Manny Farber.

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Manny Farber, the best writer on film in America or anywhere else, once listed his critical precepts, some of which were: "playing around with words and grammar to get layers and continuation"; "film-centered rather than self-centered criticism"; "giving the audience some uplift." Substitute a word here and there and he could have easily been discussing his glorious yet unheralded career as a painter. Organized by MCASD assistant curator Stephanie Hanor, "Manny Farber: About Face" spans forty years and seventy paintings on paper and wood, running the gamut from the luminous single-color paper shapes of the late '60s through the relatively austere "American Candy" and film-related paintings of the '70s, to the big, vibrant, spatially dizzying splayed object works of the present. Set to go to P.S. 1 in late 2004, and not to be missed. Sept. 14-Jan. 4.