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So far, our story of the Low
Countries has been about a tangle
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of different cultures,
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a hybrid world from which stemmed
huge developments in religion,
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00:00:17,530 --> 00:00:22,290
politics, economics,
but, above all, art.
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From Bosch...
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to Brueghel...
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Van Eyck and into the golden age
of Dutch art,
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this small corner of Northern Europe
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produced a rich crop
of extraordinary images.
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At the end of the 17th century,
if Vermeer's great vision
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appeared to herald a continued
age of artistic brilliance,
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it wouldn't turn out that way.
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The next 200 years would see
a barren time for art,
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in which the Low Countries were
perhaps too comfortable,
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too contented to produce anything
daring or new.
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It was a time of decline
in religious faith.
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And in its place
the rise of trade, industry, money.
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It was almost as if
art had gone into hibernation.
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The Low Countries were awoken from
their collective slumbers
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at the onset of the 19th century.
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First came the great trauma
of the Napoleonic invasions,
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followed by the still-greater
trauma of the Industrial Revolution,
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which changed the landscapes and the
cityscapes of this region for ever.
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Dutch art would be dominated
by two towering figures,
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each of whom, in his own way,
attempted to fill the great voids
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opened up by modern civilisation -
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the dearth of beauty,
as they saw it, the death of God -
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by turning art itself
into a new kind of religion.
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Here in Belgium, this most
uneasy of modern nation states,
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a collectively questioning,
fractured sense of identity
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would be mirrored in an art
of feverish dream and nightmare.
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Early in the morning on Sunday,
23rd July, 1882,
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a 29-year-old Dutchman
climbed up
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onto the roof of his house
in a suburb of the Hague
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while his alcoholic prostitute
girlfriend and her small child
slept downstairs.
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On any other day,
this young man would have had
plenty to complain about.
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His parents have just disowned him,
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he has had two marriage proposals
rejected, he has been sacked twice
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and he has just come out of
hospital yet again for gonorrhoea.
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But on this day he feels happy.
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He looks out across the rooftops,
he completes a watercolour
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and then he paints the scene again,
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this time in the words of a letter
to his brother, Theo Van Gogh.
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"You must imagine me here,"
he writes.
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"Over the red-tiled roofs comes
a flock of white pigeons,
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"flying between the black,
smoking chimneys.
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"Behind this, an infinity
of delicate, gentle green.
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"Miles and miles of flat meadow.
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"And the grey sky is still and as
peaceful as a Corot or Van Goyen.
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"This is the subject
of my watercolour.
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"I hope you will like it."
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"I have found my work," he writes,
in another letter
from around this time,
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"something which I live for heart
and soul.
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"I have a certain faith in art, a
certain trust that it is a powerful
current that drives a person."
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Now, coming from anyone else in his
position - he had only been
studying art for two years -
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that might just have been
pretentious guff, but what
wonderful art he had been creating.
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Paintings and drawings
that really capture the lonely,
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atmospheric feel of the flatlands
at the edge of the city.
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Canals spearing towards
the flat horizon.
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Skies full of fast-moving
dark clouds.
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Early work, maybe,
but already it seems to hold out
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the promise of another
Rembrandt in the making.
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Van Gogh's life story
is the familiar tale.
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The unstable genius who, in a fit
of despair, cut off his ear.
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The life of the passionate misfit
has been filtered through
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countless potboilers and biopics.
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00:05:17,770 --> 00:05:20,450
In Vincente Minnelli's 1950s
version,
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Kirk Douglas ratchets up
the emotional volume
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as a restless caged animal whose
crippling depression
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turns to frenzied ecstasy
in the sunlit landscapes
of the South of France.
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In his most radiant pictures,
you can see
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Van Gogh's faith in nature as
a religion unstaged, uncut.
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And it's impossible to appreciate
where this passion came from
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without understanding his
early years in Holland and Belgium.
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Van Gogh hadn't set out
to be an artist.
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He started off in the priesthood,
preaching to poor coal miners
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in Belgium,
but he failed spectacularly.
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He had a stammer
and, despite his devotion,
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his Church superiors deemed him
unfit for public speaking.
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In Holland, he chose again to settle
among the rural poor,
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but this time not to preach
to his subjects but to paint them.
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It's a strange paradox
that Vincent Van Gogh,
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who painted some of the most
radiant, light-filled paintings
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in the whole history of art,
should have begun...
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This is his first major ambitious
figure painting -
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with a work that is so dark,
so murky, so copper-coloured.
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It's called The Potato Eaters
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and what you first notice about it
is this pervasive drabness.
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Van Gogh himself actually
liked the effect.
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He said, "My subject is potato
eaters and I want to paint them."
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In the colours of a muddy potato,
unpeeled, of course.
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He said he wanted the picture to
smell of potato steam and bacon.
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I can also smell the thick,
malty aroma
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of this peasant brew
the old lady is pouring.
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It's a viscous form of
chicory coffee, quite disgusting
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but all that they could afford.
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The picture was greatly criticised.
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The hands were said to be too
gnarled, the arms too long,
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the faces too caricatured,
the eyes too bulging,
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the noses too much like potatoes.
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But it was all intentional.
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Van Gogh wanted us to feel that
those hands reaching into
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that plate of cubed potatoes had dug
those potatoes up from the earth.
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Those hands have been shaped,
misshapen
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by all that manual labour.
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Although it's such a visually
unappealing, unappetising,
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literally copper-coloured murk
of a picture,
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Van Gogh did continue to regard it
through his life as "one of the
best things I have done".
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And I do think it is an extremely
significant picture
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in the context of his whole
career, because it establishes,
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right from the outset,
what he's all about as a painter.
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00:09:02,250 --> 00:09:05,730
What mattered to Van Gogh
throughout his life
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was not sophisticated technique.
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He wanted to re-make in paint
the intensity
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and violence of his own feelings.
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And to arouse those feelings
in his audience.
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Van Gogh's later French pictures
might look very different
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from his early work,
but they, too, use a form
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of self-conscious exaggeration,
an ecstatic version of caricature.
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It's an attempt to forge a kind of
new religion for the common man,
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for the potato eaters of this world.
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Everyday experiences of field
and flower
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become visions of divine beauty.
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And it would reach a climax
in his most famous subject of all.
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Van Gogh had left Holland simply
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because it was too gloomy
for an artist trying to find God,
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00:10:03,810 --> 00:10:08,530
trying to find some sense of
transcendence in the natural world.
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Too much rain, too much shadow,
too much darkness.
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00:10:10,730 --> 00:10:13,810
That's why he went
to the South of France.
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00:10:13,810 --> 00:10:17,450
In the South of France,
he felt illuminated by the sun.
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00:10:17,450 --> 00:10:22,130
He said, "Suddenly, nature's
colours sing to me."
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He felt that he had never seen
the colours of nature before.
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He felt that he'd found what
he was looking for
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and I think the sunflower
was so important to him because...
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it was a plant that seemed to him
to have somehow taken into itself,
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kept, preserved, all that radiance,
all that colour.
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It was as if he was
looking at the sun itself when he
looked at these blooms
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and he painted these pictures
in a kind of storm of enthusiasm.
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He wrote to Theo, his brother,
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to say that, "I am painting with
the energy of a Marseillais
eating bouillabaisse."
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Always the food metaphors.
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And this is almost a picture
that you could eat.
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00:11:02,890 --> 00:11:04,850
It's as if it's been painted
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in that Provencal mayonnaise
they call aioli,
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that hot, peppery,
garlic-infused mayonnaise.
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Van Gogh also said that
"the sunflower is mine, in a way".
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Why was it his?
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Well, I think he knew...
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he knew that this life, his career
was going to be a short one,
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00:11:25,210 --> 00:11:28,010
and, my goodness, how short it was.
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His career was like a comet
flashing across the sky.
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He compressed into just five years
of a career
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what most other artists would spend
perhaps 40 years creating
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and I think that is what he's
depicting when he depicts
the sunflower.
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He's depicting his sense
of himself, this rapid rise.
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This one seems anthropomorphised.
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It could be an outraged eye
staring into space.
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And these others, these are
cut flowers. We see them falling.
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It is as if the whole of
Van Gogh's life
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is encapsulated
in this one picture.
