupation | Conceptual artist |
| Years active | 1956–2016 |
| Spouse | Judith Henry |
| Children | 2 |
Jaime Davidovich(September 27, 1936 – August 27, 2016)[1]was an Argentine-Americanconceptual artistand television-art pioneer.[2]His innovative artworks and art-making activities produced several distinct professional reputations including painter,installation artist,video artist,Public-access televisioncable TVproducer, activist, and non-profit organizer.[clarification needed]He is the creator of legendary downtownManhattan cable television programThe Live! Show(1979–1984).[1]Billed as "the variety show of theavant-garde",[citation needed]The Live! Showwas an eclectic half-hour of live, interactive artistic entertainment inspired by the Dada performance clubCabaret Voltaireand the anarchic humor of American television comedianErnie Kovacs.[1]
Early life and education
[edit]Davidovich was born inBuenos Aires,Argentina[3]to Lucio Davidovich and Clara Davidovich (née Jacif). His parents were Jewish immigrants fromUkraine.[1]
When Davidovich was eight years old he contracted rheumatic fever and was bedridden for several months. It was during which time his parents introduced him to art materials to pass the time.[2]: 18
In 1948 when he was 12 years old, Davidovich began to study art under his cousinSimón Feldmanduring which time he became interested in the work ofPaul Cézanne,Henri MatisseandPablo Picasso.Davidovich later worked under the Hungarian cubist artistAurel Kessler.[2]: 18
In 1958, Davidovich received a bachelor's degree from theNational Collegein Buenos Aires. In 1961, he received a degree from theUniversity of Uruguay.In 1963, he received a degree from theSchool of Visual ArtsinNew York City.[4][5]
Career
[edit]Visual art
[edit]Davidovich began exhibiting his paintings in 1956 in Argentina, Brazil, and the United States. Interested in space and texture, he experimented with the boundaries of visual artworks first by dissolving the structure of the painting's frame by affixing canvas to walls and then by installing works directly on walls, floors, stairways, and sidewalks.
Adhesive tapecame to figure prominently in Davidovich's work, initially as a means to affix canvas to walls and subsequently as anartistic mediumitself; he would go on to exhibit throughout Argentine museums and art galleries, as well as inIowa,New York,Ohio,Belgium,Brazil,Colombia,Cuba,France,Germany,Iran,ItalyandSpain;he resided in New York City until his death.[1]
The emergence of portable video equipment in the late 1960s dovetailed with Davidovich's existing interest inminimalismand the aesthetics of line. Davidovich's single channel video works "Road" in 1972 and "3 Mercer Street" in 1975 are some of his earliest video art explorations. These works are noteworthy because of their institutional backing; "Road" was produced with the assistance of theAkron Art Institutein Ohio and "3 Mercer Street" was made possible by a grant from the Creative Arts Public Service (CAPS) program. Davidovich then went on to createvideo installations,including his "Evita" works developed between 1984–1992 and "Inside and Between" a 1996 work shown atEl Museo del Barrioin New York City.
Television
[edit]"I am an Argentinian artist working in New York, in context of an international world and ideas. That's what I am, and that's the way I will be until I die."
– Jaime Davidovich,Jaime Davidovich: In Conversation with / En conversación con Daniel R. Quiles.2017.[2]: 117
Whencable televisionemerged in the mid-1970s, Jaime Davidovich was one of the first artists to recognize its potential for the contemporary arts. In 1976 he helped establish Cable SoHo. A year later he established the Artists Television Network, anonprofit organizationestablished to explore the artistic potential ofbroadcast televisionand encourage the dissemination of video art through a commercial broadcast medium. The organization produced television programming under the name SoHo Television, a Project of the Artists Television Network, and broadcast on Manhattanpublic-access televisioncable TV.Programming included video art,early musicvideos, performances and interviews with artists includingLaurie Anderson,John Cageand Richard Foreman among many others. The organization ceased production in 1984.
Davidovich is perhaps best known for his work on The Live! Show, a weekly public-access television program with avariety showformat that appropriated the formal norms of television along withavant-gardeperformances, artwork,political satire,andsocial commentary.The program featured interviews and performance work by visiting artists, includingLaurie Anderson,Eric Bogosian,Tony Oursler,Stuart Sherman,andMichael Smith,along with musical performances, ersatz commercials, and viewer participation via live call-in segments. Presiding over the show's disparate collaborative elements was Davidovich’s own satirical character, Dr. Videovich, a self-proclaimed "specialist in curing television addiction,” whom theNew York Timestelevision critic John J. O’Connor described as “a persona somewhere between Bela Lugosi and Andy Kaufman.”[6]The show also featured commercials for Videokitsch, commercially produced items and art multiples made by Davidovich and others. Of The Live! Show, one critic notes, "Davidovich’s humor obviously transcends his medium, resulting in a comment as potent today as one assumes it was in 1972—harnessing new media to capture what is 'real' and 'true' is an artistic act both vitally important and profoundly absurd."[7]
Selected exhibitions
[edit]In 1991 theAmerican Museum of the Moving Imagepresented a retrospective of The Live! Show. In 2007 theMuseo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofíain Spain added The Live! Show to its collection of video art.[8]
In 2010 Davidovich was honored with a retrospective exhibition at ARTIUM, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporaneo in Spain.
