Monday 28th January

Sorry it has been a few weeks since the last blog post but it has been extremely busy chez Seventh Art Productions/PhilGrabskyFilms.com

Last night at midnight we finished filming the Manet Exhibition at the super Royal Academy of Arts in London. Editing is proceeding frantically and as you can see from the attached press release, we’ll be in UK (indeed worldwide) cinemas on the 11th April. It has been a Herculean task but last night I stood all alone staring at Manet’s The Railway and felt doubly sure that this is the right thing to do: to bring these works and these exhibitions to people around the world – we know we’ll be seen in France, Chile, New Zealand, USA, Canada and many, many more. There is no way that 99% of those people – you – could get to the exhibition so this is the next best thing. And to have Munch from Norway and then Vermeer from the National Gallery London on the way too – plus others lining up. Wonderful. And very scary financially but hey, no pain, no gain.

The filming has been pretty intense; an awful lot to get through in terms of filming the paintings and filming tracking shots. Also of course there were many pieces-to-camera with Tim (our presenter) and various expert guests. What is not in doubt is that the film is full of interest for anyone interested in Manet, art, exhibitions and Paris in the 19th century. The exhibition had its official opening on Tuesday and we launched the brand EXHIBITION at the same time. Remarkably the RA attracted 500+ journalists and at least half of them took our press release from the press desk. From the response we’ve had subsequently, the press are interested and covering us. Lots of long days keeping on top of it all but it’s been terrible snowy weather so might as well work! When the golf courses re-open, well that will be a different story!

PRESS RELEASE BELOW:

 

 

Coming Soon:

The world’s greatest art exhibitions at a cinema near you

 

Unless it is a blockbuster on the scale of last year’s Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan exhibition at the National Gallery, London art exhibitions are, predominantly, seen by those who live locally. That was, until now.

Award-winning arts documentary maker, Phil Grabsky, has launched a ground-breaking project to connect major exhibitions from across the world with over 200,000 people in cinemas spread across some 30 countries. This global first aims to allow art lovers, old and new, to enjoy, marvel and delight at the works of some of history’s greatest ever painters.

Grabsky’s eponymous PhilGrabskyfilms.com, in association with Seventh Art Productions and BY Experience, has created a series of ground-breaking art events for cinema: EXHIBITION.

Featuring forthcoming major exhibitions of works from artists such as Manet, Munch and Vermeer, each film will capture and explore these important shows and bring a wealth of masterpieces to audiences via high-tech digital cinema technology. The films won’t just cover the exhibitions’ paintings: important questions will also be addressed. What lies behind the exhibition creatively and technically? What does this particular collection of paintings and objects reveal about the artist, or the particular historical period? What do we learn about the presenting institution? Answering them, and many more besides, will be world-renowned art historian and broadcaster, Tim Mar low. Acting as the presenter and guide through each exhibition, Tim is the ideal expert to explain these extraordinary exhibitions and deliver first-rate biographies of the artists. The films combine his in-depth knowledge of each subject with sensitively shot material about the artist and period and are filmed both at the exhibitions and on location.

Grabsky says “I have been driven by the desire to share the thrill of great exhibitions with everyone from Kansas City to Adelaide, Osaka to Naples, and Glasgow to Cape Town. To be launching with three stunning shows from three top-notch venues is an absolute thrill. If you can't get to the RA you have to see the film. And if you are lucky enough to get a ticket to the RA, then you'll want to see the film even more!”

Echoing Grabsky’s comments, Tim Marlow adds “I think that standing face to face with some of the greatest works of art ever made is one of the most powerful experiences in life. ‘Exhibition' gives us the opportunity to convey something of this power in a cinematic format which brings the viewer as close to the real thing as possible. Sometimes, the camera reveals even more than the naked eye ...”

Charles Saumarez Smith, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts, said, “We are very excited to be working with Phil Grabsky and Tim Marlow to produce the film Manet: Portraying Life at the Royal Academy of Arts. The RA’s exhibition will be the first major show of Manet’s portraits, bringing together works from international collections and private lenders to UK audiences for the first time. With thanks to Seventh Art Productions and BY Experience, the film will be screened in cinemas in over 30 countries and in over 5 languages, giving audiences worldwide the chance to see this remarkable exhibition.”

EXHIBITION launches with a trio of films for spring, summer and autumn 2013:

MANET - from the Royal Academy of Arts, London, MUNCH - from the National Museum & Munch museum, Oslo and VERMEER - from the National Gallery, London.

And this is just the beginning. EXHIBITION is already in pre production for major exhibitions in 2014.

All information will be available on participating cinemas worldwide at the official website, www.ExhibitionOnScreen.com

Edouard Manet, The Railway, 1873
National Gallery of Art Washington 

EXHIBITION: Manet: Portraying Life

Manet: Portraying Life will be presented on cinema screens around the world on Thursday 11 April 2013.

This eagerly awaited exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts will be the first ever retrospective devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet. Spanning this enigmatic and, at times, controversial artist’s entire career Manet: Portraying Life will bring together works from across Europe, Asia and the USA.

