Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:05,200
CAR ENGINE REVS
2
00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:17,400
MUSIC: Promised Land by
Elvis Presley
3
00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:22,440
This is a film about a place people
used to call the promised land.
4
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:30,160
They came here to follow their
dreams and change their lives.
5
00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:36,200
But I'm here to look for art.
6
00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:42,560
Because the spirit of a place is
always in the art.
7
00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:52,000
That's the Spiral Jetty.
8
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:57,040
It's a famous piece of land art,
made in 1970,
9
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:05,120
Smithson turned up here with a few
thousand bucks in his pocket,
10
00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:10,160
hired some bulldozers and created
this giant stone spiral,
11
00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:16,240
jutting out mysteriously into the
Great Salt Lake in Utah.
12
00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:25,360
The thing is, Smithson couldn't have
made this anywhere else.
13
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,080
It had to be made in these
conditions,
14
00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:32,240
by this lake, in this landscape.
15
00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:37,280
Because that's what land art is all
about, fitting the art to the place.
16
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,040
And that's what this series is
about as well.
17
00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:44,320
It's about how the spirit of America
18
00:01:44,320 --> 00:01:47,640
soaked into the art that was
created here
19
00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:49,720
and made it unique.
20
00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,080
If you keep going across America,
21
00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:51,520
you eventually get to the Wild West.
22
00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:54,760
And that's where I'm starting.
23
00:02:55,880 --> 00:03:00,920
Because the Wild West did strange
and powerful things to American art.
24
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:09,040
These days, with all the bad cowboy
movies that have been made here,
25
00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:12,680
places like this no longer
surprise us.
26
00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:15,200
They've become a cliche.
27
00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:19,280
But imagine seeing all this for the
first time.
28
00:03:23,920 --> 00:03:26,440
Imagine coming over the mountain,
29
00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:28,760
on your trusty mule,
30
00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:31,320
and this looms up in front of you.
31
00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:35,280
Your legs would have turned to
rubber
32
00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:38,680
and your heart would have gone
boom boody-boom, boody-boom.
33
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,040
Although most of the American West
34
00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,840
had officially been part of the
United States since 1803,
35
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:52,480
70 years later, it was still largely
a mystery.
36
00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,960
Getting there was dangerous
and difficult
37
00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:58,880
until, in 1869...
38
00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:01,760
..this thing came along.
39
00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:07,920
The iron horse with its relentless
gallop and its dragon's breath.
40
00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:12,120
TRAIN GROWLS,
WHISTLE BLOWS
41
00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,880
With the construction of the
transcontinental railway,
42
00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:21,520
the American West was finally open
for business
43
00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:23,760
and all kinds of shady characters
44
00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:25,240
piled onto the trains
45
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:27,840
to take advantage of the
opportunities.
46
00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:35,520
Gamblers, bandits, gold-diggers,
they all got on the train.
47
00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:43,240
And so, too, did those especially
dangerous desperados -
48
00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:45,600
the artists.
49
00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:54,040
This is Green River in Wyoming and
that is the so-called Castle Rock,
50
00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:58,600
made famous by this fellow here,
51
00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,400
Thomas Moran, from Bolton in
Lancashire.
52
00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:11,000
Moran was seven-years-old when his
father packed his family onto a boat
53
00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:17,240
in Liverpool and swapped the
Satanic mills of Lancashire
54
00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:19,400
for the promised land.
55
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:26,600
Little Thomas grew up to be a
talented artist and in 1871,
56
00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:29,840
just after the railways got here,
57
00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:32,360
he turned up in Green River
58
00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:35,640
as part of an official government
survey
59
00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:40,640
that had arrived here to map the
newly opened lands of the West.
60
00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:47,840
When Moran painted the Green River,
61
00:05:47,840 --> 00:05:51,360
this was already a squalid
little town
62
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:53,840
with a railway running through it.
63
00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,800
One of those feral frontier
throw-ups
64
00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:01,360
they called hell on wheels.
65
00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:08,160
But you wouldn't know it from his
sublime evocations of it.
66
00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:17,160
One of his tricks was to build a
scaffold from lightweight bamboo
67
00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:21,480
and from the top of it, he would
look down on the land,
68
00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:25,000
a God's eye view, that made the West
look even more awesome
69
00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,240
than it already was.
70
00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:36,480
The Indians he painted, trekking
through the valley, were invented.
71
00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:41,880
Where they're tracking is where the
railroad was.
72
00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:45,520
And as for those colours...
73
00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:49,160
Those burning yellows
and fiery oranges...
74
00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:54,040
..those were stolen, directly,
from Turner.
75
00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:04,480
This is Moran's view of Yellowstone,
76
00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:09,520
painted after he got back from his
first expedition to the West.
77
00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:14,760
And this was actually acquired by
the government for 10,000 dollars.
78
00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,560
A huge amount of money in the
days when
79
00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:22,120
the American government believed
in art.
80
00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:31,360
So persuasive was Moran's dramatic
Yellowstone,
81
00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:36,320
that this picture was the key reason
why, in 1872,
82
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:42,320
Yellowstone was turned into a
national park.
83
00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:46,120
The first in America
84
00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:47,920
and the first in the world.
85
00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:58,040
The Grand Canyon, painted on Moran's
second trip to the West.
86
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:02,520
And what you get from it immediately
87
00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:07,560
is how these huge western lands felt
so biblical
88
00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:13,120
with these scary chasms
and the towering deserts.
89
00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:20,400
The scale of it, the sense of
descent,
90
00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:24,040
reminded people of Dante's Inferno.
