British Masters with Dr FOx

Contemporary and Old Art Reviews

British Masters with Dr FOx

Postby jasperjoffe » Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:04 pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=British%20Masters

Edmund WHite writes that students like literary critics who have a strong simplistic theory and use the word great a lot. Dr Fox is the art equivalent. He throws around unsupported claims of greatness for minor painters Alfred Munnings and co. He says they are great, he says British Painting before YBA was great, he goes on about greatness floridly, but never tells us what makes them great, or only that they capture humanity blah blah blah, compare Keith Vaughan to Picasso and you will see the difference between the great and the good, or Graham Sutherland to Matisse. It's ridiculous but entertaining tv. And yes at least it has a strong stupid thesis rather than some phoney naive guy exploring something...
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Re: British Masters with Dr FOx

Postby CAP » Wed Jul 27, 2011 6:53 am

Yes - indiscriminate 'greatness' quickly becomes grating. ;)
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Re: British Masters with Dr FOx

Postby DanC » Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:52 am

I agree. Another irritatingly simplistic and glorified overview that could have been an opportunity to focus in depth on any one of the artists featured, which I think would have been more rewarding. There was no in depth analysis of the work of these artists or their lives, just an indiscriminate aggrandising and eroticising of death and suffering, quite dehumanising in itself. As far as I’m aware, Keith Vaughan was suffering from terminal cancer when he committed suicide. This, of course, was conveniently omitted from the program.
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