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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It comes from when I was growing up. I had two brothers who were fiendishly good at almost everything they approached, and they were fiendishly competitive. And I had a father who was equally competitive. I learned from way back that I'd have to prepare like and for almost anything that was coming up. I could never do anything automatically. I could never improvise.

LO: Your brothers were so good at everything. What were you good at?

MF: I was good at trying to evade this problem. I would usually plant myself at the very rear of every class, at the very corner nearest the closet or the restroom. I would manage it so the closest friend would sit right alongside of me. In that position, the point was to make people laugh, to disorient the whole class. I guess I became pretty good at it.

LO: That was your strength?

MF: My strength was to be funny. You can go right up through the writing, and you find that I could never do the plot or the character descriptions. But if I could add to something with a joke, it would work. I also learned fairly early that if I could describe some gesture or some movement in a movie or painting, I was in safe territory. It would probably be a one-liner or a two-liner. It wouldn't be something I'd have to take from A to Z, point-by-point, and argue and describe. I could get out of it very quickly. I knew the other critics would be taking the long route.

LO: You went to the movies very regularly as a kid. What kind of early exposure did you have to painting?

MF: My brothers and my parents didn't pay any attention to anything that had to do with graphics or painting, so I was free in that area.

LO: Free from competition and expectation?

MF: Yeah. Whether it was my brothers or my parents, everything was intellectual. With movies, at least, we had a free pass. We were very lucky. We averaged about two or three movies a week. My parents only came to movies on Sundays. It was the day when theaters always showed their big moneymakers. During the week, whenever we wanted to go, my parents were very happy to have us at the movies. Why? I don't know.

LO: Tell me more about the intellectual atmosphere in your home, and the pressure you felt.

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