Manet’s portraiture has never been explored in exhibition form, despite it forming around half of his artistic output. He painted his family, friends and the literary, political and artistic figures of the day, giving life not only to his subjects but also to Parisian society. The exhibition consists of more than 50 works; including portraits of his most frequent sitter, his wife Suzanne Leenhoff, luminaries of the period; Antonin Proust, Émile Zola and Stéphane Mallarmé, along with scenes from everyday life revealing Manet’s forward-thinking, modern approach to portraiture. More at www.royalacademy.org.uk  

The film also reveals exclusive behind-the-scenes moments of the exhibition’s preparation, which normally go unseen by the public, and interweaves a detailed, superbly crafted biography of Manet and 19th century Paris. Host Tim Marlow and special guests will look at the craft of one of the all-time great artists.

Manet: Portraying Life at the Royal Academy of Arts is sponsored by BNY Mellon, Partner of the Royal Academy

EXHIBITION: Munch 150



Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893
(c) National Museum, Oslo, Norway 2013

 Thursday 27 June 2013. In 2013, Norway will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edvard Munch (1863–1944), a towering figure in modern art. Already hailed as a “once-in-a-lifetime show” global interest is understandably huge, especially after one of his four The Scream paintings recently sold for a record $120 million.

Munch 150 will be co-hosted by Norway’s National Museum and Munch Museum, both in Oslo. This exhibition marks the most ambitious presentation of his art ever. With 220 paintings on show, it brings together the greatest number of Munch’s key works in one place. More at www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en and www.munch.museum.no

The corresponding film will go behind-the-scenes to show some of the process of putting the exhibition together – as well as touring Norway to provide an in-depth biography of a man who lived from the mid 19th century right through to the German occupation during the Second World War. Norwegian and international experts will offer their insights and knowledge to host Tim Marlow.

EXHIBITION: Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure

Johannes Vermeer,
A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal, c.1670
National Gallery, London

Thursday 10 October 2013. The National Gallery, London, is offering a major retrospective on one of the most startling and fascinating artists of all – Johannes Vermeer, painter of the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring. The National Gallery has chosen to focus on Vermeer’s relationship with music. It was one of the most popular themes of Dutch painting and revealed an enormous amount about the sitter and the society they lived in. New research, revealed for the first time at this exhibition, shows how his technique and materials affected his works. More at www.nationalgallery.org.uk  

Tim Marlow goes beyond the exhibition to tell the entire story of Vermeer’s life – and, in doing so, shows in fabulous HD detail, many other of the artist’s captivating works. For those inspired by the 2003 film, Girl with a Pearl Earring, starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson, this new, cinematic exploration will take their enjoyment and fascination of Vermeer’s life and work to a new level.



Mir Update

Hello everyone. I hope you are all well. I know there are people interested in Mir from all over the world – Greece, Germany, the USA, Canada, Venezuela, Australia – and let’s not forget Afghanistan too. So I always feel both humbled and a bit nervous trying to articulate what’s the latest news from Mir and his family.

Most of you will have seen the film in a cinema over the past year or so and, other than my occasional updates, will have left Mir whistling optimistically as he strode up a hill in his village. Many of you, I know, have been wondering how he’s doing. Well, frankly the news is not all good. Nor is it all bad. On the negative side, we had hoped that some of those organisations and some of those individuals who had suggested they could help Mir in some way would come through. But, for whatever reason, none did. Maybe I don’t chase them hard enough? I have found it odd how often people have been deeply moved by the film but have not made a donation nor even bought a copy of the DVD. It really seems very hard to translate peoples’ compassion to actual action. That said, over the years we collected some donations and made our own monthly payment into a small fund and, not without some difficulty, we did manage to transfer those funds to Mir and his family. It was not, however, enough to radically transform their lives. Of course, one also has to ask what kind of future is it that they would really like? That’s not just about their personal ambition; that has much more to do with better security, less corruption, more stable crop production, better schools and improved health clinics. No-one should underestimate the difficulties in ensuring any of these in the thousands of tiny villages and towns throughout Afghanistan but maybe it’s fair of us to have hoped for a little more success over the past decade.

What that all means for Mir is that he remains in the village and is still loading coal. That’s not to say there hasn’t been one major change: Mir is now a married man! It is a genuine source of regret that Shoaib and I, though both invited, simply couldn’t afford to get there for the wedding. We do have plans to get a present to him though – and we have spoken to him and his parents and wished them all well. It’s hard for us to know too much about the background to the wedding – or just who his bride is. One hopes very much that they are happy together – though we have to acknowledge the reality of the situation which is that part of the incentive to get married so young was to bring a young woman into the household to help with the aging parents. Mir’s fine half-brother Khoshdel and family having moved out thus left Mir on his own to care for his parents Abdul and Mirwarid. I’m determined to get back to see them, maybe in 2013. Indeed, I’d love to raise the funds to continue filming them for another decade. But I am realistic enough to know that it will be virtually impossible to do so. One key UK channel has already told me that ‘Afghanistan is last year’s story’. Fools!!!