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He's signed it "Vincent"...
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in that wonderful mauve colour,
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"Vincent" on the vase, as if to say,
"This is me, this is who I was."
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Van Gogh's message was always
destined to fall on stony ground.
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In the early years
of the 20th century,
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Holland became a nation of ever more
practical people.
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They weren't looking for God.
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They were looking for market
opportunities.
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In a fragile sea-level world,
nature had always been something
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to be conquered and tamed,
rather than swooned over.
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The Dutch were carving out
their own space in the modern
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global economy by pioneering what's
now called agribusiness,
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leading the way in the export of
lucrative farm produce
and flower bulbs.
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Almost half the world's cut flowers
are still sold
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from their great flower auctions.
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Everything that made
Van Gogh despair
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of his fellow countrymen
is still true of Holland today.
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But Van Gogh wouldn't be
entirely without influence
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in 20th-century Holland.
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The seeds he had sown
would bear fruit - at least,
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in the rarefied arena of modern art.
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In the summer of 1905, 16 years
after his death, the Dutch paid
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belated tribute to Van Gogh with
a vast exhibition of his work.
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Among the visitors was a
little-known Dutch landscape artist
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called Piet Mondriaan.
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Until now, Mondriaan hadn't been
thought a huge talent.
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He had spent his early years
creating
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a group of intriguingly stylised...
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symbolically charged...
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moody, rather murky landscapes.
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Now, if you want to understand
the incendiary effect
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that Van Gogh's art
had on the young Piet Mondriaan,
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there's no better place to start
than here. This is his early work.
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Low-toned, slightly melancholic,
slightly mystical landscapes
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painted 1905, 1906, 1907,
but then, look!
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HE IMITATES BURST OF FLAME
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It's as if someone has lit a match
and set fire to the world.
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This is how Mondriaan sees reality
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after he's seen
Van Gogh's paintings.
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Skies that seem to be alive
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with some kind of strange
electrical charge,
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00:15:09,370 --> 00:15:12,650
but what's
interesting about Mondriaan
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is that he is different
from van Gogh.
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He's fallen under the influence
of the philosophical ideas
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of a movement known as Theosophy.
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He has come to believe that matter
is the enemy of spirit,
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so, for example, while van Gogh
might have said,
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"Oh, I want to paint sunflowers
that feel like you could eat them,
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"like a blob of mayonnaise,"
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that's not at all
Mondriaan's ambition.
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He would never have compared
one of his paintings to food.
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What he's looking at,
what he's looking for,
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is some kind of mysterious
spiritual essence of reality
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that he feels lies
beyond the visible appearance.
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So his visual adventure will take
him to completely different worlds.
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Like Van Gogh before him,
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00:16:07,650 --> 00:16:11,290
Mondriaan felt
he had to get out of Holland.
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00:16:11,290 --> 00:16:14,210
In 1911 he set up studio
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at the heart
of the international art scene.
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Paris.
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00:16:20,410 --> 00:16:24,810
In the early 20th century,
the city was a magnet for artists
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wanting to be
part of the avant-garde.
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Instability in Europe had fuelled
a mood of creative rebellion,
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00:16:32,930 --> 00:16:38,010
with radical breakthroughs
in all forms of artistic expression.
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In this heated atmosphere,
Picasso and Braque created Cubism
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00:16:43,610 --> 00:16:48,090
and Mondriaan fell completely
under its spell.
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From now on,
Mondriaan would still paint nature,
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00:16:55,930 --> 00:16:58,730
but his individual tree
starts to dissolve
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into a Cubist kaleidoscope
of muted forms.
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00:17:02,850 --> 00:17:07,370
To express the universal,
abstract nature of "tree".
231
00:17:09,570 --> 00:17:12,570
As he squares off his environment,
232
00:17:12,570 --> 00:17:16,730
Mondriaan moves closer
to grid-form abstraction,
233
00:17:16,730 --> 00:17:19,810
but he's not there yet.
234
00:17:19,810 --> 00:17:23,970
That style-defining revelation would
come not from Paris,
235
00:17:23,970 --> 00:17:26,330
but almost by accident,
236
00:17:26,330 --> 00:17:30,530
from the weather-battered dunes
of Holland's North Sea coast.
237
00:17:36,290 --> 00:17:41,250
When the great breakthrough came,
chance played a large part.
238
00:17:41,250 --> 00:17:44,250
Mondriaan was actually
living in Paris,
239
00:17:44,250 --> 00:17:46,690
to be at the centre of modern art.
240
00:17:46,690 --> 00:17:49,810
He got word that his father was ill
and he came to Holland
241
00:17:49,810 --> 00:17:53,610
on what was supposed to be a short
visit, but then the war broke out.
242
00:17:53,610 --> 00:17:56,370
He couldn't leave the country,
so what did he do?
243
00:17:56,370 --> 00:18:00,170
He came here to Domburg beach.
244
00:18:00,170 --> 00:18:02,170
He had almost no money,
245
00:18:02,170 --> 00:18:05,650
just a stump of charcoal
and a sketchbook.
246
00:18:05,650 --> 00:18:10,410
But he spent day after day
looking at the sea,
247
00:18:10,410 --> 00:18:13,090
studying the sea, studying the sky,
248
00:18:13,090 --> 00:18:16,570
studying the stumps of these piers.
249
00:18:16,570 --> 00:18:23,130
And the result was the art
that he considered the great change.
250
00:18:26,370 --> 00:18:30,290
Mondriaan would sometimes
sketch by moonlight,
251
00:18:30,290 --> 00:18:32,810
or even with his eyes closed,
252
00:18:32,810 --> 00:18:37,330
so determined was he
to find the essence of his subject.
253
00:18:42,570 --> 00:18:45,730
Mondriaan returned from the sea,
254
00:18:45,730 --> 00:18:48,530
like a beachcomber,
255
00:18:48,530 --> 00:18:51,530
with this.
256
00:18:51,530 --> 00:18:54,970
It's an astonishingly
abstracted, distilled,
257
00:18:54,970 --> 00:18:58,370
reduced vision of the pewter disc
of the North Sea
258
00:18:58,370 --> 00:19:03,930
beneath the pewter disc
of the grey Dutch sky.
259
00:19:06,450 --> 00:19:08,890
I think we can sense
Mondriaan's rapture
260
00:19:08,890 --> 00:19:12,930
before the glitter and the dazzle
of light on the ocean breakers.
261
00:19:12,930 --> 00:19:17,570
We can feel the motions,
the relentless motions, of the sea.
262
00:19:17,570 --> 00:19:22,810
We can sense mists, fogs,
coming in across the ocean.
263
00:19:22,810 --> 00:19:25,490
It's an extraordinary image,
264
00:19:25,490 --> 00:19:29,290
and it's one that takes us
to the heart of the difference
265
00:19:29,290 --> 00:19:32,370
between Mondriaan and Van Gogh.
266
00:19:32,370 --> 00:19:37,610
They start from exactly
the same position -
267
00:19:37,610 --> 00:19:41,610
the Church is gone,
it's no good to them any more,
268
00:19:41,610 --> 00:19:46,610
but they're looking for some
sense of the spiritual,
269
00:19:46,610 --> 00:19:51,890
some mystery,
some sense of deeper meaning.
270
00:19:51,890 --> 00:19:55,290
And they're going to a new Church,
271
00:19:55,290 --> 00:19:58,210
the cathedral of nature.
272
00:19:58,210 --> 00:20:03,890
But whereas Van Gogh is essentially
helpless before nature,
273
00:20:03,890 --> 00:20:07,610
Mondriaan takes control.
274
00:20:09,890 --> 00:20:12,850
It's the artist's job,
in his opinion,
275
00:20:12,850 --> 00:20:16,330
to see the structures,
to see the patterns,
276
00:20:16,330 --> 00:20:19,250
to see the deeper meaning
of the world
277
00:20:19,250 --> 00:20:22,610
behind the visible appearances
of the world,
278
00:20:22,610 --> 00:20:26,650
hence he distils, he purifies,
279
00:20:26,650 --> 00:20:29,490
he reduces, he purges.