91
00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:30,520
When the critic from
The New York Times saw this picture,
92
00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:35,240
he described it as, "The most
diabolical scene
93
00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:38,040
"man has ever looked upon."
94
00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:48,160
And here, at the Autry Museum in
Los Angeles,
95
00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:52,640
made famous by the singing cowboy,
Gene Autry,
96
00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:57,680
they have the third of Moran's great
picturings of the American West,
97
00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:01,080
The Mountain of the Holy Cross.
98
00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,520
# On a hill far away... #
99
00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:09,160
In the wilds of Colorado,
100
00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:13,360
there's a mountain on which the
snow forms
101
00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:17,560
a miraculous white cross that
never melts.
102
00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:21,880
And which can be seen from far away.
103
00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,240
This was the hardest place to get
to,
104
00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:31,040
but Moran was determined to paint
it,
105
00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:35,480
because the miraculous white cross
on the mountain was such a perfect
106
00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:38,800
symbol of America's divine destiny.
107
00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:48,960
The waterfall and the raging
torrents
108
00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:53,600
were invented by Moran to heighten
the symbolism...
109
00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:59,120
..and to give his picture an even
bigger storyline.
110
00:10:00,680 --> 00:10:05,640
The holy waters, rushing down the
mountain towards us,
111
00:10:06,680 --> 00:10:09,040
baptising America.
112
00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:17,880
Moran wanted to hang his three great
paintings of the West,
113
00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:22,880
the Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon
and this, all together,
114
00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:26,360
like a giant altarpiece, a triptych,
115
00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:29,360
but Congress wouldn't lend them,
116
00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,200
so it never happened.
117
00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:32,800
Not in real life, anyway.
118
00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:41,160
But this isn't real life,
this is TV.
119
00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:47,400
And on TV, we can do what
Thomas Moran wanted.
120
00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:53,320
And we can do more than that.
121
00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:57,840
We can also jump ahead in time
122
00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:01,520
and see how the rhythm and the
dimensions
123
00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:06,560
and the sublime presence of the
American landscape
124
00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:09,240
soaked into the national art.
125
00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:17,440
These are by Clyfford Still, the
loner of Abstract Expressionism,
126
00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:20,720
and a man of the West.
127
00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:25,640
Feel his moods,
128
00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:27,280
look where they come from.
129
00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:34,800
And what about this,
from Jackson Pollock,
130
00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:38,920
hero of the American West,
131
00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:42,240
and this film's ultimate
destination.
132
00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:49,800
GUNSHOTS
133
00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:02,000
While the landscape painters of the
American West were imagining the
134
00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:06,920
awesome landscapes of the
promised land,
135
00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:11,600
a second branch of early cowboy art
136
00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:15,480
was turning its attention to the
inhabitants.
137
00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:23,760
Cowboys as we know them with their
gunfights and their bucking broncos
138
00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:25,760
were largely the invention of a
139
00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:28,640
fellow called
Frederic Sackrider Remington.
140
00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:33,680
He was America's most
popular cowboy artist,
141
00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:36,680
but you wouldn't know it from
looking at him.
142
00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:43,960
Remington was born in New York
state, so he was another Easterner
143
00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:46,200
with an overactive imagination.
144
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:53,960
His family wanted Frederic to become
something respectable.
145
00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:59,040
But he had the artistic gene in him.
146
00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:00,720
And it led him astray.
147
00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:07,720
Remington had been drawing pictures
of cowboys since he was a schoolboy,
148
00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:10,440
as many of us little boys do.
149
00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:13,280
But the rest of us grow out of it.
150
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:14,760
And he never did.
151
00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:21,280
During the Civil War,
152
00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:24,720
his father had been a colonel in the
Army
153
00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:29,320
and he wanted little Freddie to
follow him.
154
00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:34,320
But little Freddie grew up to become
big Freddie
155
00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:38,160
and, like me, he was too fat to be
a soldier.
156
00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:42,480
So all his fighting was done
on paper.
157
00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:51,200
He worked as an illustrator for
various books and magazines
158
00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:54,040
and he was immensely popular,
159
00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:59,000
largely because he had invented this
dramatic persona for himself
160
00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,480
as the man who really knew the West,
161
00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:04,760
who'd lived it and experienced it.
162
00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:12,120
Remington's paintings had a
reputation
163
00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:14,560
for being strikingly authentic.
164
00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,360
Full of insider knowledge and
accurate details.
165
00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:26,160
To me, they look like the covers of
cowboy comics
166
00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:31,440
and where Remington is much more
impressive is in his sculptures.
167
00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,800
This is his most ambitious horse
sculpture,
168
00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:41,360
it's called Coming Through the Rye,
169
00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:43,920
and if you know your Scottish
poetry,
170
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,000
you'll know that,
"Coming through the rye,"
171
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,280
is a line from a poem by
Rabbie Burns,
172
00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:53,400
later turned into a famous song.
173
00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:55,960
# Gin a body meet a body
174
00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:58,480
# Comin' through the rye. #
175
00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:00,640
# Gin a body meet a body
176
00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:03,080
# Comin' through the rye
177
00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,400
# Gin a body kiss a body
178
00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:07,120
# Need a body cry? #
179
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:09,440
HORSE NEIGHS
180
00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,960
The poem is actually pretty
steamy.
181
00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:16,880
A man meets a woman
in a field of rye
182
00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:20,240
and she's wearing a wet dress.
183
00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:22,840
Well, you can imagine the rest!
