Russian émigré painter Serge Hollerbach began to experience severe vision loss in 1994, which marked the beginning of a new period of his work. His experience is recounted in a short, award-winning documentary, “Serge Hollerbach: A Russian Painter in New York,” where he creates two paintings over a four-year span. During this time, he has aged and experiences declining vision. While he is painting, he talks about art, “his displacement during World War II,” how he built a new life in New York City, and the effect of vision loss on his works. In his “post-macular” period, he turned to what he considered his “’inner vision,’” depending on “muscle memory.” Using streetscapes from his neighborhood, the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, he painted “increasingly abstract iterations of shoulder-to-shoulder pedestrians, with their canes, shopping bags, rolling luggage, and dogs.” A film from The Vision and Art Project, part of the American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF), an organization whose mission is to help people learn about and live with macular degeneration. The film can be streamed free-of-charge with Audio Description at Vimeo. For more information, check out The Vision and Art Project webpage inviting visitors to Watch Our Newest Film: “Serge Hollerbach: A Russian in New York.
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