280
00:20:30,650 --> 00:20:35,810
Now, he sees himself as the pioneer
281
00:20:35,810 --> 00:20:38,770
of a new spiritualised vision,
but...
282
00:20:41,570 --> 00:20:43,770
..how Dutch.
283
00:20:43,770 --> 00:20:46,250
How very Dutch this art seems
284
00:20:46,250 --> 00:20:48,890
with its insistent
horizontals and verticals
285
00:20:48,890 --> 00:20:53,170
echoing the Dutch landscape,
but not only that.
286
00:20:53,170 --> 00:20:58,530
Mondriaan was the son
of Dutch Calvinists.
287
00:20:58,530 --> 00:21:03,770
I look at this picture and I'm
instantly transported back 300 years
288
00:21:03,770 --> 00:21:08,290
to those very first images
of the purged Protestant church
289
00:21:08,290 --> 00:21:11,930
painted by Pieter Saenredam
in the 1600s.
290
00:21:13,370 --> 00:21:15,050
A white space.
291
00:21:16,610 --> 00:21:20,210
Lines, lines, structure.
292
00:21:20,210 --> 00:21:23,890
Nothing left in the church any more
but a cross.
293
00:21:26,170 --> 00:21:29,330
Mondriaan,
all he sees in the end...
294
00:21:31,290 --> 00:21:33,290
..a cross.
295
00:21:34,690 --> 00:21:37,970
But while Mondriaan
was embedded in tradition,
296
00:21:37,970 --> 00:21:41,410
it's also important to remember
that he was enmeshed
297
00:21:41,410 --> 00:21:45,650
in a very particular catastrophic
moment of modern history.
298
00:21:45,650 --> 00:21:48,290
This picture was painted in 1915,
299
00:21:48,290 --> 00:21:50,930
shortly after the outbreak
of the First World War,
300
00:21:50,930 --> 00:21:56,250
and if you look at this painting,
created in 1917,
301
00:21:56,250 --> 00:22:01,250
I think you can sense
the shadow of that war
302
00:22:01,250 --> 00:22:04,050
hovering over Mondriaan's spirit.
303
00:22:07,010 --> 00:22:10,090
Look at the way
in which the cross forms
304
00:22:10,090 --> 00:22:13,730
have become heavier, darker,
more oppressive.
305
00:22:13,730 --> 00:22:16,010
It's an image that, to me,
306
00:22:16,010 --> 00:22:21,050
very much evokes the mass graves
of the First World War.
307
00:22:38,890 --> 00:22:43,330
Mondriaan might not have had
a conventional belief in God,
308
00:22:43,330 --> 00:22:47,610
but he did believe in art
as a kind of divine force
309
00:22:47,610 --> 00:22:50,850
capable of reordering chaos
after the war.
310
00:22:52,490 --> 00:22:57,810
He was sure that he could change the
objective conditions of humanity,
311
00:22:57,810 --> 00:23:00,810
if only he could commit to canvas
312
00:23:00,810 --> 00:23:04,170
the perfect arrangement
of block and line.
313
00:23:10,930 --> 00:23:15,290
Mondriaan's stark grid compositions
are his trademark.
314
00:23:15,290 --> 00:23:19,730
The Dutch landscape
distilled, purified,
315
00:23:19,730 --> 00:23:24,010
into something that he felt
improved upon nature.
316
00:23:28,730 --> 00:23:32,250
It's impossible to overstate
Mondriaan's extremism.
317
00:23:32,250 --> 00:23:34,210
As far as he was concerned,
318
00:23:34,210 --> 00:23:37,690
he had invented the ultimate
language of art,
319
00:23:37,690 --> 00:23:39,610
perfectly abstracted,
320
00:23:39,610 --> 00:23:43,130
reduced to the perfect
combination of colours and forms.
321
00:23:43,130 --> 00:23:46,970
But for him
that was just the beginning.
322
00:23:46,970 --> 00:23:50,610
His pictures were blueprints
for the world.
323
00:23:50,610 --> 00:23:54,330
And if the world took up the message
embedded in the pictures
324
00:23:54,330 --> 00:23:57,810
then art itself
would no longer be necessary.
325
00:23:57,810 --> 00:24:01,290
We would have entered
the final millennium
326
00:24:01,290 --> 00:24:04,050
of absolute understanding
and enlightenment.
327
00:24:08,450 --> 00:24:11,530
Sensing that most of his fellow
Dutch countrymen
328
00:24:11,530 --> 00:24:16,050
were too level-headed
to take to his dogmatic idealism,
329
00:24:16,050 --> 00:24:19,290
Mondriaan sought out
like-minded artists
330
00:24:19,290 --> 00:24:23,570
and formed an extremist group.
331
00:24:23,570 --> 00:24:26,410
He took up the role
of theorist-in-chief
332
00:24:26,410 --> 00:24:28,450
and in the summer of 1917
333
00:24:28,450 --> 00:24:31,890
the group published a brazen
manifesto of their faith
334
00:24:31,890 --> 00:24:34,490
under the banner Die Stijl.
335
00:24:38,850 --> 00:24:43,530
Their new world order
would be one of pure abstraction,
336
00:24:43,530 --> 00:24:47,050
a rigid aesthetic
of angular austerity.
337
00:24:52,210 --> 00:24:56,370
In 1924 one of the members,
Gerrit Rietveld,
338
00:24:56,370 --> 00:24:59,610
attempted to turn
the group's hard-edged theory
339
00:24:59,610 --> 00:25:01,330
into a family home.
340
00:25:04,130 --> 00:25:07,370
So here we are,
the famous Schroder House.
341
00:25:14,610 --> 00:25:17,050
So this is the entrance.
342
00:25:17,050 --> 00:25:21,610
'Rietveld's Schroder House
is the dogma of Die Stijl made real.
343
00:25:21,610 --> 00:25:25,530
'It's got more straight lines
than a chessboard.'
344
00:25:25,530 --> 00:25:30,610
Everything framed as if
in a Mondriaan composition.
345
00:25:30,610 --> 00:25:33,490
When you open the window
in the maid's room
346
00:25:33,490 --> 00:25:35,250
you get a double benefit.
347
00:25:35,250 --> 00:25:39,210
Light from outside,
and a kind of abstract composition
348
00:25:39,210 --> 00:25:42,290
like Malevich's
Black Square painting.
349
00:25:45,170 --> 00:25:47,810
The house was designed
nearly 90 years ago
350
00:25:47,810 --> 00:25:51,850
for a very forward-thinking client -
Truus Schroder.
351
00:25:51,850 --> 00:25:54,650
She loved it,
even while her children
352
00:25:54,650 --> 00:25:58,490
refused to admit
that they lived in the crazy house.
353
00:25:58,490 --> 00:26:00,570
I love this.
354
00:26:00,570 --> 00:26:04,810
Look, this is how you open the door
that takes you to the upstairs.
355
00:26:04,810 --> 00:26:08,090
It's like a constructivist sculpture
that you can activate.
356
00:26:08,090 --> 00:26:10,170
Here...we go.
357
00:26:10,170 --> 00:26:11,930
Whoops.
358
00:26:11,930 --> 00:26:13,770
(Up we come.)
359
00:26:21,890 --> 00:26:24,050
The floor's a painting.
360
00:26:26,170 --> 00:26:31,170
Or an arrangement of form
in Mondriaan primary colours.
361
00:26:31,170 --> 00:26:34,250
Primary colours
plus black and white,
362
00:26:34,250 --> 00:26:37,850
so red, yellow, blue, black, white.
363
00:26:39,210 --> 00:26:41,210
Here's the famous Rietveld Chair.
364
00:26:43,450 --> 00:26:45,410
I'm not allowed to sit in it.
365
00:26:47,850 --> 00:26:51,010
But I'm not sure that I mind.
366
00:26:51,010 --> 00:26:52,290
I think, um...
367
00:26:54,570 --> 00:26:57,850
HE CHUCKLES
There is something about this house
368
00:26:57,850 --> 00:27:02,050
that you feel you somehow need to
evolve yourself as a human being,
369
00:27:02,050 --> 00:27:04,450
you need to evolve
into a higher form,
370
00:27:04,450 --> 00:27:07,410
perhaps something
a little bit more Cubistic,
371
00:27:07,410 --> 00:27:09,970
something a bit more angular,
you know?
