Schama: the Biz

More artsy-fartsy PBS goodness last night. I've been so busy the last month or so that I've missed most of Simon Schama's new series, Power of Art. PBS repeats stuff like that endlessly though, so I should have another opportunity to see the whole series later.

Anyway, I've got a few episodes recorded, at least - and last night, I watched the first one, on Jacques-Louis David. It was truly excellent. I wasn't sure what it would be like - Schama is no art expert, after all - but I'm happy to listen to his highly educated opinion. What he seems to be doing in this series is taking great works of art and setting them in historical and cultural context. In David's case, the iconic work under consideration was, of course, The Death of Marat (1793):


Next up are episodes on JMW Turner and Mark Rothko. Looking forward to those.