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Prof. Dr. David Brafman

The Rudolf Arnheim Visiting Professor for the winter semester 2018/19 is David Brafman, the Rare Books Curator at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. The most recent exhibitions he has curated are: SCRATCH (ESMoA [El Segundo Museum of Art], 8 June–21 September 2014– a collaborative installation between early modern rare books and 150 of LA’s leading graffiti and tattoo artists); The Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China’s Silk Road (Getty Center: 7 May-4 September 2016); The Art of Alchemy (Getty Research Institute, 11 October 2016-12 February 2017); re-iterated and expanded as Alchemie: die große Kunst (Kulturforum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 5 April–23 July 2017).

Upcoming exhibitions, now in planning, are The Art of Memory; and Facing East: Illuminated Visions in Islam and the Sublime View from the West. Brafman’s PhD is in Classics and Arabic from Duke University. He grew up in Brooklyn, NY, so language immersion in NY accents will be an additional dimension of both seminars.

The Arnheim Seminars are the initial curatorial forays into planning these two upcoming exhibitions at the Getty, and possibly at a venue in Berlin, again working in collaboration with SMB in a fashion similar to the ‘Art of Alchemy’ project. Both seminars aim at developing the narrative themes and potential object-list of these future exhibitions. Both courses will be object-based, and seminar meetings often will be held at various venues of SMB and SBB in the presence of objects to discuss their thematic relevance and potential inclusion in the object-list of a planned exhibition. Consultation of related objects at the Getty Research Institute and J. Paul Getty Museum, digitally available online, will also be required. Curatorial practice and process will be a regular subject of discussion.

Arnheim – Lecture am 11.02.2019
“Pharmaka, Firāsah & zarte Empirie. Or, how to divine the invisible. (And memorize your future, too!)”