Simon Schama’s Power of Art
BBC, 8 episodes, featured artists: Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, Rothko.
Note to Simon Schama: Please make more episodes!
*****(5/5)
Art and me have a love/hate relationship. On one side, I can love art a lot, but on the other I hardly understand any of it. As a result I find that I do not stand still enough to look at it. When I talk about art with people I know I get various responses from them, ranging from “oh I love art!” (i.e., they love to say they love art since it makes them look good) to “I don’t care about art, whatever does it do?”. That question is difficult to answer in short, but here comes Simon Schama, professor of art history at Columbia University. He can tell us all about art and what it does to the mind as well as to society, and he does so through the DVD series Power of Art.
Schama, a gifted narrator with an eye for detail, takes the viewer along on a path through history, in which he sketches the life and some important works of eight artists. They vary from Italian artists Caravaggio and Bernini to the Russian-American modernist Rothko. With an eye for theatre, Schama describes how van Gogh gradually loses his mind, or how Picasso went from having no interest in politics to painting Guernica. He paints a picture of the politics in the times of those artists, their social statuses and their underlying thoughts for creating their art.
What you get in an episode is a reconstruction of the artist’s life, done by good actors I must add, with the occasional narration by Schama, in person or as a voice-over. In the case of Rothko for instance, we do not only see the life of an intricate artist with a dark side, but we also experience a younger Schama entering the museum where Rothko’s work is for the first time. In all eight episodes the concept is similar: throughout the story of the artist’s life, Schama adds his own opinions and sidelong remarks about that artist and his art.
The style of narrating that Schama uses is very refreshing. His ability to sketch a situation that makes you feel you are there is almost scary. It is as if history is coming closer, because it is seen through the human point of view instead of the bigger picture that historians like to give you. The narrator imagines what certain events, like the fall of a painter in public opinion, must have done to the person, and builds further on that by looking at his painting in the way the public back then would have.
One can argue whether Schama’s presence throughout the series is a lot of help because he explains much about art, or rather a nuisance because he has a strong opinion and we do not always have to agree with him. Personally, I think his opinions about the artists under his attention, even though prominently present, do not pose an actual problem. I have found I disagree with him on a number of points, but then still it is very interesting to experience the views of a man who is passionate about art and likes to share that passion. So if you are interested in art but you do not know where to begin in order to comprehend it, Simon Schama’s Power of Art is a nice place to start out. Personally, I cannot wait until he makes a new series about eight possibly even more interesting artists.