Annette Michelson (née Michelsohn; November 7, 1922 – September 17, 2018) was an American art and film critic and academic. A longtime contributor and editor to ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

'' who later co-founded the journal ''

October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôctō'' meaning "eight") after Januar ...

'', she also taught for many years at the

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. Her work contributed to the fields of cinema studies and the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

in visual culture.

Background

Annette Michelsohn was born to a Jewish family in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

on November 7, 1922. Her father, of Romanian descent, spoke Yiddish, and her mother, of Hungarian descent, spoke German. Her surname was anglicized to Michelson. She grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, where she took an interest in reading and the arts from a young age. She graduated from

Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a public academic magnet secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered and funded by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) and no t ...

circa 1940 and

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

in 1945. She undertook graduate studies at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, before moving to Paris in 1950. She initially planned to stay for only six months, but the emergence of

McCarthyism McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...

in the United States made her reluctant to return, and she ultimately lived in France for over a decade. She enrolled at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, studied acting for a time, and developed her interest in

film.

Career

Between 1956 and 1966, she was art editor and critic for the Paris edition of the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...

'', while also writing for ''

Arts Magazine ''Arts Magazine'' was a prominent American monthly magazine devoted to fine art. It was established in 1926 and last published in 1992. History Founding Launched in 1926 and originally titled ''The Art Digest,'' it was printed semi-monthly from ...

'' and ''

Art International ''Art International'' known as ''Art International Magazine'', was an art journal based in Switzerland and issued 10 times per year, before moving to Paris, where it was issued quarterly. James A. Fitzsimmons was the magazine's first chief editor ...

''. She also worked as a translator. Upon returning to New York, she worked as a writer for

, where she edited the influential issues on "Eisenstein/Brakhage" in 1973 and the "Special Film Issue" in 1973. Together with

Jay Leyda Jay Leyda (February 12, 1910 – February 15, 1988)David Stirk and Elena Pinto Simon in was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film historian, noted for his work on U.S, Soviet, and Chinese cinema, as well as his documentary compilations on ...

, she established the Department of Cinema Studies at

, where she taught numerous courses, supervised doctoral dissertations, and developed programs until retiring in 2004. Michelson left ''Artforum'' after an issue she was planning, dedicated to avant-garde art, was canceled due to a lack of advertiser interest. In response, she founded the journal ''

'' together with

Rosalind Krauss Rosalind Epstein Krauss (born November 30, 1941) is an American art critic, art theorist and a professor at Columbia University in New York City. Krauss is known for her scholarship in 20th-century painting, sculpture and photography. As a criti ...

. ''October'' was formed as a politically charged journal that introduced American readers to the ideas of French

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

, made popular by

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

and

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...

. Michelson's early essays for the journal included several on

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

and

Dziga Vertov Dziga Vertov (born David Abelevich Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary ...

, as well translations of texts by

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

. Krauss and Michelson remained on the journal's editorial board, along with

Yve-Alain Bois Yve-Alain Bois (born April 16, 1952) is a professor emeritus of Art History at the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Education Bois received an M.A. from the École Pratique des Hautes É ...

Hal Foster Harold Rudolf Foster, FRSA (August 16, 1892 – July 25, 1982) was a Canadian-American comic strip artist and writer best known as the creator of the comic strip '' Prince Valiant''. His drawing style is noted for its high level of draftsmanship ...

Benjamin H. D. Buchloh Benjamin Heinz-Dieter Buchloh (born November 15, 1941) is a German art historian. Between 2005 and 2021 he was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art in the History of Art and Architecture department at Harvard University. Education and ...

, Denis Hollier,

David Joselit David Joselit is an American art historian, critic, and curator known for his work on modern and contemporary art, media theory, and image circulation. Joselit is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard Un ...

, Carrie Lambert-Beatty,

Mignon Nixon Mignon Nixon is an American academic. She serves as the Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at University College London in London, United Kingdom. Early life Mignon Elizabeth Nixon is the daughter of John Trice Nixon, a United Sta ...

, and Malcolm Turvey. In 1998, Michelson gave a historic lecture on

Harry Everett Smith Harry Everett Smith (May 29, 1923 – November 27, 1991) was an American polymath, who was credited variously as an artist, experimental filmmaker, bohemian, mystic, record collector, hoarder, student of anthropology and a Neo-Gnostic ...

's film Heaven + Earth Magic (Film #12) at Massachusetts College of Art. A recording of the presentation was made by Saul Levine and is archived with Raymond Foye. Among her numerous translations, essays and articles, Michelson edited ''Kino-Eye: the Writings of Dziga Vertov'' (1984), and ''Cinema, Censorship, and the State: The Writings of Nagisa Oshima'' (1992). On August 10, 2015, the

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

announced that Michelson had donated her complete papers and archives to the Institute. The GRI also acquired the drawing ''Blind Time'' (1982) and a suite of lithographs, ''Earth Projects'' (1969), both by Robert Morris, from Michelson’s collection, as well as Michelson’s film library of over 1500 selections. Michelson published a collection of her works on avant-garde and experimental film as ''On the Eve of the Future: Selected Writings on Film'' (MIT Press) in 2017. The volume includes the first critical essay on

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

's film

Anemic Cinema ''Anemic Cinema'' or ''Anémic Cinéma'' is a 1926 Dada/surrealist French experimental film by Marcel Duchamp (credited to his alter ego, Rrose Sélavy), made in collaboration with Man Ray and Marc Allégret. The seven-minute film is composed o ...

, the first investigation into

Joseph Cornell Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American visual artist and filmmaker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmma ...

's filmic practices, and the first major exploration of work by

Michael Snow Michael James Aleck Snow (December 10, 1928 – January 5, 2023) was a Canadian artist who worked in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Rég ...

. It also includes important essays on

Maya Deren Maya Deren (; born Eleonora Derenkovskaya; ; Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American experimental filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage cr ...

, and

Hollis Frampton Hollis William Frampton Jr. (March 11, 1936 – March 30, 1984) was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, writer, theoretician, and pioneer of digital art. He was best known for his innovative and non-linear structural films that def ...

Personal life and death

Michelson, who lived in the

SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

neighborhood of

, died from dementia at her home on September 17, 2018, at the age of 95.

References

External links

Annette Michelson Papers, 1961-2014
Finding Aid, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. {{DEFAULTSORT:Michelson, Annette 1922 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American art critics American expatriates in France American film critics American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American people of Romanian-Jewish descent American women art critics American women film critics Brooklyn College alumni Deaths from dementia in New York (state) Hunter College High School alumni New York Herald Tribune people Tisch School of the Arts faculty Writers from Brooklyn Writers from Manhattan