184
00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:25,800
# Gin a body meet a body
185
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:27,520
# Need a body cry. #
186
00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:32,560
That's why JD Salinger referred to
it as well in his celebrated novel
187
00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:37,360
about the awakening of
teenage sexuality,
188
00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:39,120
The Catcher In The Rye.
189
00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:46,680
But all that steamy stuff went over
Remington's head
190
00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:49,160
and what he actually shows us here
191
00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:54,240
is some cowboys coming into town
after a successful round-up.
192
00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:59,240
And they're riding straight at us,
through the rye,
193
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:04,360
whooping it up in this brilliant
blur of sculptural movement.
194
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:12,280
Look down here. Can you see how only
a few of the hooves are actually
195
00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:14,120
touching the ground?
196
00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:17,720
They're supporting the weight of the
entire sculpture.
197
00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:22,000
And this fellow round here,
198
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,840
his horse isn't touching the ground
at all.
199
00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,320
It's flying through the air
at full speed.
200
00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,840
It's a technical tour de force.
201
00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:38,880
Remington's sculptures are as
ambitious
202
00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:42,240
as any statues produced in the
Renaissance.
203
00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:49,200
But where a Renaissance bronze might
show you the labours of Hercules,
204
00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,720
or the battles of the gods,
205
00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:58,760
"Fat" Freddie Remington gives us a
bunch of whooping cowboys,
206
00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:01,320
heading for the saloon.
207
00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:14,440
There's just one more thing I'd like
you to see before we leave Cody,
208
00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:19,480
Wyoming, and it's this, the Irma
Hotel, built by "Buffalo" Bill Cody,
209
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:25,800
who gave the town its name - and
that museum full of Remingtons.
210
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:34,480
The Irma Hotel was named after
Buffalo Bill's daughter, Irma.
211
00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:38,400
And I've brought you here because
212
00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:43,480
somebody who's important for the
story of American art
213
00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:55,240
It was a fellow called
Leroy Pollock.
214
00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:58,440
Now, Leroy was a bit of a wastrel,
215
00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:02,520
but he did leave American art one
extraordinary gift,
216
00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:06,080
because it was here, in Cody,
Wyoming,
217
00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:10,880
that Leroy had a son and he called
him Paul Pollock.
218
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:17,440
Paul didn't like being called Paul,
219
00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:21,080
it wasn't western enough for him.
220
00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:24,680
He preferred his middle name,
Jackson.
221
00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:30,640
And since we're going to be hearing
a lot about Jackson Pollock
222
00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:35,280
in this film, I thought you should
see where he came from.
223
00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:50,600
Gunfighters and bronco busters were
not, of course,
224
00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:54,440
the first inhabitants of these
extraordinary lands.
225
00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:01,600
Long before "Fat" Freddie Remington
began imagining his cowboys,
226
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:07,760
there was art being made here that
was mysterious and profound.
227
00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:16,920
The Native Americans, who had their
lands stolen
228
00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:21,360
by the invading cowboys, didn't have
a written language.
229
00:19:21,360 --> 00:19:22,560
They didn't need it.
230
00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,880
They could communicate with
something far better than words.
231
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,560
They could communicate with art.
232
00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:40,080
All over the great outdoor museum of
the American West,
233
00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:44,360
you can find mysterious art
234
00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:48,240
carved onto the boulders and
painted onto the rocks.
235
00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:56,120
This rock here, it's called the
Birthing Rock,
236
00:19:56,120 --> 00:20:01,120
has 8,000 years worth of ancient art
incised into its stone by the
237
00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:07,320
various native cultures who passed
through here.
238
00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:12,840
Why did they choose this
particular rock?
239
00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:18,680
Perhaps because there's something
thoroughly mysterious
240
00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:22,080
about the way it's just plonked
down here,
241
00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:24,960
as if it's dropped from the sky.
242
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,840
There's art all the way round it
243
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,560
and these are called petroglyphs.
244
00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:39,840
They're cut into the rock,
245
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:44,840
so you scratch the outer layer of
the stone and reveal this brighter
246
00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:47,240
sandstone underneath.
247
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:53,120
It's called the Birthing Rock
because of this scene, here.
248
00:20:53,120 --> 00:20:54,640
Can you see?
249
00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,440
It's a woman giving birth to a baby.
250
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,360
But it's a breech birth,
251
00:21:01,360 --> 00:21:04,000
so the baby's feet are coming
out first.
252
00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:08,680
Why is it here?
253
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:10,800
What does it mean?
254
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,120
We'll never know for sure,
255
00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:19,120
but it must be something to do with
fertility and survival...
256
00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:25,880
..because rock art is always about
the big issues.
257
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,920
Up the road from the Birthing Rock
is another
258
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:38,960
dramatic location for
Native American rock art,
259
00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:42,520
the place they call Sego Canyon.
260
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:50,440
Most of the huge figures here are
painted onto the rocks rather than
261
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:55,920
scratched, so these are pictographs
not petroglyphs.
262
00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:03,480
All kinds of wacky proposals have
been put forward to explain these.
263
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:07,080
A particularly popular one is that
they show aliens
264
00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:10,400
who landed on Earth in ancient
times,
265
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:15,320
visitors from outer space come to
see if America was for them.
266
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:24,760
In a way, this mad aliens idea isn't
that far away from the truth,
267
00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:27,880
because rock art,
wherever it's made,
268
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,720
and you find it right across
the globe,
269
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,680
is an attempt to communicate with
another world -
270
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:38,040
the world behind the surface.
