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| Royal Academy to host Bill Viola video art showcase | Royal Academy to host Bill Viola video art showcase |
| (4 months later) | |
| The Royal Academy of Arts is to stage its first significant video art show displaying works by one of the giants of the genre, Bill Viola. | The Royal Academy of Arts is to stage its first significant video art show displaying works by one of the giants of the genre, Bill Viola. |
| It announced details of an exhibition that will bring together 12 video installations by Viola, once described as “a Rembrandt for the video age”, with an added twist of them being shown alongside Renaissance pieces by Michelangelo. | It announced details of an exhibition that will bring together 12 video installations by Viola, once described as “a Rembrandt for the video age”, with an added twist of them being shown alongside Renaissance pieces by Michelangelo. |
| Viola is a superstar of video art, making large, mesmerising, slow-motion works which are as moving as they are beautiful. His work is owned by some of the world’s leading galleries including Tate Modern and MoMA and his interest in spirituality and religion led to St Paul’s Cathedral commissioning him to create two permanent installations. | Viola is a superstar of video art, making large, mesmerising, slow-motion works which are as moving as they are beautiful. His work is owned by some of the world’s leading galleries including Tate Modern and MoMA and his interest in spirituality and religion led to St Paul’s Cathedral commissioning him to create two permanent installations. |
| The RA show is a partnership with the Royal Collection, which is lending a set of Michelangelo drawings. Martin Clayton, the head of prints and drawings at the Royal Collection, said the idea was not to suggest direct comparisons or influence – “we are not saying Bill is a modern-day Michelangelo,” he said – but to explore resonances in both artists’ treatment of the fundamental questions of life and its meaning. | The RA show is a partnership with the Royal Collection, which is lending a set of Michelangelo drawings. Martin Clayton, the head of prints and drawings at the Royal Collection, said the idea was not to suggest direct comparisons or influence – “we are not saying Bill is a modern-day Michelangelo,” he said – but to explore resonances in both artists’ treatment of the fundamental questions of life and its meaning. |
| The idea of the show dates back 12 years when Viola, at the suggestion of his gallerist, went to Windsor Castle mainly to look at the Queen’s collection of Leonardo da Vinci drawings. | The idea of the show dates back 12 years when Viola, at the suggestion of his gallerist, went to Windsor Castle mainly to look at the Queen’s collection of Leonardo da Vinci drawings. |
| Clayton said: “I got out the Michelangelos for him, thinking they had much more connection with the themes that Bill had been exploring throughout his career, and he was blown away by them.” | Clayton said: “I got out the Michelangelos for him, thinking they had much more connection with the themes that Bill had been exploring throughout his career, and he was blown away by them.” |
| From that came the concept of pairing the drawings with the videos, an idea that can finally be realised thanks to the partnership with the RA. | From that came the concept of pairing the drawings with the videos, an idea that can finally be realised thanks to the partnership with the RA. |
| There will be 12 video installations by Viola, dating from 1977 to 2013, which will be shown alongside 15 works by Michelangelo including the RA’s Taddei Tondo, the only example of the artist’s marble sculpture in the UK. It will be shown alongside Viola’s The Messenger (1996), which uses water as a metaphor for the cycle of birth, life and death. | There will be 12 video installations by Viola, dating from 1977 to 2013, which will be shown alongside 15 works by Michelangelo including the RA’s Taddei Tondo, the only example of the artist’s marble sculpture in the UK. It will be shown alongside Viola’s The Messenger (1996), which uses water as a metaphor for the cycle of birth, life and death. |
| The other Michelangelo works will include a display of the “presentation drawings”, which were made in the 1530s as a gift for Tommaso dei Cavalieri, a young Roman nobleman with whom Michelangelo was in love. | The other Michelangelo works will include a display of the “presentation drawings”, which were made in the 1530s as a gift for Tommaso dei Cavalieri, a young Roman nobleman with whom Michelangelo was in love. |
| They are, Clayton said, “the absolute high point of Renaissance draughtsmanship and I think will be surprising for a lot of people. People who know Michelangelo through the Sistine [Chapel] ceiling or the marble David might not be prepared for works that are done with the precision of a watchmaker ... he was pouring his being into these drawings a foot across.” | They are, Clayton said, “the absolute high point of Renaissance draughtsmanship and I think will be surprising for a lot of people. People who know Michelangelo through the Sistine [Chapel] ceiling or the marble David might not be prepared for works that are done with the precision of a watchmaker ... he was pouring his being into these drawings a foot across.” |
| The drawings were last on display at the Courtauld Institute in 2010 but have not been seen in such numbers since they were exhibited at a British Museum show in 1975. | The drawings were last on display at the Courtauld Institute in 2010 but have not been seen in such numbers since they were exhibited at a British Museum show in 1975. |
| The Viola works will also include his Nantes Triptych (1992), which has screens showing a woman giving birth, a strange figure floating in half-light and the artist’s own mother on her deathbed. The final works on display will include Viola’s Five Angels for the Millennium (2001) and Fire Woman (2005), which show rising and falling bodies in an exploration of death and the passage of the spirit. | The Viola works will also include his Nantes Triptych (1992), which has screens showing a woman giving birth, a strange figure floating in half-light and the artist’s own mother on her deathbed. The final works on display will include Viola’s Five Angels for the Millennium (2001) and Fire Woman (2005), which show rising and falling bodies in an exploration of death and the passage of the spirit. |
| The RA, this year celebrating its 250th anniversary, said the Viola show was the first in its history to be largely devoted to video art. | The RA, this year celebrating its 250th anniversary, said the Viola show was the first in its history to be largely devoted to video art. |
| • Bill Viola/Michelangelo at the RA, London, 26 January-31 March. | • Bill Viola/Michelangelo at the RA, London, 26 January-31 March. |
| Bill Viola | Bill Viola |
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| Drawing | Drawing |
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