CIVILIZATION / COLLINGS

Death of Marat
Jacques-Louis David

 1. Who is Matthew Collings? Why should we believe his stories? Collings chose to discuss a wide range of art history. Why? What was his point?

        Matthew Collings is a "British art critic, writer, broadcaster, and artist", and from what we see in the film, he obviously has some knowledge about art history. Information that I found on Matthew Collings was limited, but I found some general information about his education on wikiwand.com. He studied at "Byam Shaw School of Art, and Goldsmiths College", which are both located in London, England. Both of these schools are highly regarded in their art and design departments and are historically known as great universities in London. Overall, I think that we can believe Collings' stories because he seems to be a well educated man who knows a lot of valuable information about art and its long history. I think that Collings chose to discuss a large range of art history because it is a great way to show evidence for his argument, which is that "art shows civilization changing" (24:30). Collings states this within his film, and I think that this is more than just an observation. I think that this statement is a fact. There is so much evidence to back up the fact that art reveals changes in civilization, such as David's paintings which literally reveal changes that are, or are wanting to be made during the French Revolution in 1789. Generally speaking, I think that Collings wanted to prove a point that art does in fact reveal changes within civilization. 

2. What storytelling approaches did Collings use to tell his stories? Compare his film to those of Marlow, Bruce, Schama, Greenaway, Hockney and Me. Who is the worst story teller so far? Why?

        Collings used a few different approaches to tell his stories. One of the main approaches was to analyze different pieces of art, and explain the meaning behind different elements within the pieces to reveal what they tell us about civilization in that specific time period. Another approach he had to storytelling was comparing and contrasting different art styles, or artists, from a certain time period to highlight the different ways that art can reflect changes in civilization. Collings' film was very interesting to watch. I loved that he analyzed so many different art pieces, including David and Goya's, so that I could get a really good sense about how these artists showed civilization changing. Also, I thought it was very beneficial that the information he presented was very straightforward, and there was no need for extra interviews to speak on his many points. I thought that his film was a little bit different than others' because it covered various information about art history to talk about how art reveals changes in civilization, whereas other films we have looked at focus on one period, topic, or artist. I think that the worst storyteller so far is Marlow. I think that the reason I feel this way is mostly because Marlow jumps around alot in his films and relies a lot on different people for information within the films. I like when there is a narrator, maybe a little thatrics, and analysis of different artworks, and this is purely just my opinion when it comes to documentary style films.

3. What image from your generation do you think will survive to speak to future generations?  What will that image say about our current civilization (will it be positive or negative?) Explain.  

        This image of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is one of many images from that day that I think will survive to speak to future generations. I believe that this image will tell future generations that our civilization today is something that we should not be proud of. This image reveals the ignorance of many people in our country, and I think it also shows just how lost our country is in terms of politics. Our current civilization is struggling when it comes to politicians and how corrupt our politics are. I am hoping that one day this image will be one that we can look back on and say "thank goodness we made it through", instead of "how do we make it out?". This image is definitely a negative image of our current civilization, but I can only hope that one day it will not have such a negative effect on us. 

Outside Sources:

“Byam Shaw School of Art.” Byam Shaw School of Art | Artist Biographies, www.artbiogs.co.uk/2/schools/byam-shaw-school-art. Accessed 25 Feb. 2024.

“Goldsmiths, University of London.” Top Universities, Goldsmiths, University of London, www.topuniversities.com/universities/goldsmiths-university-london. Accessed 25 Feb. 2024.

Hutzler, Alexandra. “Has the Jan. 6 Committee Investigation Changed American Politics?” ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/Politics/jan-6-committee-investigation-changed-american-politics/story?id=95365201. Accessed 25 Feb. 2024.

Jacques-Louis David | Death of Marat (1793) | Artsy, www.artsy.net/artwork/jacques-louis-david-death-of-marat-1. Accessed 25 Feb. 2024.

“Matthew Collings.” Wikiwand, www.wikiwand.com/en/Matthew_Collings. Accessed 25 Feb. 2024.