271
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:46,000
When we didn't know where water came
from, or where babies are made,
272
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:53,160
or what the sky is, when everything
was a mystery,
273
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:57,680
that's when art came to our rescue.
274
00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:05,680
Imagine waking up in the morning
8,000 years ago
275
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:08,680
and remembering your dreams.
276
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:11,600
Where have you seen the
things you've just seen?
277
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:13,520
Where have you been?
278
00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:18,200
There must be another world out
there, another reality.
279
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,080
And artists were special,
280
00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:23,720
because not only could they visit
this other reality,
281
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:25,920
they could describe it, too.
282
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:32,880
I don't like the word "shamans".
283
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:37,440
It's loaded with so much spurious
hocus-pocus.
284
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:42,600
But sometimes it's the only word
that will do.
285
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:48,840
The miraculous power of artists to
enter the dream-world,
286
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:54,000
and come back with images of it,
was a power like no other.
287
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:02,960
In the world of the ancients, art
wasn't there to decorate things.
288
00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,200
It was there to change them.
289
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:09,600
And even if we can't understand
what it's saying any more,
290
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:13,000
we can still feel its power.
291
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,640
And that's why American rock art has
been so influential.
292
00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:25,360
Wind the clock forwards to the age
of Abstract Expressionism
293
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:29,480
and you'll see its impact on modern
American art.
294
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,680
The paintings of Adolph Gottlieb
295
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,880
were a 20th century search for
ancient mysteries.
296
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:45,280
And look at the fierce art of
Jean-Michel Basquiat.
297
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:50,400
If you came across this scrawled
onto a rock,
298
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,760
you wouldn't be surprised,
would you?
299
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,280
After bumming around America
300
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:09,280
searching for work in Arizona,
California,
301
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:14,560
the Pollock family from Cody,
Wyoming ended up,
302
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:19,800
like so many pilgrims before them,
in the City of Angels.
303
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:27,000
Paul Pollock, or Jackson as he
became, went to this school here,
304
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,640
the Manual Arts High School,
305
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,120
from which he soon managed to get
himself expelled
306
00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:37,840
for producing a leaflet attacking
the school's sports department.
307
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:45,560
Pollock wasn't alone in getting
himself thrown out of Manual Arts.
308
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,960
A second delinquent was expelled
with him.
309
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:55,160
He was known in those days as
Philip Goldstein.
310
00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,760
But he too changed his name
311
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:04,000
and we know him better today as
Philip Guston.
312
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:11,760
The two of them had an art teacher
called Frederick Schwankovsky.
313
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:16,640
Now, even by LA standards,
Schwankovsky was eccentric.
314
00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:21,680
He had long hair down to here, wore
purple jackets and sandals,
315
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,720
and he believed in all sorts of
strange Eastern philosophies,
316
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:31,760
and he's the one who introduced
Guston and Pollock to theosophy.
317
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:39,320
The occult doctrine of theosophy has
been brutally redacted
318
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:41,200
from the story of modern art.
319
00:26:43,360 --> 00:26:48,080
Even here in California, it's an art
historical embarrassment.
320
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:53,960
No-one wants to believe that
theosophy changed anything.
321
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:56,360
But it did.
322
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,760
Actually, theosophy changed
everything.
323
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:07,680
Without it, abstract art would never
have happened.
324
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,400
All the pioneers of abstraction,
325
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,360
all of them, Kandinsky, Mondrian,
326
00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:18,240
Malevich, the Italian Futurists
Boccioni and Balla,
327
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:21,960
all of them were fascinated by
theosophy.
328
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:25,000
And Jackson Pollock was fascinated
by it, too.
329
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:33,640
This shady grove in Ojai is where
Frederick Schwankovsky
330
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,880
to hear the teachings of
Krishnamurti,
331
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:43,760
the Californian guru of theosophy.
332
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:50,840
Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin,
John Lennon.
333
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:56,400
They all came out here to hear
Krishnamurti speak.
334
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:00,800
So, what's theosophy about?
335
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:05,160
Well, frankly, life's too short to
go into it in detail.
336
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:09,120
To understand any of it,
you have to have read this,
337
00:28:09,120 --> 00:28:12,840
The Secret Doctrine by
Madame Blavatsky.
338
00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:16,080
And that's not something I'd wish
upon anybody,
339
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,800
especially not you nice,
sensible people watching this film.
340
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:27,000
So I've read it for you and tried
my best to comprehend.
341
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:32,840
The most important thing that
theosophy teaches
342
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:36,800
is that the universe has an
underlying order,
343
00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:41,200
that the stuff on the surface is
just stuff on the surface.
344
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:47,320
Below it, there's a deeper reality,
345
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,920
and that's what artists need to
show.
346
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:04,200
that there was a universal reality
beyond the visible reality,
347
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,040
and that only artists could see it.
348
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,360
And it wasn't just theosophy that
Schwankovsky
349
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:19,560
introduced to Pollock and Guston.
350
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,160
He was also a fervent Communist
351
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:27,920
with a passion for Mexico and
its art.
352
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:36,400
In Mexico in 1910, just across the
border from Hollywood,
353
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,440
so right under the nose of the movie
industry,
354
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:43,160
a real, live revolution had
broken out.
355
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,280
Pancho Villa, the notorious rebel
leader,
356
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:50,000
was even said to have signed an
exclusive contract
357
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,600
with the Mutual Film Company to film
him in action.
358
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,240
Pancho, they say,
359
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:02,240
would delay his battles so that
Hollywood's cameramen
360
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,880
could get there in time to film him.
