Leandro Katz

Leandro Katz (born 1938) is an Argentine-born writer, visual artist and filmmaker known primarily for his films and photographic installations. His works include long-term, multi-media projects that delve into Latin American history through a combination of scholarly research, anthropology, photography, moving images and printed texts.

He lived and worked in New York from 1965 to 2006, and currently lives in Buenos Aires. He has been a member of the faculty at the School of Visual Arts, Art History Program, Brown University, Semiotics Program, and a professor of Film Production and Theory at the College of Arts and Communication at William Paterson University.

Larger works

Katz's notable long-term works include The Catherwood Project, a photographic reconstruction of the two 1850's expeditions of John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood to the Maya areas of Central America and Mexico, Project For The Day You'll Love Me, which investigates the events around the capture and execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967, Paradox which deals with Central American archaeology and the banana plantations of the United Fruit Company in Honduras and Guatemala, Vortex, which addresses the social and literary history of the rubber industry in the Amazon region of the Putumayo River based on a report by Roger Casement, and Tania, Masks and Trophies, a project that examines the figure of Tamara Bunke, the only woman who fought together with Che Guevara in his last campaign of 1967.

Other works

Leandro Katz has produced many books and artists’ books and eighteen narrative and non-narrative films. His most recent books, Natural History, and The Ghosts of Ñancahuazú, were published in 2010. His latest artist’s book dealing with matters of time and daily life, S(h)elf Portrait, was published in Buenos Aires in 2008.

Recognition

Leandro Katz's work has earned the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and he has received support from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and the Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam International Film Festival. His film, The Day You'll Love Me won the Coral Prize at the Festival del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, among others.

Exhibitions

Leandro Katz has exhibited as an artist, and screened his films, at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, El Museo del Barrio, the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, the Chicago Art Institute, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art, the Bienal de La Habana, Cuba, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, among others. Recent exhibitions include Encuentros de Pamplona 72: fin de fiesta del arte experimental, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Natural History, Henrique Faría Gallery, NY, Imán-New York, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, 10,000 Lives – Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, Leandro Katz: Arrebatos, Diagonales y Rupturas (Raptures, Diagonals and Ruptures), Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires, a retrospective with films and installations from 1965 to 2013, and Rincones y Refugios (Corners and Shelters) at 11x7 Galería, Buenos Aires.

Filmography

• CROWD 7X7 (1976) l6mm., 20 min., color, silent.
• LOS ANGELES STATION (1976) l6mm., l0 min., color, silent.
• TWELVE MOONS (& 365 SUNSETS) (1976), S8, 30 min., toned B&W, audiotape.
• MOONSHOTS (1976) l6mm., l7 min., color, silent.
• THE SHADOW (1976) 16mm., 20 min., color, silent.
• FALL (1977) l6mm., 20 min., color, silent.
• PARIS HAS CHANGED A LOT (1977) l6mm., 25 min., color, sound, vertical screen.
• SPLITS (1978) l6mm., 25 min., color, sound.
• MOON NOTES (1980) l6mm., l5 min., color, silent.
• THE VISIT (Foreign Particles) (1980) 35mm. slide sequence, 75 min., B&W, sync sound.
• METROPOTAMIA (1982) l6mm., 25 min., color, sound, zig-zag screen.
• THE JUDAS WINDOW (1982) l6mm., l7 min., color, silent.
• THE VISIT (1986) l6mm., 30 min., black and white, sound.
• REEL SIX, Charles Ludlam's Grand Tarot (1987) l6mm., 8 min., color, sound.
• MIRROR ON THE MOON (1992) 16mm., 100 min., color, sound.
• EL DIA QUE ME QUIERAS (1997) 16mm., 30 min., color, sound.
• PARADOX (2001), digital video, 30 min., color, sound.
• EXHUMACION (2007), digital video, 38 min., color, sound.

Collections

• Canadian Centre for Architecture - Montreal, Canada
• The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities - Santa Monica, California
• The Museum of Modern Art Library - New York
• The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive - Florida
• The Houghton Library, Rare Book Collection, Harvard University – Massachusetts
• The Brooklyn Museum, Prints and Photographs Collection - New York
• El Museo del Barrio - Permanent Collection - New York
• Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (MAMBA), Permanent Collection, Argentina
• Sterling Memorial Library - Artists’ Books Collection, Yale University, New Haven, CT
• Museo Castagnino, Rosario, Argentina
• The Museum of Modern Art – Latin American Collection, New York
• CeDinCi Archive, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• The University of New Mexico Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Billy Rose Collection
• The Watermill Center, Robert Wilson’s Theatre Collection
• Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM Museum.
• Museo del Barrio, Permanent Collection, New York
• The Museum of Modern Art – Photography Collection, New York
• Museo Nacional Centro Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
• Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York

External links

• Leandro Katz at the Museum of Modern Art permanent collection
• Leandro Katz website
• Artist's books at Printed Matter
• Leandro Katz at Henrique Faría Fine Art
• Leandro Katz at the Media Arts Fellowship Program
• Leandro Katz at Volta NY
• Leandro Katz at 11x7 Galería de Arte
• Arrebatos Diagonales y Rupturas Parte Dos #3
• Jaque al Arte por Luisa Valenzuela
• TELAM Cultura