Channel 5 seems to have moved on a bit from its early days of low-brow smut and now has a very watchable arts strand presented by Tim Marlow. Last week he presented a programme about the Carsten Holler slides at the Tate Modern which included lots of access to the artist and regular visits during construction. I already really wanted to go and see this, but now I really want the catalogue as well.
Tomorrow he is doing a profile of Velazquez to tie in with the exhibition at the National Gallery. This was also the topic of last week’s Imagine programme with Alan Yentob. Before all the publicity surrounding the National’s exhibition I really knew next to nothing about Velazquez and now I am itching to get to the NG. I expect tomorrow’s programme to be even better because it has that magic ingredient – the absence of Alan Yentob.
Tim Marlow seems a lot more down-to-earth and straightforward than the usual arts presenters, but still knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I do hope his programme features the El Escorial palace. When I saw that on TV last week I could not believe that such a place still exists and immediately put Madrid on my list of places to visit. I feel woefully under-educated for knowing so little about Spanish history and art.
Feeling the same as you about Spanish art, I was browsing the internet (is there anything else to do at work?!) and came across a great website. It looks like quite a new blog about art and culture in general but is written with a good dollop of humour. Tim M and Velazquez both appear, as well as other arty sites and comment etc. Check it out http://www.socultured.co.uk – I keep going back and always find it interesting. Does anyone else find Tim M rather hot?!
Looks like a promising start for a new site. Thanks for the tip.
The thing is that I hadn’t really thought much at all about Spanish art (Except Dali) until last week, but Yentob & Marlow have whetted my appetite.
And that is after me spending years turning a deaf ear to the kids telling me that TV is really educational.