Matthew Collings’ masterly series on British television (Channel
4) has essentially redrawn the role of the medium in assessing cultural
values. An appropriate, 21st century lope through the flowing, eddying
pressures of media on historical cultures, the series should have
been essential viewing for the Governor (to-be) and Board of the
BBC. Once again, Channel 4 has stolen a march. Delivered by Collings
in diverse global situations of varying physical discomfort, the
unassuming, persuasive tones of Collings led all prepared to stay
up past 11 pm into the enforced ‘culture zone’ for refugees
of corporate ‘dumbing down’. The series finished on Sunday
24 August. Meanwhile, it was still possible to have caught Collings’
excellent tribute to the late David Sylvester. This served to demonstrate
in a masterly manner Sylvester’s brilliance, as reflected in
selected reminiscences and flashbacks. Sir Nick Serota, Greysteil
Gowrie, and painter Jenny Saville gave notable tributes. Serota
referred to the manner in which Sylvester’s ‘relation
with a work of art was so physical’, ‘how he believed
passionately in art’. Grey emphasised Sylvester’s great
curatorial ‘eye’. Painter Jenny Saville referred to the
feeling of ‘how the act of painting David, now he’s gone,
must be about painting him, what’s happened to his body’.
Sylvester’s relationship with artists was entirely unique amongst
critics. He saw, for Bacon, that he must act as some kind of concierge.
For Giacometti, he had found the best way to interview him was to
sit for his portrait. For Saville, and all whom he encountered,
he is irreplaceable whether as subject or commentator.
