Monday, July 23, 2007

The Power of (boring) Art (television shows)

Holy crap! My mind is wandering so much during the latest episode of Simon Schama's The Power of Art on PBS that it inspired me to blog to fill the next 20 minutes until the local news is on. It's a shame, really. Tonight he is talking about JMW Turner who is hands down my favorite history painter at the turn of the 19th century in Great Britain. Actually, my admiration for Turner is enormous and he is one of the reasons I got turned on to art history. So I'm a little sad I am so uninspired by this particular episode. I've missed a couple of episodes but of the few I've seen:

  • Van Gogh - didn't put me to sleep and talked a little about mental illness which always makes for good TV
  • Picasso - I couldn't decide if I wanted him to talk about Cubism more or if I wanted to start my own revolution
  • Bernini - brilliant. Schama captured the emotion and skill of one of my all time favorite artists.
  • Turner - at least he called this gem at the IMA one of his most powerful history paintings. And he was right.
Now I want to see Schama on Matthew Barney. Can't you just hear his accent now? "As Barney confronted this internal struggle between football player and artist, his true love was adorned in a gorgeous alabaster swan gown at the Academy Awards."

5 Responses to “The Power of (boring) Art (television shows)”

Anonymous said...
July 24, 2007 at 12:55 AM

Okay I don't know whats real but last time i saw anything about art on PBS is was interesting in its own true dry nature. So people with accents can talk about art... Maybe they didn't have your preferences set when they made the film just for you. Of course you know more than everyone one else and it's boring to you.


Anonymous said...
July 24, 2007 at 12:02 PM

The Van Gogh was an annyingly hammy dramatization, Picasso was just too cursory for my use but YES the Bernini was great.

Turner... I liked it well enough and Rembrandt was pretty well done. Schama's book on Rembrandt was just too fluffy for my taste... a really good writer often in love with the quality of his writing. Nothing new there.


Anonymous said...
July 24, 2007 at 6:09 PM

I loved that swan dress.


Anonymous said...
August 3, 2007 at 9:05 AM

Okay, so your comments about how bored YOU were by Schama's program are supposed to be INTERESTING to the readers of this blog ????

Gimme a break !


ChristopherWestPresents said...
August 3, 2007 at 2:31 PM

I said I liked the Bernini episode. Rothko was ok too. Feel free to start your own blog.


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