Farber on Farber: in his more than 50 years as a film critic and painter, Manny Farber has brought an essentially autobiographical sensibility to bear on a wide range of visual idioms, from process-driven abstractions to rebuslike figurative studies. Here, he tells the story straight
Art in America, Oct, 2004 by Leah Ollman

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MF: We were very proud of our bookcases, which were filled with classics. There were nine or ten Jewish families in Douglas. There was my father's store, and Stoloroff's, another dry-goods store. They were only a block apart, and each one was near the corner, like Starbucks. When the salesman came around with the Harvard Classics, how were they to divide them up between the Stoloroffs and the Farbers? They decided to split it, so one family would get from A to whatever the middle letter is, and the other person would get from there to Z. I could never figure out whether we gut the best of the bargain. We got from A to the middle letter. I don't think there was anyone worried about whose hooks were in the bookcases except for our family. We were very proud of them from the first day we get them. My father had studied to be a rabbi. That was probably the start of the intellectuality.

LO: Where was he born?

MF: Vilna, somewhere in that vicinity.

LO: Vilna was one of Europe's great intellectual capitals, especially for Jewish culture. Did your father become ordained as a rabbi?

MF: No, he came to America instead. He was definitely split as a businessman and an intellectual. By intellectual, I mean that he read Collier's and Wild West magazines. It wasn't very pronounced intellectualism. My parents were hand in glove with the superintendent of the schools, with the principals of the schools. They were close to all of the teachers that we had, which was unusual. They were very talented at befriending these important people.

LO: When you went to college, you started to focus on painting. Did your parents consider that worthy?

MF: They didn't give a luck about my position as a painter. They had this strict idea of what was important--all the subjects like chemistry, and piano playing, debating, mathematics. There were three boys in the family, but it felt like 15. My two brothers became psychoanalysts. I was involved in sports, very heavily. I still am. I spend an enormous amount of time studying sports, which is pretty weird because it's not going to get me anything. At this point in my life, at 86, who the hell cares what I know about sports? But I study it like it's a passport to Jewish heaven.

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