June 13th: Erasing women from the history of art

I just read an interesting article related to the National Gallery exhibition about Durand-Ruel and the Impressionists exhibition. I think she makes some excellent points: 

Under the title Inventing Impressionism: The Man Who Sold a Thousand Monets, the National Gallery in London recently mounted an exhibition about Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922). It’s just finished, but don’t worry if you didn’t see it, I’m about to tell you why you shouldn’t have. This is how it was presented on the website:

This spring, the National Gallery presents the UK’s first major exhibition devoted to the man who invented Impressionism, Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922). An entrepreneurial art dealer, Durand-Ruel discovered and unwaveringly supported the Impressionist painters and is now considered a founding father of the international art market as we know it today.

I would like to be somewhat picky. One man invented Impressionism? Can this be right? In what sense did a dealer invent Impressionism?

Click here to continue reading and find the original article

June 8th 2015

Check out this article from Vents on the composer of Exhibition On Screen's latest art film:

 Find the original article here

Stephen Baysted scores new Exhibition on Screen film “The Impressionists – And The Man Who Made Them”

British composer Stephen Baysted (“Matisse: Live from the Tate and MoMa”) reunites with award-winning film-maker Phil Grabsky and Seventh Art Productions (“In Search of…Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin” composer series, “Concerto – A Beethoven Journey”) to score “The Impressionists – And The Man Who Made Them,” a new documentary feature in the acclaimed ‘Exhibition On Screen‘ series of films bringing blockbuster art exhibitions from galleries around the world to the cinema, in stunning high definition. The Impressionists screens in UK cinemas nationwide from May 26.

Recorded at Air-Edel Studios in London, Baysted’s original score for The Impressionists features performances by pianist and mezzo soprano Susan Legg (“A lustrous mezzo soprano” – The Sunday Times) and soprano Louise Walsh (Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera) with additional piano by Jonathan Plowright (“One of the finest living pianists” – Gramophone Magazine). A score album will be released through Baysted’s publisher label Red Rocca on May 28.

The Impressionists – And The Man Who Made Them tells the story of art’s greatest revolutionaries in the most comprehensive film ever made about the Impressionists. With unparalleled access to the highly anticipated international exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg Paris, National Gallery London and Philadelphia Museum of Art, the film captures some of the world’s most famous paintings in stunning high definition – featuring universally loved masterpieces by Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Pissarro and many more – as well as interweaving the incredible story of 19th century Parisian art collector Paul Durand-Ruel and the extraordinary lengths he went to make Impressionism a household name.

Describing the scoring process for this energetic and revealing film, Baysted explains, “When director Phil Grabsky and I discussed The Impressionists, he wanted a cinematic and narratively focused score and one which responded directly to the masterworks being shown on screen. We also discussed a musical style and vocabulary which was contemporaneous with the art works, so I put together a listening list for him which contained many of the most well-known works from Debussy, Faure and early Ravel, and one or two lesser known ‘Impressionist’ composers.”

“The score itself takes several of these original piano works by Claude Debussy as its starting point, and pianist and mezzo soprano Susan Legg and I constructed an entire cinematic and emotive musical landscape around them, interweaving original compositions and orchestrations along the way,” continues Baysted. “In some cases a single melodic contrapuntal line is isolated from the original and then extended, reharmonised, and expanded into a much larger scale cue to picture. In other cases, original compositions that reflect the musical language and style of the period take the viewer on a journey through the paintings and the narrative arc of the film’s main characters.”

Director Phil Grabsky commented, “The great thing about working with Stephen is that one ends up with a soundtrack that is infused with knowledge of the period but also contemporary, coherent and consistent with the film’s needs. In the cinema it helped make a good film better but, always the sign of a top composer, it was a soundtrack I found myself listening to for fun in the car.”

Renowned for his versatility, emotionally charged and expressively powerful music, Stephen Baysted’s acclaimed music scores have been enjoyed by audiences worldwide in a succession of award-winning films and video games including the UK’s recent #1 selling game Project Cars; the Royal Television Society award-winning Matisse: Live from the Tate and MoMa with director Phil Grabsky; the psychological drama Strange Factories; Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead: Assault; the international award-winning documentary Life Lines and Tim Pope’s Brandy and Pep.

Born in London, Stephen Baysted’s passion for music began during his school years singing, touring and recording with the internationally acclaimed Wandsworth School Boys’ Choir and playing clarinet in the London Schools’ Symphony Orchestra. Stephen studied music at Southampton University and at Dartington College of Arts, where he was awarded a PhD.

The Impressionists screens nationwide in UK cinemas from May 26 and in select US theatres on July 14.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJqCOdblha4

For screenings visit:
http://www.exhibitiononscreen.com/the-impressionists

For more information on the film:
http://www.seventh-art.com/the-impressionists-and-the-man-who-made-them/

12th May 2014

One of those days that seems a long way in the future – and then it arrives…   

Today I had the pleasure of hearing the letters of Matisse read by one of the acting world’s greats, Simon Russell Beale.  What a honour to meet him and hear him bring the words of Henri to life.  Simon even had a Matisse-style beard – obviously he had fully immersed himself into today’s role….  (Or was it for the King Lear that he’s filling in his spare time with??).   We had a good ol’ chat about classical music too. Hopefully all you folks saw his Sacred Music series about 5 or 6 years ago.  I’ll need to cook something up for Simon and I to do in the future…  After Simon had finished, I moved on to the narrative of the Matisse film. For this important role, we’d chosen Rupert Young.  My younger viewers will know him from Merlin. He is, as my daughter explains, the knight that never dies.  Very nice guy and I liked his approach to the reading – nothing pompopus or arty – just good strong storytelling. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do….  I love the so-called business-end of production – it feels like every decision is a creative one.   All a bit scary now…only 3 weeks till air-date.   At least tickets are selling well. Click here to find a screening near you.

A Guardian article you readers might be interested in...

Grayson Perry shows us how the art world works - as a formidable cartel

Grayson Perry's opening Reith lecture - the first ever by a visual artist - hinted at the wholly undemocratic but highly dynamic nature of the art world, and it was fascinating

 

Click here to go to the article

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….