372
00:27:09,970 --> 00:27:15,530
When the day comes that human beings
have evolved cubical buttocks
373
00:27:15,530 --> 00:27:17,970
then we can all sit
on chairs like these.
374
00:27:19,970 --> 00:27:21,490
Ah!
375
00:27:23,650 --> 00:27:25,490
So there is one concession
376
00:27:25,490 --> 00:27:29,730
to the organically rounded shape
of the human form.
377
00:27:29,730 --> 00:27:33,370
The toilet. Bodily functions
are allowed in the Rietveld House.
378
00:27:36,250 --> 00:27:41,530
And what I love about the space
is it's totally modernist,
379
00:27:41,530 --> 00:27:45,210
it's totally original,
it's stark, it's extraordinary,
380
00:27:45,210 --> 00:27:51,490
there's a window that opens,
if I can master the mechanism,
381
00:27:51,490 --> 00:27:53,890
like a cantilever.
382
00:27:53,890 --> 00:27:58,730
It goes straight out into space,
383
00:27:58,730 --> 00:28:01,970
thrusting another pictorial,
384
00:28:01,970 --> 00:28:06,010
Rietveldian rectangle
into the world.
385
00:28:06,010 --> 00:28:11,610
Although it's so modern, although
it's so cubistic, futuristic,
386
00:28:11,610 --> 00:28:15,250
Mondriaan-ist, it's also very Dutch
387
00:28:15,250 --> 00:28:19,690
because the whole space
has the feeling of a ship,
388
00:28:19,690 --> 00:28:23,770
of the boat, where one thing
folds out into another,
389
00:28:23,770 --> 00:28:28,730
maximum use is made of space,
and what is a boat to a Dutchman?
390
00:28:28,730 --> 00:28:33,090
A boat is something
you embark on an adventure in.
391
00:28:36,130 --> 00:28:37,850
It's wonderful.
392
00:28:49,370 --> 00:28:54,130
Today the great Die Stijl house
has a slightly sad air,
393
00:28:54,130 --> 00:28:57,770
marooned as modern Utrecht
passes noisily by.
394
00:28:59,730 --> 00:29:02,810
The movement broke up in the 1930s.
395
00:29:02,810 --> 00:29:05,690
And sensing that his own ideas
were too extreme
396
00:29:05,690 --> 00:29:08,890
truly to enchant
the pragmatic people of Holland,
397
00:29:08,890 --> 00:29:12,130
Mondriaan took his dreams elsewhere.
398
00:29:17,370 --> 00:29:20,130
New York thrilled Mondrian.
399
00:29:20,130 --> 00:29:26,330
He saw it as a miraculous city-sized
realisation of all his ideals.
400
00:29:26,330 --> 00:29:31,330
A whole living environment
modelled on grid-form composition,
401
00:29:31,330 --> 00:29:36,690
skyscraper and block, clean, sharp
opposing verticals and horizontals.
402
00:29:38,570 --> 00:29:41,370
But it was different
from his paintings, too.
403
00:29:41,370 --> 00:29:44,210
More mobile. More jazzy.
404
00:29:44,210 --> 00:29:46,490
A city constantly on the move.
405
00:29:50,530 --> 00:29:54,490
And this is the result
of that bombardment of energy.
406
00:29:54,490 --> 00:29:58,010
He was nearly 70
when he turned away from nature
407
00:29:58,010 --> 00:30:01,770
towards Manhattan
and its taxi-cab buzzing grid.
408
00:30:04,370 --> 00:30:07,370
It was to be Mondrian's
very last composition.
409
00:30:07,370 --> 00:30:10,050
His funeral march.
410
00:30:10,050 --> 00:30:12,650
But how full of life!
411
00:30:12,650 --> 00:30:15,530
He called it
Victory Boogie-woogie.
412
00:30:24,490 --> 00:30:27,250
Mondriaan was the great exile.
413
00:30:27,250 --> 00:30:31,250
But his spirit does live on
throughout Holland,
414
00:30:31,250 --> 00:30:34,290
sometimes in surprising places.
415
00:30:34,290 --> 00:30:39,250
Dutch commerce in particular
operates like a well-oiled
416
00:30:39,250 --> 00:30:40,890
Mondriaan machine.
417
00:30:42,730 --> 00:30:45,210
In Rotterdam's vast
international port,
418
00:30:45,210 --> 00:30:49,570
each colour-coded unit
is wedged with perfect economy
419
00:30:49,570 --> 00:30:55,410
into an ever-shifting chequerboard
of transaction and exchange.
420
00:30:55,410 --> 00:31:00,730
It is a Mondriaan but with
the spirituality stripped out.
421
00:31:00,730 --> 00:31:03,650
Container boogie-woogie.
422
00:31:07,250 --> 00:31:10,970
But what of modern Holland's
neighbour?
423
00:31:10,970 --> 00:31:18,410
We mustn't forget Belgium, though
it seems, over the years, many have.
424
00:31:18,410 --> 00:31:20,490
Until nearly 200 years ago,
425
00:31:20,490 --> 00:31:24,570
this region of north-west Europe
wasn't even a country.
426
00:31:24,570 --> 00:31:30,010
And the question has often been
asked, what's the point of Belgium?
427
00:31:32,450 --> 00:31:34,210
Well, there was one once.
428
00:31:34,210 --> 00:31:38,170
The kingdom was created
as a strategic buffer between France
429
00:31:38,170 --> 00:31:42,090
and Germany
and to keep Holland in its place.
430
00:31:44,570 --> 00:31:47,730
But its inherent internal
differences have made Belgium's
431
00:31:47,730 --> 00:31:53,610
cultural identity almost impossible
to define, if easy to mock.
432
00:31:53,610 --> 00:31:58,410
The French poet Baudelaire
started the ball rolling
433
00:31:58,410 --> 00:32:01,610
with his caustic remark
that Belgians
434
00:32:01,610 --> 00:32:04,370
are the stupidest race on Earth
435
00:32:04,370 --> 00:32:07,650
and the ball
has rolled on ever since.
436
00:32:07,650 --> 00:32:10,530
Now, the result of last week's
competition
437
00:32:10,530 --> 00:32:14,730
when we asked you to find
a derogatory term for the Belgians.
438
00:32:14,730 --> 00:32:16,330
Monty Python made them
439
00:32:16,330 --> 00:32:19,490
and those who mocked them the
subject of a Flying Circus satire.
440
00:32:19,490 --> 00:32:22,490
Some very clever entries.
A Mrs Hatred of Leicester said,
441
00:32:22,490 --> 00:32:25,090
"Let's not call them anything,
let's just ignore them."
442
00:32:25,090 --> 00:32:27,930
APPLAUSE
443
00:32:27,930 --> 00:32:31,970
And a Mr Singin of Huntingdon said
he couldn't think of anything
444
00:32:31,970 --> 00:32:33,930
more derogatory than "Belgians".
445
00:32:33,930 --> 00:32:36,650
APPLAUSE
446
00:32:36,650 --> 00:32:39,610
Belgium has long been
the butt of jokes
447
00:32:39,610 --> 00:32:42,650
and I think those jokes
stem from frustration.
448
00:32:42,650 --> 00:32:47,410
A desire to pin down this
un-pin-down-able country.
449
00:32:47,410 --> 00:32:49,930
This nation, if it truly is one,
450
00:32:49,930 --> 00:32:54,970
was brought into being
at the Conference of London in 1830
451
00:32:54,970 --> 00:32:58,130
and it was a birth
by Caesarean section,
452
00:32:58,130 --> 00:33:02,090
carved into existence by
the three superpowers of the day,
453
00:33:02,090 --> 00:33:05,170
the Prussians, the French
and the British.
454
00:33:05,170 --> 00:33:09,450
But, if you look back at the history
of this whole region,
455
00:33:09,450 --> 00:33:14,170
it used to be a patchwork
of fiercely independent mini states,
456
00:33:14,170 --> 00:33:16,170
and that sense of local,
457
00:33:16,170 --> 00:33:21,370
regional loyalty continues to
pull the place apart.
