Jaime Davidovich
Directing
Biography
Jaime Davidovich was a conceptual, video and installation artist, as well as a pioneering activist for the potential of artist-run, local cable television programming. Davidovich was a founding member of Cable SoHo (1976) and president of the Artists' Television Network (1978). His own cable access show, a weekly variety program called The Live! Show, aired on Manhattan Cable Television from 1979 until 1984. In the guise of his alter-ego, Dr. Videovich, Davidovich hosted the show, which featured performances by and interviews with art world personalities, live phone-ins, and a home-shopping segment from which he sold his collection of TV-related kitsch. Jaime Davidovich was born in Argentina in 1936 and moved to New York in 1963. He was educated at the National College of Buenos Aires; the University of Uruguay, and the School of Visual Arts, New York. Davidovich is the recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowships, for the years 1978, 1984 and 1990; and two grant awards from the Creative Artists Public Service Program, New York State Council on the Arts, for 1975 and 1982. Davidovich is the Joan Mitchell Foundation's 2013-14 Creating A Living Legacy (CALL) Artist. Solo exhibitions include a major retrospective at ARTIUM, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain in late 2010; Cabinet, Brooklyn, New York; CaixaForum, Barcelona, Spain; MAMBA - Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires; vanGuardia Bilbao, Spain; The Phatory Gallery, New York, and the American Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, New York, which presented a retrospective of The Live! Show in 1989. Davidovich has participated in a wide range of group exhibitions, at institutions such as MUMOK - Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; 2007 Bienal de São Paulo-Valencia, Brazil; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; ARS Electronica, Linz, Austria; Long Beach Museum of Art, California; 1 Bienal de la Habana, Cuba; Video and Television Festival, Maastricht, Netherlands; The Kitchen, New York; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile. Davidovich lived and worked in New York until his death in 2016.
Known For
Davidovich searches in vain for the meaning of "avant garde." The artist travels to Iowa City, where he conducts a series of "man on the street" interviews with artist Michael Smith, painter and critic Walter Robinson, University of Iowa professor of art history W.J. Tomasini, a security guard at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, an art school secretary, and strangers on the street.
Adventures of the Avant-Garde
This artist-produced television show, which aired on Manhattan cable-access from 1979 to 1984, features performances by and interviews with a cast of art-world personalities, live calls, and a home-shopping segment. In this episode, the artist’s alter ego, Dr. Videovich, teaches viewers how to deconstruct the nightly news and how to paint on velvet. Guest commentator John Torreano offers his opinions on contemporary art.
The Live! Show (April 29, 1983)
In this short documentary, Davidovich examines censorship in Argentina. As an expatriate living in New York, he reflects on his own "artistic exile" and the "empty homeland at the back of his mind."
La Patria Vacia
In this promotional piece, the artist’s alter ego, Dr. Videovich, a self-proclaimed specialist in television therapy, prescribes nonsensical treatments for television addictions and other related problems.
The Live! Show Promo
A Long Beach art exposé and mall walk.