361
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:12,200
Thus Mexico, its revolution, its
politics, its passion,
362
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:19,040
began to exert a powerful hold on
American art.
363
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:33,800
Mexico City, where your pulse
quickens as soon as the plane lands.
364
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,680
What an exhilarating city it is,
365
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,080
and what great art treasures it
holds.
366
00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:52,200
I love Rome, I love Venice, I love
Paris, St Petersburg, New York.
367
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,240
They're all great art cities.
368
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,720
But for sheer excitement,
369
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:02,080
for that raw artistic thing that
370
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:06,240
makes your heart go boom boody-boom,
boody-boom,
371
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:10,280
the art of Mexico City is in
a league of its own.
372
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:17,600
This is the Ministry of Education.
373
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:22,680
Painted in the years 1922 to 1928,
374
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:28,440
the mural masterpiece of
Diego Rivera.
375
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,880
This used to be a Dominican convent,
376
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:39,880
but after the revolution, it became
the Ministry of Education,
377
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:45,240
and Rivera was handed the entire
space, 15,000 square feet of it,
378
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,400
to fill with his
revolutionary murals.
379
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:58,080
They call this "The Sistine Chapel
of the Americas".
380
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:03,160
It's a display of ambition and
invention,
381
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,920
the like of which the New World had
never seen.
382
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:14,320
Rivera had travelled extensively in
Italy and he'd seen how,
383
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:15,880
during the Renaissance,
384
00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:20,560
the monasteries of Florence were
filled with frescoes.
385
00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:24,640
But this is more than a tribute to
the Renaissance.
386
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,280
This is an attempt to outdo it.
387
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:31,920
Anything Giotto could do in
Florence,
388
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,800
Diego Rivera could trump in
Mexico City.
389
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:44,600
All together, there are 235 fresco
panels in here
390
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:49,800
and Rivera single-handedly painted
most of them.
391
00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:58,400
Here's The Day Of The Dead,
392
00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:02,200
when everyone in Mexico gets
annually happy.
393
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:11,040
And this is
The Burning Of The Judases,
394
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:15,520
when unpopular politicians are
turned into puppets
395
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,160
and set alight in the streets.
396
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:26,960
But Rivera saves his best moments
for up here on the next floor,
397
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:33,280
where the gringos and their filthy
capitalism
398
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,360
come in for a fearful bashing.
399
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:43,080
This is called
The Wall Street Supper.
400
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:48,120
The rich bankers of Wall Street, the
Rockefellers, the JP Morgans,
401
00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:51,920
are seated at a capitalist dinner
tucking in
402
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:55,320
to the gold ticker tape of the stock
exchange.
403
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:01,160
And the culmination of it all is up
here,
404
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:05,800
the overthrow of the capitalists in
the Mexican Revolution.
405
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:10,840
Here's the battle in the trenches
in 1910
406
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:16,320
and then a few years later, handing
out guns to the soldiers,
407
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:18,480
there's someone you may recognise.
408
00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:26,200
Ah, yes. The proud and redoubtable
Frida Kahlo.
409
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:32,440
Rivera's wife, heroine of the
revolution,
410
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,760
handing out rifles to the rebels.
411
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:43,800
So, yes, it's agitprop, but agitprop
that thrills and delights.
412
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:47,560
When this was painted,
413
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:52,600
most Mexicans had never been to
school and were still illiterate.
414
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:58,000
Murals became the chosen art of
Mexico
415
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:03,040
because they spoke to all of
the people, all of the time.
416
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:13,920
And it wasn't just Mexicans that
painted them.
417
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,200
Visiting Americans were at it, too.
418
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:22,600
This faded whopper in the small town
of Morelia,
419
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:26,040
three hours out of Mexico City,
420
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:31,040
was painted by Jackson Pollock's
buddy Philip Goldstein,
421
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:40,360
It shows the forces of evil being
bashed up by the forces of good.
422
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:50,160
And, if we leap forwards 40 years to
the Nixon era,
423
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:53,480
here's Philip Guston again,
424
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:58,520
expressing his respect for his
president, Mexican-style.
425
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:16,800
Do you know when
The Star-Spangled Banner
426
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:19,320
became the national anthem of
America?
427
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:22,120
You'd think it was the 19th century,
wouldn't you?
428
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,920
But, no, it was the '30s.
429
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:26,400
1931.
430
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,720
It was originally a drinking song
431
00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:36,120
written for a gentleman's club
in London.
432
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:42,720
But new lyrics were added about the
land of the brave
433
00:36:42,720 --> 00:36:47,720
and in 1931, it became the
national anthem,
434
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:53,480
another resonant creation of the
American imagination.
435
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:01,040
So we've caught up with Philip
Goldstein, who became Philip Guston,
436
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:05,320
but what about his buddy
Jackson Pollock? What was he up to?
437
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:14,080
Jackson went through a cowboy phase
in his art as well,
438
00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,120
and had his high noon moment.
439
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,400
But he was a restless soul,
440
00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:26,400
and his cowboy imagination was soon
seeking other trails to follow.
441
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:32,280
His father LeRoy...
442
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:35,320
Remember him? ..had gotten a job as
a surveyor
443
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:39,720
and he'd take Jackson with him on
his long trips into the desert.
444
00:37:39,720 --> 00:37:43,560
And remember how Jackson had got
interested in eastern mysticism
445
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:45,800
with theosophy and all that?
446
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:49,800
Well, it was here in the desert that
he first encountered
447
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:52,440
the sand art of the
Native Americans.