Other solo exhibitions includeCabinet,Brooklyn, New York; MAMBA: Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires; Vanguardia, Bilbao, Spain; and theAmerican Museum of the Moving Image,New York. Davidovich has participated in a wide range of group exhibitions, at institutions such asJ. Paul Getty Museum,Los Angeles; 2007São Paulo Biennial,Brazil;Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía,Madrid, Spain; theWhitney Museum of American Art,New York;Long Beach Museum of Art,California; and theMuseum of Modern Art,New York.
Recent solo exhibitions have included: "Jaime Davidovich: Monochromes" (Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York, 2018), "Jaime Davidovich: Adventures of the Avant-Garde" (Bronx Museum of Art,2015), "Museum of Television Culture" (Churner and Churner, New York, 2013), "Wooster Projects" (Churner and Churner, New York, 2012).
Selected work
[edit]- Tape Project, Yellow TapeatGuggenheim Museum in New York(1970/2015)
- Adhesive Tape ProjectatUniversity of Iowa(1972)
- Cincinnati Tape Pieceat theMuseum of Modern Art(1972)
- Reality Properties: Fake Estatesat theMuseum of Modern Art(1975) – Video (7 min.)
Awards
[edit]- 1975:New York State Council on the Arts,Creative Artists Public Service Program
- 1978:National Endowment for the ArtsVisual Arts fellowship
- 1982:New York State Council on the Arts,Creative Artists Public Service Program
- 1984:National Endowment for the ArtsVisual Arts fellowship
- 1990:National Endowment for the ArtsVisual Arts fellowship
- 2013-2014:Joan Mitchell Foundation,Creating A Living Legacy (CALL) artist
See also
[edit]- TV Party
- The Poetry Project'sPublic Access Poetry
- Potato WolfTV byCollaborative Projects (COLAB)
- TheCoca CrystalShow: If I Can’t Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution
References
[edit]- ^abcdeGrimes, William (30 August 2016)."Jaime Davidovich, Artist Whose Videos Bypassed the 'Gatekeepers of Culture,' Dies at 79".The New York Times.
- ^abcdDavidovich, Jaime; Quiles, Daniel R.; Hanhardt, John G. (Introduction by) (2017).Jaime Davidovich: In Conversation with / En conversación con Daniel R. Quiles(in English and Spanish). New York, NY/Caracas, Venezuela: Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Institute for Studies on Latin American Art.ISBN978-0-984-01736-2.OCLC961156137.
- ^"Guide to the Jaime Davidovich Collection, 1953-2000 (MSS 155)"(Finding aid).Fales Library and Special Collections.New York University.25 June 2015.
- ^"Jaime Davidovich - CV"(PDF).Henrique Faria Fine Art.
- ^"Jaime Davidovich - Bio"(PDF).Churner and Churner.January 2012.
- ^"Jamie Davidovich".Electronic Arts Intermix.Archived fromthe originalon 21 January 2011.Retrieved6 April2012.
- ^Quagliata, Gail (July–August 2012)."Jaime Davidovich: Re: PLAY".The Brooklyn Rail.
- ^NYU's Fales Library and Special Collections guide to the Jaime Davidovich PapersArchived2009-11-20 at theWayback Machine
Further reading
[edit]- Davidovich, Jaime; Quiles, Daniel R.; Hanhardt, John G. (Introduction by) (2017).Jaime Davidovich: In Conversation with / En conversación con Daniel R. Quiles(in English and Spanish). New York, NY/Caracas, Venezuela: Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Institute for Studies on Latin American Art.ISBN978-0-984-01736-2.OCLC961156137.
- "Guide to the Jaime Davidovich Collection, 1953-2000 (MSS 155)"(Finding aid).Fales Library and Special Collections.New York University.25 June 2015.
- Davidovich, Jaime; Janevski, Ana (1 September 2016).""I have to go back to New York. I have no choice": Interview with Jaime Davidovich (Part 1) ".Post at MoMA.Museum of Modern Art.
- Davidovich, Jaime; Janevski, Ana (13 September 2016).""I have to go back to New York. I have no choice": Interview with Jaime Davidovich (Part 2) ".Post at MoMA.Museum of Modern Art.
