Everyone deserves access to great art – Kenneth Clarke
Reading Kenneth Clarke's Watching Painting is like watching a TV documentary, and even people who know very little about the field of painting can enjoy watching it.
"Watching the Painting" is written
In this book Clark screens sixteen paintings by painters of different themes, including Titian's The Burial of Christ, Velázquez's Palace, Rohir van der Weyden's The Cross of Christ, Raphael's The Miracle of Fishing, Turner's The Blizzard...
When he introduces us to these sixteen paintings in documentary-style narrative language, the "language shots" make us feel as if we are in front of the works of the master of the museum. He combines "theory" and "knowledge" in one.
Velázquez 'Sergeant'
With a little knowledge of the author, we can understand why Clarke can take us from the master's paintings to the doorway and pleasure of viewing paintings in plain but passionate language.
Kenneth Clarke was one of the leading art historians, writers, curators and documentary filmmakers of the 20th century. He became director of the Ashmore Museum at Oxford University at the age of twenty-seven and director of the National Gallery at the age of thirty. He created the first large-scale television documentary in the art category, "Civilization", which made him a world-renowned master.
Leonardo da Vinci, "The Virgin and Child and St. Anne"
In Clarke's view, a person who enjoys a pure sense of aesthetics does not last longer than enjoying the scent of an orange. So how do you view a masterpiece?
Clark tells us that if we want to continue to look at it reactively, we must reinforce ourselves with accurate information.
Turner's "The Blizzard"
"First of all, I look at the whole picture." Clark writes that this gave him an overall impression of a painting.
After acquiring the initial shock of those masterpieces, what he did was to review and look at the various parts of the paintings.
After that, what Clark would do was to recall the life of the painter and put the work into the position of the painter's development. This is what he calls "reinforcing yourself with accurate information." When he does this, his receptivity is gradually renewed, until he is finally completely saturated with the work.
Watteau's "The Sign of Jesus"
"Pure pleasure!" This is the most direct feeling that Huato's "The Signature of Heather" brings to Clark. The interplay of tones and colors exudes a soul-grabbing beauty that any attempted analysis would seem silly and vulgar—Clarke's first impression of the painting.
Still, Clarke, with his astonishing insight, noticed the fugue-like hues of the painting, keenly capturing the details of the colors: the standing lady, an emerald sock under the lilac cloak, the red lacquered box next to the sitting lady's elbow.
Subsequently, the narrative of Clark's documentary gives us an idea of how Huato created this one, and it took only eight days to complete his great masterpiece.
Hua Tuo", "Zhoufa Xitai Island"
While luring us into the way of painting by being on the spot, Clark also evaluates the personalities and works of art of the masters with the eyes of a unique art historian.
He said Huato was the melancholy poet who created the mythical illusion of a picnic. Velázquez's implicit reticence has transcended nationality. This mentality was only experienced in sophocles in ancient Greece and Wang Wei in China.
Raphael's artistic characteristics: one is a smooth sense of movement; the other is to give people a nourishing sense of abundance in each form.
Raphael's Fishing Miracle
Of Rembrandt, Clarke commented that Rembrandt's self-portrait is the greatest autobiography ever left to posterity. The face is to Rembrandt, just as the sun is to Van Gogh, the waves are to Turner, and the sky is to Constable.
Rembrandt's Self-Portrait
Illustrations are a feature of the book, and each of the masters' thematic paintings is accompanied by partial close-ups. In addition, we can also find paintings by painters at different stages under the same theme. Delacroix's "Three Massacres", "Massacre of The Island of Theo", "Death of Saldanapal", and "Crusader Occupation of Constantinople".
Or the changes in the artist's thinking during the creation of this subject painting, Constable's Prancing Horse Study and Prancing Horse Sketch, or the painting of the same theme by different painters, Da Vinci and Masacci's "Virgin and Child and Saint Anne".
However, the failure of this book is also due to the typesetting of painting illustrations, which cannot be viewed in the gaps, and the sixteen works occupy as many as eight, which is unbearable.
Delacroix's "Crusader Occupation of Constantinople" on the page
Illustration and typesetting aside, "Watching Painting", as another popular book of Clarke's art appreciation, provides a good viewing path for "regulars" who have just entered the field or entered the museum but are not able to do it, which is worth reading.
But as he says in the opening preface: "The meaning of a great work of art, or the little point in it that we can understand, must be connected to our own lives in order to increase our spiritual energy." ”