448
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:58,040
With sand art,
449
00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:01,080
you make pictures by dropping or
dribbling
450
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,360
coloured sand onto the ground.
451
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:10,360
So, it's a physical way of making
art with your whole body -
452
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:12,000
an action art.
453
00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:18,480
So you can see straightaway what
influence
454
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,520
that might have had on
Jack the Dripper.
455
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:22,960
But not just yet.
456
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:27,240
First, he needed to go through
another of his phrases.
457
00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:30,720
What we might call his regionalist
phase,
458
00:38:30,720 --> 00:38:35,240
when he fell under the influence of
a powerful and significant American
459
00:38:35,240 --> 00:38:39,120
artist called Thomas Hart Benton,
460
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:44,160
who specialised in depictions of
rural America.
461
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:54,640
Rural America was a hot topic in
the 1930s.
462
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:58,640
A subject that stirred deep
emotions.
463
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:04,600
And Thomas Hart Benton was the
chief stirrer.
464
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,880
This was painted especially for the
Country Music Hall Of Fame,
465
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:13,840
a marvellous museum here in
Nashville,
466
00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:17,120
and it shows the origins of
country music.
467
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,840
It's like a Jamie Oliver recipe of
all the ingredients
468
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:25,720
that went into country.
469
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:28,520
A bit of gospel.
470
00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:31,040
A bit of banjo.
471
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:34,280
Lots of fiddle and guitar...
472
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:39,560
..and a big smoking train bringing
its chug, chug, chug
473
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,240
to the sound of country.
474
00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:49,920
And Benton knew what he was
talking about.
475
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,560
HARMONICA PLAYS
Hear that harmonica blaring out
476
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:55,120
and drowning out my words?
HARMONICA CONTINUES
477
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:58,600
That's Benton himself playing on one
of his records.
478
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:06,440
The mural was Mexico's great gift to
American culture,
479
00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:12,000
a way of telling stories that
everyone could understand.
480
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:16,480
And Benton didn't half pump them
out.
481
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:25,160
This one here was painted for the
state capital in Jefferson City,
482
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:29,320
Missouri, Benton's home state.
483
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:32,680
And it tells the story of Missouri.
484
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:37,720
The industry, the cornfields, the
fun that was had here...
485
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,080
..and the horror.
486
00:40:56,040 --> 00:40:59,640
I love the way he stood up for the
oppressed
487
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,880
and poked fun at the Establishment.
488
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:07,880
And the brain work involved in
planning all this is so impressive.
489
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:14,920
The way it unfolds around you with
these interlocking scenes.
490
00:41:17,720 --> 00:41:19,840
It's like a 3-D comic book.
491
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:25,000
We know exactly how he did it
492
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:28,280
because there's a film of him making
his murals -
493
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:30,720
and the process is fascinating.
494
00:41:30,720 --> 00:41:33,880
ARCHIVE: He first experiments with
rhythmic designs,
495
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:35,440
or dynamic patterns...
496
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:40,440
He'd start with a flow chart of the
mural's abstract movement.
497
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:46,440
No figures, just the rhythm he
wanted, the abstract underpinning.
498
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:49,560
He has a good, basic pattern.
499
00:41:51,720 --> 00:41:56,760
Once he'd got the overall rhythm,
he'd start sketching in the figures,
500
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:00,520
still keeping the abstract design,
501
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:05,600
but filling it with
recognisable shapes.
502
00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:14,400
Next, he'd make a sculpture in clay
of the entire scene.
503
00:42:15,720 --> 00:42:20,240
Position all the figures to see how
the light falls on them.
504
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:27,520
And when that was done, and only
then, he began painting.
505
00:42:27,720 --> 00:42:32,720
Putting in the colours, the final
layer, the icing on the cake.
506
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:39,680
So, all these great mural cycles
of his
507
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:42,560
have an abstract framework to them
508
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:45,600
lurking under the bottom of
the image.
509
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:47,600
You can't always see it,
but it's there.
510
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:52,400
And they're all painted with
egg tempera.
511
00:42:53,720 --> 00:42:55,840
And when he painted this,
512
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:59,920
his masterpiece in the
Metropolitan Museum in New York,
513
00:42:59,920 --> 00:43:04,240
it's called America Today,
the rumour is
514
00:43:04,240 --> 00:43:07,080
that he was paid with eggs.
515
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:09,240
Not money, eggs.
516
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:16,680
Painting with egg tempera is a
wispy, delicate and busy process.
517
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:24,440
The brush flicks and slides, dances
and twitches,
518
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,600
and there's a sense of perpetual
motion to it all.
519
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:37,160
Now, all these lessons about
starting with an abstract rhythm,
520
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:42,080
painting in layers, painting quickly
and wristily,
521
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:46,760
these were all things that Benton
was teaching his students.
522
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:51,600
And his students repaid him by
modelling for his murals.
523
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,360
Like this fellow here,
524
00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:58,920
who's whipped off his shirt
525
00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:03,200
and who twists heroically like a
Michelangelo slave.
526
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:09,000
That is Benton's most loyal and
celebrated pupil.
527
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:13,160
That is Jackson Pollock.
528
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:35,040
Pollock arrived in New York in 1930.
529
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:36,640
He was 19.
530
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:38,400
A hick from the West,
531
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:40,920
who wore cowboy boots and a Stetson,
532
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:44,840
and who strutted about Manhattan
like Wyatt Earp.
533
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:50,000
As soon as he got here,
534
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:54,360
he enrolled as a student at the
Art Students League.
535
00:44:56,040 --> 00:45:00,800
An independent arts school for
painters who wanted to get better.
