Art History Projected - A Lecture by Doris Berger including Film Clips May 20, 2009

How does Hollywood shape our ideas of visual artists?
Doris Berger examines how biography, art history as well the popularity of artists such as Jackson Pollock, come together into a portrayal on film. Berger concentrates on artist myths that surround the protagonists, as well as on the star culture connected to the movie industry, because every successful depiction is embodied by an accomplished actor or actress. The Academy Awards pay tribute to this fact every year and help in keeping the notion of the "tortured genius" alive. This lecture will illuminate the way art history is being projected on screen and into our minds.

Doris Berger is an art historian, curator, and critic, currently working as freelance editor at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. She was the director at Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany and has lectured at different art universities in Germany before she moved to Los Angeles. Her new book "Projizierte Kunstgeschichte" about the biopics on Jackson Pollock and Jean-Michel Basquiat is based on her Ph.D.-thesis.

Official Website: http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/los/ver/enindex.htm