Michael Fried, the 'Godfather' of modernism is scheduled to visit the BYU Museum of Art Thursday November 6th from 7-8pm on the museum auditorium.Here is a little information about Fried provided by the Department of Visual Arts:
A scholar of broad interests and expertise, Dr. Fried is the author of books about 18th- and 19th-century painting and literature, a collection of criticism of contemporary art, and several volumes of poetry. Fried is currently the J.R. Herbert Boone Professor of Humanities and Art History at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Fried will speak about the origins and development of Modernism in his lecture at the BYU Museum of Art. Fried was intensely involved in viewing and writing criticism of Modernist art, publishing criticism from 1962 to 1977. His seminal 1967 essay “Art and Objecthood” is among the most important works of art criticism on 20th century art.
Fried said he was lucky to be among a small handful of critics who "were in a position to champion significant new developments in art"--such as work by Modernists Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, and Frank Stella. His early criticism, he said, was much influenced by Greenberg. "In some ways I was virtually apprenticed to him. I sought him out when I was 19, and was reading him from my teens on. I looked at a lot of art with him. He had a great eye. He's arguably the foremost art critic of the 20th century, and I learned a tremendous amount."
Fried’s lecture will provide valuable insights into the museum’s current exhibition “Turning Point: The Demise of Modernism and the Rebirth of Meaning in American Art,” which will be on view through Jan. 3, 2009.
There is also a facebook event page dedicated to this event. If you have facebook you can access it through this link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=32411745484
