An American Family
22 April – 21 May 2006
In An American Family, Kunstverein München showed all episodes of the TV series of the same name, originally broadcast on the US television station PBS in 1973. Produced by Craig Gilbert, the series traced seven months in the life of the Californian family Loud, thus anticipating the format of reality TV. An American Family is a landmark of nonfiction film and marks a critical moment in postwar American culture. The series was watched by an audience of millions, becoming a national media event, and the documentary portrayal of divorce, West-Coast affluence, and open homosexuality became the subject of heated debate. After the series was screened at the Kunstverein, the exhibition featured two documentaries on the careers of the family Loud from An American Family.
The Louds were selected as an emblematic nuclear family pulled apart by the cultural shifts that marked America’s transition into the 1970s. Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond captured 300 hours of film that were edited to twelve one-hour episodes aired weekly on PBS.
From the first broadcast on 11 January 1973, the series quickly became a national media event viewed by millions. The ensuing depictions of divorce, West Coast affluence, and open homosexuality provoked a fervent public debate about the nation’s value system, its attitudes towards family and sexuality, and about television’s role in depicting and constructing the American character. An American Family was among the first television series to transform ‘ordinary people’ into media celebrities.
While many public intellectuals condemned the series, it fascinated several prominent artists and academics, such as Dan Graham, John Cage, and anthropologist Margaret Mead, who claimed in a 1973 issue of TV Guide:
"In An American Family nobody knew what was going to happen. The result is certainly not fiction, nor is it the conventional TV documentary (...) It is a new kind of art form. It is, I believe, as new and as significant as the invention of drama or the novel — a new way in which people can learn to look at life by seeing the real life of others interpreted by the camera."
Almost never before seen in Europe, the entire series will be shown at Kunstverein München in one continuous twelve hour screening from 6pm-6am on Saturday 22 April 2006, introduced by filmmaker and Academy Award Winner Alan Raymond at 6pm. The whole series will also be on view as an exhibition from 22 April - 21 May 2006.
Alan Raymond will also participate in a discussion at Kunstverein München with Stuart Comer (Curator of Film, Tate Modern) and Christof Decker (film historian, Munich) on Sunday 23 April at 5pm. The discussion will be preceded by screenings of two subsequent documentaries that continue the story of the Loud family: An American Family Revisited: The Louds Ten Years Later (1983) and Lance Loud! A Death in An American Family (2003). The latter documentary focuses on the late Lance Loud, flamboyant son, friend and fan of Andy Warhol, member of popular New York No Wave band The Mumps, prominent journalist, and the first openly gay person to appear on television.
Screening and Conference
*22 until 23 April 2006_*
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Curated in collaboration with Stuart Comer (Tate Modern) and Emily Pethick (CASCO, Utrecht).
AN AMERICAN FAMILY is supported by Consulate General of the United States.
Kunstverein München is supported by Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München.
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Installation views: An American Family, Kunstverein München, 2006. Courtesy Kunstverein München e.V., photos: Wilfried Petzi.