458
00:33:21,370 --> 00:33:24,770
The people of Antwerp famously hate
the people of Brussels,
459
00:33:24,770 --> 00:33:27,730
who detest
the people of Bruges in turn.
460
00:33:27,730 --> 00:33:31,890
It's not even a nation
united by a common language -
461
00:33:31,890 --> 00:33:34,970
they speak at least three,
and counting.
462
00:33:34,970 --> 00:33:39,730
If ever a people really didn't know
who they are, it's the Belgians.
463
00:33:42,570 --> 00:33:45,250
Ever since this nation was invented,
464
00:33:45,250 --> 00:33:49,450
it has been crippled by
its catastrophically complicated
465
00:33:49,450 --> 00:33:53,450
political structure
and the larger chasms of language.
466
00:33:53,450 --> 00:33:57,250
400 years the dispute has
gone on between the Flemish
467
00:33:57,250 --> 00:34:02,170
and the Walloons about who should
speak what language when and where.
468
00:34:02,170 --> 00:34:09,050
Even now, Belgium excels at making
everything as complex as possible.
469
00:34:09,050 --> 00:34:12,570
The only bilingual bit
is Brussels Central.
470
00:34:12,570 --> 00:34:14,890
The Flemish region is monolingual
in Dutch,
471
00:34:14,890 --> 00:34:18,530
although there are administrative
services for the French-speaking.
472
00:34:18,530 --> 00:34:21,890
Wallonia is a pure
French-speaking territory
473
00:34:21,890 --> 00:34:24,330
except for where they speak German.
474
00:34:29,890 --> 00:34:33,730
So it follows that the most
famous Belgian painting
475
00:34:33,730 --> 00:34:36,490
of the 20th century
should be a joke
476
00:34:36,490 --> 00:34:38,490
on the slipperiness of language.
477
00:34:38,490 --> 00:34:40,970
"This is not a pipe,"
said Rene Magritte.
478
00:34:40,970 --> 00:34:44,290
Of course it's not,
it's a painting of a pipe.
479
00:34:44,290 --> 00:34:46,290
At least we can all agree on that.
480
00:34:46,290 --> 00:34:49,570
This cultural knot explains
why Belgians are
481
00:34:49,570 --> 00:34:52,170
so drawn to the European project.
482
00:34:52,170 --> 00:34:56,450
It's a way of ironing out
the crumpled quilt of overlapping
483
00:34:56,450 --> 00:34:58,170
internal divisions.
484
00:34:58,170 --> 00:35:02,730
Opting instead for the appealing
fantasy of a united Europe.
485
00:35:07,010 --> 00:35:10,850
Belgians dream of being
part of a greater whole.
486
00:35:10,850 --> 00:35:13,330
They dream of not being Belgian.
487
00:35:16,130 --> 00:35:19,570
Could this be why the most
distinctively Belgian creation
488
00:35:19,570 --> 00:35:23,210
of the 20th century should
be a universal character
489
00:35:23,210 --> 00:35:25,290
of no identical personality?
490
00:35:25,290 --> 00:35:29,730
A fictional embodiment
of the European dream.
491
00:35:29,730 --> 00:35:31,290
Tintin.
492
00:35:31,290 --> 00:35:33,890
The Adventures Of Tintin,
what are they?
493
00:35:33,890 --> 00:35:37,170
Well, I think they are the one good
dream produced
494
00:35:37,170 --> 00:35:40,650
by this nation of insomniac
nightmare sufferers.
495
00:35:40,650 --> 00:35:45,410
The curiously sexless young
cub reporter in knickerbockers
496
00:35:45,410 --> 00:35:47,890
accompanied by his faithful
white dog Snowy
497
00:35:47,890 --> 00:35:50,010
goes on many different assignments
498
00:35:50,010 --> 00:35:54,170
but his real job is to make Belgium
feel better about itself.
499
00:35:54,170 --> 00:35:57,130
Never more so
than in one of the first books,
500
00:35:57,130 --> 00:36:04,170
Tintin In The Congo,
which has been the site of perhaps
501
00:36:04,170 --> 00:36:08,330
the dirtiest of all of Belgium's
colonial exploits.
502
00:36:08,330 --> 00:36:11,370
But you'd never know it
from this book.
503
00:36:11,370 --> 00:36:15,650
Tintin arrives, he is
greeted by a sea of happy, smiling,
504
00:36:15,650 --> 00:36:21,450
somewhat caricatured, black African
faces. He makes everything better.
505
00:36:21,450 --> 00:36:25,250
There is a nice touch
at the beginning of the book
506
00:36:25,250 --> 00:36:27,850
where he is accosted by agents
working for
507
00:36:27,850 --> 00:36:30,490
all the major newspapers
of the world.
508
00:36:30,490 --> 00:36:34,730
New York wants him,
London wants him, Lisbon wants him.
509
00:36:34,730 --> 00:36:41,530
He's the one Belgian that the whole
world hangs on his every last word.
510
00:36:44,530 --> 00:36:49,170
He's a one-man -
one-teenager - United Nations.
511
00:36:49,170 --> 00:36:54,610
An ambassador for the EU
before the EU was invented.
512
00:36:54,610 --> 00:36:58,530
He lands on the moon, he saves
the world from a giant asteroid,
513
00:36:58,530 --> 00:37:01,690
he plays a decisive, forceful,
514
00:37:01,690 --> 00:37:06,130
virtuous role in politics of
the Cold War.
515
00:37:07,250 --> 00:37:10,810
He does everything that Belgians
know they probably can't really do
516
00:37:10,810 --> 00:37:12,610
or be.
517
00:37:13,930 --> 00:37:17,490
There is a charming superficiality
about the Tintin books,
518
00:37:17,490 --> 00:37:21,610
mirrored in the ever-so-clean
style of Herge himself.
519
00:37:21,610 --> 00:37:27,130
A Belgian equivalent to the
anonymous style of American Pop Art.
520
00:37:30,930 --> 00:37:34,530
Roy Lichtenstein wasn't the only one
to declare a allegiance
521
00:37:34,530 --> 00:37:35,890
to Herge's work.
522
00:37:39,050 --> 00:37:43,610
Andy Warhol, who once said
he was bored of emotions and wanted
523
00:37:43,610 --> 00:37:50,090
to live like a machine, was a huge
admirer of the Tintin stories.
524
00:37:50,090 --> 00:37:54,170
The two artists met in the '70s
at the unveiling of Warhol's
525
00:37:54,170 --> 00:37:58,970
portrait of Herge as a kind
of frozen human comic strip.
526
00:37:58,970 --> 00:38:01,170
A cryptic compliment.
527
00:38:14,490 --> 00:38:19,650
Behind the heroic fantasies of
Tintin lurks a deep-seated fear of
528
00:38:19,650 --> 00:38:24,610
having to confront the bewildering
reality of everyday Belgian life.
529
00:38:27,170 --> 00:38:31,730
That job was left to
the masters of subversion.
530
00:38:37,490 --> 00:38:42,290
The most sustained assault on
20th-century Belgian middle-class
531
00:38:42,290 --> 00:38:46,850
existence was masterminded
in an anonymous-looking terrace
532
00:38:46,850 --> 00:38:49,450
in an anonymous suburb of Brussels.
533
00:38:51,610 --> 00:38:56,330
If the characteristic expressions
of Dutch modern culture
534
00:38:56,330 --> 00:38:59,610
are ecstasy before nature,
spiritual affirmation
535
00:38:59,610 --> 00:39:03,290
and the calm certainties
of structure and order,
536
00:39:03,290 --> 00:39:09,970
the Belgian riposte to all that
is disillusionment and bad dreams.
537
00:39:09,970 --> 00:39:15,210
And if there is one place that is
the great cave of Belgian dreaming,
538
00:39:15,210 --> 00:39:16,450
it's this one.
539
00:39:16,450 --> 00:39:19,490
Welcome to the house
of Rene Magritte.
540
00:39:26,570 --> 00:39:30,090
Born in 1898, Magritte spent
his whole adult life
541
00:39:30,090 --> 00:39:32,490
issuing mind-wrenching riddles
542
00:39:32,490 --> 00:39:36,050
from this perfectly bourgeois
Brussels townhouse.
543
00:39:42,330 --> 00:39:46,090
He didn't venture far to find
subjects for his pictures.