536
00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:06,320
Benton was a teacher here
537
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:09,640
and he had his work cut out because,
according to
538
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:14,200
the people who knew Pollock in his
first days in New York,
539
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:17,360
when it came to art,
he wasn't a natural.
540
00:45:20,800 --> 00:45:25,280
This is his first and only
self-portrait.
541
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:28,080
It's scarily intense.
542
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:31,400
Black, bleak and clumsy.
543
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:36,760
Benton, to his credit,
544
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:41,760
saw through the clumsiness and
spotted something real in there.
545
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:45,160
He took Pollock under his wing,
546
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:50,240
nursed him, educated him, and as we
saw, used him as a model.
547
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:58,440
There's Jackson again,
playing the harmonica,
548
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:03,440
in another Benton mural, which lists
all the fun you can have in America.
549
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:13,840
They were so close that Pollock
moved into the same house as Benton,
550
00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:17,840
here in Eighth Street, number 46.
551
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:22,880
And that's where he developed a
fierce crush on Benton's wife, Rita,
552
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:27,360
who played with him flirtatiously
553
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:29,520
and helped to derail him.
554
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:35,280
Pollock had been a drinker since he
was 15,
555
00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:38,040
but it was in New York that it
became a problem.
556
00:46:41,280 --> 00:46:44,560
There was something harsh inside
him,
557
00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:46,720
something brutal and primitive.
558
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:51,640
It came out when he drank
559
00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:53,600
and it came out when he painted.
560
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:01,360
The drinking got so bad he was
forced to see a shrink,
561
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:05,080
and for four years,
he was in psychotherapy,
562
00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:07,520
and it all came spilling out.
563
00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:17,560
Pollock's Jungian therapist
encouraged him
564
00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:21,520
to get in touch with his
unconscious self.
565
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:23,400
And boy, did he do that.
566
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:27,840
With Pollock, now and later,
567
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:32,040
there's a feeling that he's hanging
on for dear life
568
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:35,680
while all this stuff comes bursting
out of him.
569
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:42,760
His breakthrough picture, the one
that made him famous,
570
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:47,800
was painted in 1942 for his new
dealer, Peggy Guggenheim.
571
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:54,080
And according to legend, the whole
thing was painted in a single night,
572
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,800
the day before he was due to
deliver it.
573
00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:05,920
It's called Mural and it's the size
and shape of a Thomas Benton mural.
574
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:12,800
It originally showed a stampede of
Wild West Mustangs,
575
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:16,160
and they're still in there
somewhere,
576
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:21,200
but where Benton started with
abstraction, then added the figures,
577
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,840
Pollock reverses the process.
578
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:31,080
He started with the Mustangs, but
ended up with their rhythm.
579
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:42,120
With Peggy Guggenheim supporting
him, he finally had some money.
580
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:46,360
And in 1945, he moved
581
00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:51,440
to a house on
Long Island and began making
582
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:56,520
his celebrated drip paintings.
583
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:03,720
They were done on the floor.
584
00:49:03,720 --> 00:49:07,840
He would put a canvas on the ground
585
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:12,840
and, inspired by the sand paintings
of the Navajo,
586
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:18,840
he'd prowl around it and drip paint
onto it.
587
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:29,160
He began with some figurative
shapes.
588
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:34,120
Heads, bodies, faces,
whatever jumped into his mind,
589
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:37,400
indicated quickly
590
00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:42,400
with a runny black paint that
responded
591
00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:48,600
immediately to his twitches
and thrusts.
592
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:56,920
And there was always music playing,
593
00:49:56,920 --> 00:50:01,120
not country music like Benton,
but jazz.
594
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:04,080
That's the music that suited his
rhythm.
595
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:11,000
He would put jazz on the record
player and play it night and day,
596
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,040
over and over again.
597
00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:16,920
JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
598
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:26,200
Everything he was interested in was
pulling him in the same direction,
599
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:30,720
the theosophy, the Jungian therapy,
600
00:50:30,720 --> 00:50:33,800
the sand art of the Navajo,
601
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:37,960
Benton's murals with their hidden
abstraction,
602
00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:42,520
and what they all had in common was
the belief that
603
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:46,040
the visible world was just a
surface
604
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:51,080
and that underneath this surface lay
something bigger and more important,
605
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:55,560
and the artist was the conduit
through which
606
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:58,240
this bigger reality could be
reached.
607
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:04,080
All he had to do
was trust...
608
00:51:07,720 --> 00:51:08,720
..his instincts.
609
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:26,280
This one is called Lavender Mist.
610
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:30,280
It's in the National Gallery of Art
in Washington and it's one of his
611
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,000
greatest paintings.
612
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:37,360
Now, because of the way he made
these, the dripping,
613
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,480
the prowling around the canvas,
614
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,160
Pollock was called an action
painter.
615
00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:49,160
But to get the most out of his art,
you need to be an action visitor.
616
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:57,880
There's no point standing in one
place to look at Jackson Pollock.
617
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:02,360
You, too, need to dart about.
618
00:52:02,360 --> 00:52:07,320
In and out, left and right,
backwards and forwards.
619
00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:12,960
The art never stops moving,
so neither should you.
620
00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:19,840
Sometimes it's like looking through
a microscope at tiny details.
621
00:52:21,440 --> 00:52:25,880
Other times, it's like staring up at
the cosmos.
622
00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:32,160
It wasn't the Stetson or the
cowboy boots
623
00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:36,200
that made Jackson Pollock a
Wild West artist.
