For about two months now I’ve been waiting for and then recovering from a major surgery. As a result I’ve been consuming a lot of electronic media. It’s been a steep learning curve looking for something new to consume as I rapidly used up known territory.
Of all the material I found, the most impressive turned out to be a 55 year-old television documentary in thirteen one-hour episodes. It’s called Civilisation: A Personal View, written and presented by the art historian Kenneth Clark.
When it came out my parents tried to persuade me to watch it. It was boring. I wasn’t interested.
The series gives a deep insight into the development of European art over the last millennium. It also provides an inadvertent focus on the prejudices that were taken for granted in the late 1960s.
The programme consists of highly detailed images of ancient buildings and artworks that would be impossible for an ordinary person to see because the cameras are positioned so high up. The budget must have been substantial and the camerawork is superb. In contrast the narrative is provided by Clark talking to camera in long static shots. The presentation seems unprofessional by modern standards and Clark is a doddery old man wearing terrible suits which don’t fit properly, but he always has a handkerchief sticking out of the left hand breast pocket. He wears these suits while walking around in muddy fields and riverbanks, and you can’t help feeling he might fall in the water at any moment. But the lack of polish makes the presentation seem more real than most modern television is able to manage.
When Clark talks about Civilisation he means white European civilisation and anything else doesn’t really count. He says racist and sexist things that are shocking to the modern ear. If you can get past this, he’s an enthusiast for art and architecture of all sorts and he transmits that to the viewer with remarkable power, if the viewer is willing to pay attention. Meanwhile, the images that he presents and the coherence with which he puts them together are mind-boggling.
I’ve known for a very long time that I ought to have watched this series. I’m now really glad that I saved it for later.
jeremykahn.co.uk 