544
00:39:46,090 --> 00:39:50,090
They are filled with the stuff
of the domestic interior.
545
00:39:50,090 --> 00:39:51,930
But, as Magritte said,
546
00:39:51,930 --> 00:39:58,610
he was determined to make the most
familiar objects scream aloud.
547
00:39:58,610 --> 00:40:02,770
Much like those Dutch seekers
after higher truth,
548
00:40:02,770 --> 00:40:04,930
Van Gogh and Mondriaan,
549
00:40:04,930 --> 00:40:11,090
Magritte seems to place us
on the threshold of another world.
550
00:40:11,090 --> 00:40:14,370
Everywhere you look in Magritte's
world, there is a sense of mystery
551
00:40:14,370 --> 00:40:15,650
and with it, I think,
552
00:40:15,650 --> 00:40:19,930
an after-echo of spiritual yearning
for transformation,
553
00:40:19,930 --> 00:40:25,090
for transubstantiation, even...
HE PLAYS A NOTE
554
00:40:25,090 --> 00:40:27,650
..celestial harmony?
555
00:40:27,650 --> 00:40:31,530
But, whereas Mondrian
really did try to find
556
00:40:31,530 --> 00:40:35,610
an alternative religion
in the everyday world,
557
00:40:35,610 --> 00:40:38,170
even as Magritte recognised
558
00:40:38,170 --> 00:40:42,570
the desire for transcendence
he made a mockery of it.
559
00:40:42,570 --> 00:40:48,370
And, yes, in his parody visions of
paradise, eternal life is possible.
560
00:40:48,370 --> 00:40:51,370
But only if you employ
a taxidermist.
561
00:40:58,930 --> 00:41:04,610
The artist who had his Pomeranian
dog stuffed stayed in character.
562
00:41:04,610 --> 00:41:07,370
Magritte lived the part
of the conventional Belgian
563
00:41:07,370 --> 00:41:08,810
whose life he mocked.
564
00:41:11,930 --> 00:41:16,290
He understood the deep uncertainty
that his contemporaries felt
565
00:41:16,290 --> 00:41:18,650
in the first half
of the 20th century
566
00:41:18,650 --> 00:41:22,050
and he embodied it
in picture puzzle form.
567
00:41:32,610 --> 00:41:36,930
In the gloomy chambers
of the Magritte Museum
568
00:41:36,930 --> 00:41:42,290
his pictures hang
like spotlit provocations.
569
00:41:42,290 --> 00:41:46,730
Common sense is trifled with,
laws of gravity defied.
570
00:41:46,730 --> 00:41:50,250
Everything seems
the wrong way round.
571
00:41:50,250 --> 00:41:54,370
Front and back. Day and night.
572
00:42:03,370 --> 00:42:08,690
Magritte painted more
than 20 versions of this image
573
00:42:08,690 --> 00:42:17,050
which he called The Empire...or
sometimes The Dominion Of Lights.
574
00:42:17,050 --> 00:42:22,610
It clearly obsessed him, but why?
What's it an image of?
575
00:42:22,610 --> 00:42:28,210
I think it's an image of a moment,
a mood an attitude.
576
00:42:28,210 --> 00:42:33,370
It's the magic hour.
It's that threshold moment.
577
00:42:35,970 --> 00:42:39,770
It's that moment
when the visible world
578
00:42:39,770 --> 00:42:44,250
seems to tremble
on the edge of invisibility.
579
00:42:44,250 --> 00:42:45,850
Light is turning to darkness.
580
00:42:45,850 --> 00:42:47,890
Mondriaan is obsessed
with this moment.
581
00:42:47,890 --> 00:42:51,290
Mondriaan painting and sketching
in the dark at Domburg beach,
582
00:42:51,290 --> 00:42:57,770
waiting for the world to disclose
its inner truth, its pattern.
583
00:42:57,770 --> 00:43:00,490
Magritte, when he puts us
at the front of this image,
584
00:43:00,490 --> 00:43:02,850
is putting us in this
same frame of mind.
585
00:43:02,850 --> 00:43:07,170
We sit here or stand here
looking at this image
586
00:43:07,170 --> 00:43:11,450
and we become someone waiting
for the world to reveal itself,
587
00:43:11,450 --> 00:43:15,850
waiting for the miraculous
to unfold.
588
00:43:18,930 --> 00:43:22,330
But Magritte keeps us
waiting a very long time.
589
00:43:25,410 --> 00:43:27,130
And that's the point.
590
00:43:27,130 --> 00:43:32,530
Magritte's principal weapon is to
deliver everything but the answer.
591
00:43:32,530 --> 00:43:37,650
He gives us the paraphernalia
of a religion - the apparitions,
592
00:43:37,650 --> 00:43:41,050
the wonders -
but without the explanation.
593
00:43:41,050 --> 00:43:45,370
There's a very Flemish
particularity about his style,
594
00:43:45,370 --> 00:43:49,050
so sharp and so clear that you
really do believe,
595
00:43:49,050 --> 00:43:54,970
if only for a moment,
that it's raining businessmen.
596
00:43:54,970 --> 00:43:57,570
For all his self-conscious
surrealism,
597
00:43:57,570 --> 00:44:01,610
Magritte is the direct descendant
of the old Flemish painters
598
00:44:01,610 --> 00:44:03,130
of Christian miracle,
599
00:44:03,130 --> 00:44:06,850
Jan van Eyck
and Rogier van der Weyden.
600
00:44:09,330 --> 00:44:15,210
But Magritte is a painter
of sabotaged altarpieces.
601
00:44:15,210 --> 00:44:17,570
His wine is not the blood of Christ,
602
00:44:17,570 --> 00:44:23,570
instead the bottle that carries it
turns into a phallic carrot.
603
00:44:25,090 --> 00:44:27,010
But the centre of this bleak,
604
00:44:27,010 --> 00:44:32,450
nihilist universe is the apple -
emblem of the Fall.
605
00:44:32,450 --> 00:44:35,610
In Magritte's hands
it has become a trademark,
606
00:44:35,610 --> 00:44:39,010
a brand stamped on all of humanity.
607
00:44:39,010 --> 00:44:44,090
Redemption? Forget it,
especially if you're Belgian.
608
00:44:50,850 --> 00:44:55,770
While Magritte played games with
the bourgeois Belgian mind,
609
00:44:55,770 --> 00:44:59,930
there was another, less well-known,
more vulnerable Belgian surrealist
610
00:44:59,930 --> 00:45:02,370
who actually tried to
grapple with it.
611
00:45:04,650 --> 00:45:09,050
Paul Delvaux spent his life trying
to open up cracks in the psyche
612
00:45:09,050 --> 00:45:11,290
to see what might lie within.
613
00:45:14,290 --> 00:45:17,490
Delvaux himself began life
as a bourgeois
614
00:45:17,490 --> 00:45:21,010
and ended it is a wild-haired
bohemian.
615
00:45:21,010 --> 00:45:22,530
His art was a journey,
616
00:45:22,530 --> 00:45:26,130
leading from the safe subject matter
of his youth,
617
00:45:26,130 --> 00:45:30,810
the steam trains of
Belgium's Industrial Revolution,
618
00:45:30,810 --> 00:45:34,970
to the more troubling, sexually
charged work of his maturity.
619
00:45:37,650 --> 00:45:42,090
How did Delvaux get to
the destination of his later art?
620
00:45:42,090 --> 00:45:46,410
Filled as it is with curiously
transfixing glassy-eyed nudes,
621
00:45:46,410 --> 00:45:48,650
and ghastly reminders of death.
622
00:45:48,650 --> 00:45:53,130
Well, he bought a ticket as
a young man
623
00:45:53,130 --> 00:45:57,170
to a peculiar kind of fairground
attraction.
624
00:46:04,930 --> 00:46:08,130
You have to imagine yourself
back to 1932,
625
00:46:08,130 --> 00:46:12,130
it's the summer fair in Brussels,
the height of July,
626
00:46:12,130 --> 00:46:15,570
and the star attraction is
the Spitzner horror show.
