We've watched five episodes of the Civilization series. We both love the way each art piece is featured, as the movie camera moves over and around it slowly, so that we can really examine it. "It was Attenborough who prompted the title, but due to time constraints the series only covered Western Civilisation. Clark didn't 'suppose that anyone could be so obtuse as to think I had forgotten about the great civilisations of the pre-Christian era and the east', though the title continued to worry him," as Wikipedia informs us. Time constraints, indeed, for Clark is filmed all over the world, to show us Western civilization's greatest art treasures. His covering of the medieval period has filled in some of the weaker parts of my art history education.
After the last episode we watched, I grew curious to learn a little more about him. No wonder I find myself in sympatico with him, for he was a "self-described 'hero-worshipper'" and "proved to be an ardent pro-individualist" and "Humanist". I share, too, "his distaste for much of modern art and Post-Modernist thought".
I am much amused by his declaration, "The great artist takes what he needs."
He spoke of how all great artists 'steal' from other artists, but combine all the 'stolen' elements into a unique synthesis, unlike what came before.
So I figure I have his blessing on my efforts regarding a photo of him from 1937, to use it to draw from!
