The Arnheim: Remembering Rudi collection contains two digital files from a DVD of the memorial service celebrating University of Michigan professor Rudolf Arnheim. The service was held on September 30, 2007 in the University of Michigan Botanical Gardens.
The first video displays an edited version of the memorial celebration and a slideshow of photographs that were included in the service. The second video features an unedited version of the ceremony.
The videos were created and produced by R. Thomas Bray of the University of Michigan Libraries. Speakers include Arnheim's daughter Margaret Nettinga and her husband Cor Nettinga, as well as Arnheim's formers students, colleagues and friends Bartlett, Peg Boyers, Stusan Grace Galassi, Roberta Price, Jonathan Tyman, and others.
Rudolf Arnheim was born to a Jewish family in 1904 in Berlin, Germany. He was raised in Charlottenburg, Germany where his father owned a piano factory. While at Freidrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, Arnheim studied art, philosophy, and psychology and was introduced to the field of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt theories focus on understanding how human perceptions are created. While in Berlin, Arnheim worked with the influential Gestalt psychologists Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Lewin. Arnheim applied Gestalt theories and methods to the visual arts and film and was one of the first scholars to approach film as a medium of art.
Arnheim also worked as a film critic for the influential Berlin magazine, Die Weltbuhne, in the late 1920s and early 1930s. However in 1932, he came into conflict with the rising Nazi party after penning a controversial satirical article comparing the mustaches of Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin. He was warned the Nazis might seek retribution and immigrated to Rome in 1933 to escape the threat. Arnheim later moved to London shortly before the outbreak of World War II and spent time as a translator for the British Broadcasting Corporation before settling in New York in 1940.
In the United States, Arnheim worked as a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City and at Sarah Lawrence University in Bronxville, New York from 1943-1968. In 1968, Arnheim took an appointment as a professor of the Psychology of Art at Harvard University. He remained at Harvard until his retirement in 1974. During his academic career in the United States, Arnheim continued his study of art as a method of visual thinking and a means of expression. He is considered one of the leading scholars of Gestalt theory in the United States. One of his most famous books, Film as Art (1928), was reprinted in English in 1957 and is considered a foundational text in the field of Film Studies. Over his career, he was awarded with numerous professional honors including being elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976.
Arnheim and his wife Mary moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1974. Arnheim taught as a visiting professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Michigan for ten years. In 2001, the College of Literature, Arts and Sciences honored him with a Collegiate Professorship in his name. Following his retirement, Arnheim continued to live in Ann Arbor until his death in June 2007. In September 2007, a memorial ceremony was held in the University of Michigan Botanical Gardens to celebrate his life and accomplishments.