627
00:46:15,570 --> 00:46:20,410
Display of skeletons,
anatomical models -
628
00:46:20,410 --> 00:46:25,290
the young Paul Delvaux enters the
booth through a pair of red curtains
629
00:46:25,290 --> 00:46:29,090
and he remembers what he sees
for the rest of his life,
630
00:46:29,090 --> 00:46:31,530
with the force of a revelation.
631
00:46:31,530 --> 00:46:36,210
Grisly displays of
syphilitic disease,
632
00:46:36,210 --> 00:46:40,410
models of human genitalia that have
been deformed by illness.
633
00:46:40,410 --> 00:46:43,410
As far as the Belgian authorities
are concerned,
634
00:46:43,410 --> 00:46:47,090
this is a kind of government health
warning - a way of encouraging
635
00:46:47,090 --> 00:46:49,610
Belgium's young men,
particularly soldiers,
636
00:46:49,610 --> 00:46:51,250
to steer clear of prostitutes.
637
00:46:51,250 --> 00:46:54,090
But to Delvaux,
638
00:46:54,090 --> 00:46:59,570
this young man brought up by
a cosseting mother, a rather prudish
father,
639
00:46:59,570 --> 00:47:04,610
the scene was like an eruption of
sexuality and death
640
00:47:04,610 --> 00:47:08,810
into his hitherto rather
conservative world.
641
00:47:08,810 --> 00:47:15,210
Almost overnight, the spectacle
triggered a sudden unleashing
642
00:47:15,210 --> 00:47:20,290
of latent desires and anxieties onto
his canvases.
643
00:47:20,290 --> 00:47:26,210
What's the deeper message behind
the strangeness of Delvaux's art?
644
00:47:26,210 --> 00:47:27,490
On one level,
645
00:47:27,490 --> 00:47:34,250
he's proclaiming in paint what
Freud had written in psychoanalysis.
646
00:47:34,250 --> 00:47:37,650
Telling us that, no matter
how normal we like to seem, we are
647
00:47:37,650 --> 00:47:43,050
all of us constantly subject to
subconscious dreams and fantasies.
648
00:47:44,330 --> 00:47:46,930
Ruled by thoughts of sex and death.
649
00:47:49,690 --> 00:47:54,810
That's why naked women stalk his
otherwise bourgeois precincts.
650
00:47:54,810 --> 00:47:58,450
They stand, or lie, for desire.
651
00:48:00,730 --> 00:48:03,290
In some of his wartime work,
652
00:48:03,290 --> 00:48:07,090
Delvaux's sense that we hide from
what we don't want to know
653
00:48:07,090 --> 00:48:09,970
becomes charged with even
darker meanings.
654
00:48:09,970 --> 00:48:15,530
If we don't control our drives,
what might we do to the world?
655
00:48:19,130 --> 00:48:22,850
In his sleeping Venus, apart from
the central nude,
656
00:48:22,850 --> 00:48:25,490
everyone seems to be
looking at something
657
00:48:25,490 --> 00:48:28,490
beyond the tight confines
of the architecture.
658
00:48:28,490 --> 00:48:30,690
Something terrible,
659
00:48:30,690 --> 00:48:34,970
to judge by their staring eyes
and agonised expressions.
660
00:48:37,490 --> 00:48:42,730
The skeleton has the air of a
messenger, bringing unwelcome news
661
00:48:42,730 --> 00:48:45,530
to the lady in the feathered hat.
662
00:48:45,530 --> 00:48:49,210
News of the goings-on at
Belsen or Auschwitz?
663
00:48:52,970 --> 00:48:57,810
After the war, and this
outpouring of anguish and guilt,
664
00:48:57,810 --> 00:49:00,610
did Delvaux have anything left?
665
00:49:00,610 --> 00:49:04,290
Some say he was so traumatised
that he spent the rest of his life
666
00:49:04,290 --> 00:49:10,770
almost sleepwalking - retreating
into a rather safe fantasy world,
667
00:49:10,770 --> 00:49:13,410
as if he couldn't bear
all that he'd uncovered.
668
00:49:16,850 --> 00:49:21,530
In the early 1950s, Delvaux embarked
on his largest cycle of paintings.
669
00:49:22,650 --> 00:49:26,210
'It's in a private home
in a gated enclave,
670
00:49:26,210 --> 00:49:29,250
'within one of Brussels' exclusive
neighbourhoods.
671
00:49:29,250 --> 00:49:32,930
'Only a handful of people have ever
seen it.'
672
00:49:35,370 --> 00:49:37,290
Helena. Hi. I'm Andrew.
673
00:49:37,290 --> 00:49:41,250
Nice to meet you. Come to see
the Delvaux. Yeah! Come in.
674
00:49:45,170 --> 00:49:47,290
Wow, it's straight in!
675
00:49:51,290 --> 00:49:55,130
I had no idea it was going to be
so big.
676
00:49:55,130 --> 00:49:59,330
You really feel like
you are in Paul Delvaux's world.
677
00:50:03,010 --> 00:50:07,370
I like this world, but I think
sometimes it can be strange
and weird.
678
00:50:07,370 --> 00:50:11,370
You feel like there's people
watching you and observing you
679
00:50:11,370 --> 00:50:15,090
and you don't know really what
they are thinking about you.
680
00:50:15,090 --> 00:50:20,010
So you like it but it sometimes
makes you feel uncomfortable? Yes.
681
00:50:20,010 --> 00:50:25,530
And also, like with the paintings,
most of the time the curtains,
682
00:50:25,530 --> 00:50:28,370
they have to be closed to
preserve the paintings.
683
00:50:28,370 --> 00:50:31,250
So it's not that easy to
live in a house like this.
684
00:50:32,850 --> 00:50:35,290
So when you do throw the curtains
open to the light,
685
00:50:35,290 --> 00:50:37,970
do you sometimes feel that
the figures in the paintings,
686
00:50:37,970 --> 00:50:40,770
like they've been asleep
and now they've come back to life?
687
00:50:40,770 --> 00:50:43,930
Exactly, they're quite happy to come
back to life!
688
00:50:46,290 --> 00:50:50,650
Do you know how long it took Delvaux
to create this mise-en-scene?
689
00:50:50,650 --> 00:50:52,970
It took him two years.
690
00:50:52,970 --> 00:50:56,210
So at the beginning it was supposed
to take six months
691
00:50:56,210 --> 00:51:00,090
and then he realised that the work
was much bigger.
692
00:51:00,090 --> 00:51:02,090
Two years!
693
00:51:05,290 --> 00:51:10,050
It's a cross between bourgeois
Brussels and the classical past.
694
00:51:10,050 --> 00:51:15,090
You don't really know if you
are in Italy or in antique Greece.
695
00:51:15,090 --> 00:51:19,410
I like the way they come from
the commissioner of the painting
696
00:51:19,410 --> 00:51:22,810
and his daughter,
we come down these stairs,
697
00:51:22,810 --> 00:51:29,570
we seem to go from the present day,
the 1950s, into the classical past.
698
00:51:29,570 --> 00:51:34,330
Then we're into the 19th century
699
00:51:34,330 --> 00:51:37,410
and then we're back into the
classical past
700
00:51:37,410 --> 00:51:40,490
and suddenly all
their clothes are falling off!
701
00:51:43,010 --> 00:51:46,890
But there's not really an expression
on the faces.
702
00:51:46,890 --> 00:51:50,130
They are all quite beautiful women
703
00:51:50,130 --> 00:51:52,730
but there's no expressions
and that's what's weird
704
00:51:52,730 --> 00:51:58,010
because we expect them maybe to smile
or to be enjoying themselves.
705
00:51:58,010 --> 00:52:02,010
It's nature and it's landscape,
but there's no expression
706
00:52:02,010 --> 00:52:05,050
so it feels like there's something
weird happening
707
00:52:05,050 --> 00:52:07,930
but you don't know what exactly.
708
00:52:07,930 --> 00:52:10,850
I often feel with Delvaux, what he
does is he takes the traditions
709
00:52:10,850 --> 00:52:16,650
of the past and surrealises them,
so you think you know where you are
710
00:52:16,650 --> 00:52:20,330
but you start looking closely and
you think, "No, it's not like that."
711
00:52:20,330 --> 00:52:23,770
It's almost the classical past,
but not really.