624
00:52:36,200 --> 00:52:39,720
It was the bigness of his vision,
625
00:52:39,720 --> 00:52:41,800
the cosmic scale,
626
00:52:41,800 --> 00:52:44,400
that taste for infinity.
627
00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:52,240
So, this is abstract expressionism,
628
00:52:52,240 --> 00:52:56,840
the first truly American art
movement,
629
00:52:56,840 --> 00:53:01,880
when all the dumb and inchoate stuff
inside came bursting out
630
00:53:04,040 --> 00:53:06,120
in an unstoppable torrent.
631
00:53:18,240 --> 00:53:23,240
While Jackson Pollock in New York
was reimagining the West as a bit of
632
00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:28,840
abstraction, in the West itself,
633
00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:33,880
the landscape was impacting on
American art in more tangible ways.
634
00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:43,280
Land art is the only American art
form that couldn't have happened
635
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:44,560
anywhere else.
636
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:47,200
It had to happen here.
637
00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:50,120
You need this landscape...
638
00:53:51,280 --> 00:53:53,160
..these dimensions...
639
00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:57,320
..and this sense of place.
640
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:05,000
This is Double Negative by
Michael Heizer.
641
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:07,920
He made it in 1969.
642
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:13,960
Heizer brought some bulldozers up to
this impressive Mesa in Nevada
643
00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:19,800
and carved two huge artificial
canyons in the rock,
644
00:54:20,080 --> 00:54:25,120
two great trenches stretching
altogether 1,500 feet.
645
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:31,960
To create his artificial canyons,
646
00:54:31,960 --> 00:54:36,960
Heizer had to dig out 240,000
tonnes of rock.
647
00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:45,080
These days, the sides have crumbled
648
00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:49,240
and obscured the clarity of the
Double Negative.
649
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:54,720
But Heizer didn't mind, it was part
of his plan.
650
00:54:54,720 --> 00:54:58,240
He always knew that nature was
bigger than him.
651
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:06,880
And these here are the sand tunnels,
652
00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:11,760
created by Nancy Holt in 1976,
653
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:14,440
in the great basin desert of Utah.
654
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:20,200
All these concrete tunnels are
aligned to the sun,
655
00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:22,880
and at different times of day,
656
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:26,800
the sun and the shadows do
different things.
657
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:35,400
But the daddy of all examples of
American land art,
658
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:39,960
the greatest land art moment in the
West,
659
00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:41,720
is the Spiral Jetty.
660
00:55:47,600 --> 00:55:49,680
When I was an art history student,
661
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:54,680
this was on the cover of every book
about modern art that I had,
662
00:55:55,080 --> 00:55:59,480
and the reason it was so famous is
because it wasn't there any more.
663
00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:06,480
When Smithson created the Spiral
Jetty in 1970,
664
00:56:07,240 --> 00:56:12,040
the waters of the Great Salt Lake
were at a historic low.
665
00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:18,920
But soon after he finished, they
rose again, and for 30 years,
666
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:24,880
the Spiral Jetty disappeared from
sight.
667
00:56:28,240 --> 00:56:33,240
It popped up again in 2002, just in
time for the new millennium,
668
00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:38,320
and I've been to see it a couple of
times since then, and every time,
669
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:39,360
it's different.
670
00:56:42,520 --> 00:56:46,240
The first time I saw it, it was
gleaming white.
671
00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:51,520
The salt crystals in the water had
caked the rocks
672
00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:54,280
and given the Jetty a
Christmas look.
673
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:59,080
So I hopped across it, like a kid in
the snow.
674
00:57:01,920 --> 00:57:04,280
But that's not how it looks today.
675
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:08,720
Today, the changing climate
has turned
676
00:57:08,720 --> 00:57:11,560
the Great Salt Lake into a desert.
677
00:57:12,640 --> 00:57:17,680
And Smithson's stones stick out of
the sand like bones.
678
00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:24,840
And see how the water around the
stones is this spooky red.
679
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:29,720
That's this tiny shrimp that
survives in these salt waters,
680
00:57:29,720 --> 00:57:32,080
millions and millions of them,
681
00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:36,480
looking like blood that's soaked
into the Great Salt Lake.
682
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:44,920
Smithson never intended this to be a
happy artwork.
683
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:52,000
He was a sci-fi fan and he chose
this location, he said,
684
00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:56,920
because it had a sense of decay
about it.
685
00:57:56,920 --> 00:57:59,480
An atmosphere of entropy.
686
00:57:59,480 --> 00:58:02,840
MUSIC: Born In The USA by
Bruce Springsteen
687
00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:05,760
And that's the thing about the
Wild West,
688
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:08,640
it was largely a work of fiction.
689
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:14,800
Everyone who has looked at it
has imagined things
690
00:58:14,800 --> 00:58:17,200
that may or may not be there.
691
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:22,040
What you see is what
you want to see.
692
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:25,680
# Born down in a dead man's town
693
00:58:25,680 --> 00:58:27,800
# The first kick I took was when I
hit the ground #
694
00:58:27,800 --> 00:58:32,080
In the next film, we're heading for
that other quintessentially
695
00:58:32,080 --> 00:58:34,360
American territory -
696
00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:36,240
the city.
697
00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:38,520
Where some look up
698
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:40,240
and others look down.
699
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:45,640
That's The Story of the American
Metropolis,
700
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:48,840
the next stop on this
artistic road trip.
701
00:58:48,840 --> 00:59:00,280
# Born in the USA
702
00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:04,280
# I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the
USA. #
58481
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.