So we do what we can: last month, with the gracious help of an American friend, I managed to screen the film at the State Department in Washington. This was actually quite a big deal as it was watched by some important folk who have responsibilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I came away from my day of screening and conversation there very impressed with their determination to make a positive difference. They are already planning for 2014-2024 and are committed to not turning their backs on the needs of Afghan people. I’m no defender of any particular nation’s foreign policy but I do get frustrated at the self-righteous trailing on and off TV, radio and newspapers criticising all British or all American policy in Afghanistan – and I wonder what exactly they think should be done for poor folk like Mir and his family? Life is, quite simply, more complicated and a myriad of shades of grey. It certainly is in Afghanistan. I, frankly, have no idea what will happen over the next few years – but some will have a better future than ever possible under the Taliban and others will die of easily curable disease or sheer brutal murder. There will be more of the latter if we just turn our backs on them. “We have our own problems, our own fight against austerity’, I hear folk say. Well, austerity is one thing, poverty is another. Dying of cholera, typhoid, malaria, dysentery, malnutrition is a wholly different world to what most Europeans or Americans suffer through austerity. I pity Mir. The winter is almost there –and the village will be snowbound soon. I hope they’ve enough wood and food to see them through. I’ll still be tucking in to a huge turkey dinner on Christmas Day but when I wish ‘Peace and Goodwill to all’ I’ll be thinking of Mir and the tens of millions like him.

Tuesday 4th December

On a Czech train, ambling through the countryside between Dresden and Berlin. A beautiful sunny winter’s day. Nice German cheese roll for lunch. All is well. Well, almost. I had just travelled all the way to Dresden to interview a wonderful musician for my Chopin film and was just outside the hall, with all my gear, when the person rang me to cancel due to illness. Ah well, not to worry – I’ll get the interview another time and at least I got to see Dresden (with its impressively re-built old town) for the first time. In the snow too…can it really be almost December? A year since we did Leonardo Live? Over a year since we launched The Boy Mir – Ten years in Afghanistan? 9 months since I toured some cinemas in Australia and New Zealand… My daughter and I looked at each other in amazement at the weekend when we got the Christmas decorations out of the loft – ‘but we only just put them up there, Dad!’….Time does indeed fly…

Nadar, Edouard Manet, 1874

Most of my year has been extremely busy and extremely unpaid. A huge amount of investment and risk-taking at our expense. But, as always, as we try to choose only projects which interest us, it has been fascinating too. It’s no terrible hardship to be engaged in a highly detailed film on Chopin. Nor is it the end of the world to be looking deep into the life of Manet. Certainly it’s Manet that has been taking up our time over the past three months – and what a fascinating period it was in mid -19th century Paris. We’ve made films before about the impressionists but it’s great to be back in the library and in Paris revisiting the subject. As always, I am fascinated by the economic context of a period. Manet, for example, lived at a time of expanding demand in art, the growth of the gallery, the dealer, the critic. There was even a considerable demand for paintings that could be rented for social events (a party at home for example) and then you had the growth of regional museums (who thus wanted paintings to show). All of this (and more) created a world where the artist moved from even further from the nameless artisan to the world superstar.



Edouard Manet,
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, 1862-63
Musee d'Orsay



Yesterday the Turner prize was won by Elizabeth Price for her video work. It’s not my cup of tea but at least the guy who works with faeces didn’t win nor the woman called Spartacus who entered a puppet show of the Jesus and Barabbas stories. I’ve never subscribed that art is anything that is called ‘art’ not anything that is in an ‘art gallery’. Maybe I’ve been spoilt by making so many films by what I would say are truly great artists – and that most certainly includes Manet. Of course the reaction to his submissions to the Paris salon elicited the same kind of response as mine to the Turner submissions. One critic said of Manet’s ‘Luncheon on the Grass’ ‘It’s best seen from a kilometre away’. And that was one of the polite comments. Maybe my kids, or their kids, will in a few decades time revere the Prices and Spartacus’ but I doubt it.

I feel the same about films – the endless desire for novelty and shock can often leave art, accuracy, morality trailing in its wake. When asked for lists of the greatest documentaries or indeed feature films generally of all time, I’d say most talk about films from decades ago. And most people’s favourite artists still include Manet, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and so on. In researching the works of Manet I’d been delighted to become acquainted, often for the first time, with works of great artistry. The film will be in the cinemas in March and I’m sure you’ll enjoy looking at the paintings we’ve included. The same goes for the ongoing film about Chopin – to be completed and first released in Australia next Christmas. What a treat to get to listen – carefully and not just as background music – to his wonderful creations. I’ll be spending time in Warsaw in April and can’t wait. Anyway, this lovely train is arriving at Berlin’s new(ish) main train station. It’s functional but there’s little artistry. I’ve a couple of hours free so maybe I’ll go for a quick walk around the western lakes…with Manet in my eyes and Chopin in my ears – and try to come up with some cunning schemes to pay for it all….