712
00:52:23,770 --> 00:52:26,610
Almost the modern day -
no, not quite.
713
00:52:26,610 --> 00:52:31,290
Almost a mythological painting,
but no, something's strange.
714
00:52:31,290 --> 00:52:34,810
But you could never get beyond
that mystery.
715
00:52:34,810 --> 00:52:38,290
There's something about the dream.
Something about the dream, yeah.
716
00:52:45,690 --> 00:52:51,410
While Delvaux was holding the world
at bay with those curiously numb,
717
00:52:51,410 --> 00:52:56,770
stunned pictures,
this already divided country was
falling further into domestic chaos.
718
00:52:59,890 --> 00:53:05,690
Since then, economic crisis has
widened the chasm separating
north from south.
719
00:53:05,690 --> 00:53:09,690
Fortunes have all but reversed,
with the once-prosperous south
720
00:53:09,690 --> 00:53:13,410
suffering terribly in these
post-industrial times.
721
00:53:13,410 --> 00:53:17,090
Inequality is
the rule in modern Belgium.
722
00:53:17,090 --> 00:53:24,090
The top 20 per cent of the
population earn almost four times as
much as the bottom 20 per cent.
723
00:53:24,090 --> 00:53:26,250
And many earn nothing at all.
724
00:53:29,130 --> 00:53:33,130
This is Charleroi -
once an industrial boomtown,
725
00:53:33,130 --> 00:53:38,250
it now has one of the worst
unemployment rates in
Western Europe.
726
00:53:38,250 --> 00:53:43,330
But against its backdrop of rusting
steel and cracked concrete
727
00:53:43,330 --> 00:53:48,490
flowers this raw, mesmerising
form of surrealist dreaming.
728
00:53:50,530 --> 00:53:53,930
For me, it's these yowling
walls of graffiti that speak
729
00:53:53,930 --> 00:53:56,530
most nakedly about the plight of
730
00:53:56,530 --> 00:53:59,770
this fractured, disillusioned
nation.
731
00:53:59,770 --> 00:54:05,930
What are they images of? Hope?
Despair? Defiance?
732
00:54:05,930 --> 00:54:09,770
Their chaotic co-mingling certainly
speaks of division.
733
00:54:22,370 --> 00:54:26,170
While Belgium worries and looks
within,
734
00:54:26,170 --> 00:54:30,170
what of its more confident,
more united neighbour?
735
00:54:30,170 --> 00:54:34,770
Where do you go to find the art
that's reflected the modern Dutch
identity?
736
00:54:38,010 --> 00:54:43,370
Well, the idea of art certainly
appeals to the civilised Dutch.
737
00:54:43,370 --> 00:54:48,770
For a while they paid their artists
a social benefit to produce it.
738
00:54:48,770 --> 00:54:50,530
'Most of it ended up here,
739
00:54:50,530 --> 00:54:54,650
'in a state-owned lock-up
in the outskirts of The Hague.'
740
00:54:54,650 --> 00:54:58,130
Nice big lifts.
What's the floor area?
741
00:54:58,130 --> 00:55:02,290
It's almost three football pitches.
742
00:55:02,290 --> 00:55:07,370
Automatic doors. Yes, sir.
Three football pitches! Yeah.
743
00:55:07,370 --> 00:55:09,690
HE LAUGHS
744
00:55:09,690 --> 00:55:12,490
As you can see, here is
one of the buildings.
745
00:55:12,490 --> 00:55:17,290
'The social welfare scheme
was set up in 1949.
746
00:55:17,290 --> 00:55:21,530
'50,000 works of art are locked
within its vaults,
747
00:55:21,530 --> 00:55:26,930
'brought out on rare occasions to
decorate the offices of government
officials.'
748
00:55:26,930 --> 00:55:29,530
We've got a lot of bequests,
a lot of gifts.
749
00:55:29,530 --> 00:55:33,530
So if a Dutch ambassador who's got
an embassy, he's got a wall to fill,
750
00:55:33,530 --> 00:55:37,810
he might come to you and say,
"Can I have one of these paintings?"
Yes, yes.
751
00:55:37,810 --> 00:55:40,770
And if he is very nice, you might
say yes? Yes.
752
00:55:40,770 --> 00:55:43,210
We have to say yes. OK.
753
00:55:44,730 --> 00:55:46,290
Oh, fantastic.
754
00:55:54,450 --> 00:55:56,410
It keeps coming.
755
00:55:56,410 --> 00:56:01,130
We've got a lady in furs peeking
out, still life, leather boots...
756
00:56:03,810 --> 00:56:06,570
Naked black lady reclining
on the American flag, why not.
757
00:56:10,850 --> 00:56:14,250
'By the time the money ran out
in the late 1980s,
758
00:56:14,250 --> 00:56:19,050
'it had subsidised a quarter of all
the artists in the Netherlands.
759
00:56:19,050 --> 00:56:25,210
'Paying them up to three times the
market value for their work to be
expensively shelved.'
760
00:56:27,890 --> 00:56:31,090
These are the works that are
currently waiting.
761
00:56:31,090 --> 00:56:36,050
They're waiting for someone.
This is a little bit like
the orphans' home.
762
00:56:36,050 --> 00:56:38,250
They're waiting for someone to
adopt them. Yes.
763
00:56:40,810 --> 00:56:42,410
These poor little art children.
764
00:56:45,610 --> 00:56:50,890
'This must be the largest
Euro mountain of unwanted art
in existence.
765
00:56:50,890 --> 00:56:53,490
'What does it say about
a modern society
766
00:56:53,490 --> 00:56:56,250
'that it's willing to pay
lip service to art
767
00:56:56,250 --> 00:57:00,210
'and then manage to forget about it
almost completely?
768
00:57:00,210 --> 00:57:04,330
'What would poor old
Van Gogh have made of it all?'
769
00:57:06,290 --> 00:57:10,770
The quality is quite uneven.
Yeah, yeah. It is.
770
00:57:10,770 --> 00:57:14,090
We have 50,000 works now here, so
771
00:57:14,090 --> 00:57:18,250
not everything... Is going
to be a masterpiece! Yes, yes.
772
00:57:24,530 --> 00:57:27,010
Cultures constantly change,
773
00:57:27,010 --> 00:57:30,250
and it's my own personal view,
but right now I feel the Dutch
774
00:57:30,250 --> 00:57:34,850
are most at home with the practical
arts of design and architecture.
775
00:57:34,850 --> 00:57:40,930
And I suspect that's why their
galleries are so much more
impressive than their art.
776
00:57:40,930 --> 00:57:44,610
This gallery is by Rotterdam's
Rem Koolhaas,
777
00:57:44,610 --> 00:57:48,210
and what a very "cool house" it is!
778
00:57:56,170 --> 00:57:59,810
More than 2,000 years ago,
Plato declared that the last thing
779
00:57:59,810 --> 00:58:06,250
a republic needs is the
destabilising figure of the artist.
780
00:58:06,250 --> 00:58:09,730
Someone whose individual visions
ran counter
781
00:58:09,730 --> 00:58:12,730
to the communal efforts
of the state.
782
00:58:12,730 --> 00:58:15,650
I think that's true
of Holland today.
783
00:58:15,650 --> 00:58:20,850
What do the modern Dutch want?
Above all, I think
business as usual.
784
00:58:20,850 --> 00:58:23,650
They want their banks, they want
their container ports,
785
00:58:23,650 --> 00:58:29,370
they want to grow and sell
more flowers than anyone else
in the world.
786
00:58:29,370 --> 00:58:33,290
And I think it's that sense of
profound,
787
00:58:33,290 --> 00:58:39,970
collective enterprise that sets
modern Holland apart from
modern Belgium.
788
00:58:39,970 --> 00:58:44,450
And I think it's also what defines
the Dutch attitude to art.
789
00:58:44,450 --> 00:58:47,010
They know they've got to have
lots of it,
790
00:58:47,010 --> 00:58:50,890
because after all it's the mark of
a modern, civilised state,
791
00:58:50,890 --> 00:58:54,610
but do they really want to
look at it?
792
00:58:54,610 --> 00:58:59,090
Do they really want to think about
it too deeply? I don't think so.
793
00:59:07,290 --> 00:59:10,090
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