Biography
Ivo Blom (1960) is lecturer at the Department of Comparative Arts & Media Studies, Faculty of Arts, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Before, he also lectured at the University of Utrecht and the Universiteit of Amsterdam. He studied art history in Utrecht and Leiden and wrote his master thesis (1986) on Luchino Visconti and painting. In 1988, Ivo Blom organized the retrospective ‘Il primo cinema italiano 1905-1945’ and edited the accompanying book Hartstocht en heldendom. From 1989 to 1994, he worked as archivist and restorer at the Netherlands Filmmuseum. From 1991 on, he published regularly in Dutch and foreign journals, volumes and encyclopedias on early cinema, in particular on Italian, Dutch, German and French cinema; on such genres as the diva film, epic cinema, early comedy and early non-fiction; and on distribution and exhibition. From 1994 to 2000, he wrote his dissertation at the University of Amsterdam (2000), which was published in 2003 as Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade.
Ivo Blom is a member of the editorial board of the Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis (Journal on Media History), for which he co-edited the special issues Games & History (2004) and Cinema in Context (2007). Until 2007 he also was on the editorial board of Jong Holland, journal on Art & Visual Culture, publishing on Jean-Leon Gérôme and Quo Vadis (2001) and on Visconti, Hayez and intermediality (2006). Ivo Blom is member of the Amsterdam Institute for Research in Culture and Values; the research school Huizinga Instituut; the seminar Visuele Cultuur; the International Association for Word & Image (IAWIS); the Vereniging Geschiedenis Beeld & Geluid (Association for Image & Sound); the network for European Cinema Studies (NECS); and Domitor, Association for the Study of Early Cinema. He has given lectures at numerous universities, and contributed to workshops and conferences in Western-Europe and the United States.