One Tufts professor had the opportunity to spend this past semester in Paris, exploring the life of a famous painter. Judith Wechsler, an art history professor, spent the past few months behind the camera making a film - Honor?© Daumier: Il Faut etre de son Temps - on the nineteenth century French artist Honor?© Daumier.
Wechsler's film is being made in conjunction with a major exhibition of Daumier's work.
"[He is] the most famous caricaturist of his time," Wechsler said.
Daumier's paintings were dramatic and for the most part devoted to everyday themes. They often contained a strong aspect of social protest.
Daumier was known for his bold, satirical political lithographs that appeared in the comic journal La Caricature, of which he was a staff member. During his prolific career, he produced about 4,000 lithographs, 300 drawings, and 200 paintings.
"[The exhibition will open] soon in Ottawa at the National Gallery of Canada, then in Paris at the Grand Palais, and at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. in January," Wechsler said.
"The film will also be broadcast in France," she said. The film, which was made in both English and French versions, runs one hour.
Wechsler has been teaching at Tufts for ten years and is currently the National Endowment for the Humanities professor. She teaches nineteenth and early twentieth century European art, Impressionism to Cubism and Films on Art.
She received her B.A. from Brandeis University, her M.A. from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
This semester Wechsler is a visiting professor at the University of Paris. She will give the inaugural lecture at the new Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris, as a part of their program at the Institute of Higher Studies (Ecole des Hautes Etudes).
Wechsler has been making films for 22 years, and has just completed her twentieth film. All of them focus on art or artists, and they often are made for exhibitions. Her films have accompanied exhibitions in museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, the Getty Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
In addition to this work, some of her films have been made for television. Wechsler wrote, directed, and produced the six-part television series The Painter's World: Changing Constants of Art from the Renaissance to the Present in conjunction with WGBH Boston and Channel Four London.
"I've also made films on individual artists and photographers," Wechsler said. "These films are then shown with exhibitions as well as being distributed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York."
Wechsler has won numerous awards for her work in film, including the CINE Golden Eagle for her films Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. She also received the gold plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival and the red ribbon at the American Film Festival for Aaron Siskind.
Wechsler has written and edited several books and articles, including A Human Comedy: Physiognomy and Caricature in 19th Century Paris. Throughout her career, Wechsler served on many boards and juries, such as the Montreal Art Film Festival and the Knokke Film Festival in Belgium.
She also served as the president of the Boston Film and Video Foundation board and was a member of the advisory board for a PBS special on American political cartoons. This program was co-sponsored by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
