How I learned to stop worrying and love "useless" art
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0:00 - 0:03Two years ago, I have to say there was no problem.
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0:03 - 0:08Two years ago, I knew exactly
what an icon looked like. -
0:08 - 0:10It looks like this.
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0:10 - 0:13Everybody's icon, but also the default position
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0:13 - 0:17of a curator of Italian Renaissance
paintings, which I was then. -
0:17 - 0:20And in a way, this is also another default selection.
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0:20 - 0:25Leonardo da Vinci's exquisitely soulful image
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0:25 - 0:26of the "Lady with an Ermine."
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0:26 - 0:29And I use that word, soulful, deliberately.
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0:29 - 0:31Or then there's this, or rather these:
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0:31 - 0:34the two versions of Leonardo's "Virgin of the Rocks"
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0:34 - 0:38that were about to come together
in London for the very first time. -
0:38 - 0:42In the exhibition that I was then in
the absolute throes of organizing. -
0:42 - 0:46I was literally up to my eyes in Leonardo,
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0:46 - 0:47and I had been for three years.
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0:47 - 0:52So, he was occupying every part of my brain.
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0:52 - 0:55Leonardo had taught me, during that three years,
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0:55 - 0:56about what a picture can do.
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0:56 - 1:02About taking you from your own
material world into a spiritual world. -
1:02 - 1:05He said, actually, that he believed
the job of the painter -
1:05 - 1:09was to paint everything that was visible
and invisible in the universe. -
1:09 - 1:13That's a huge task. And yet,
somehow he achieves it. -
1:13 - 1:16He shows us, I think, the human soul.
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1:16 - 1:20He shows us the capacity of ourselves
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1:20 - 1:24to move into a spiritual realm.
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1:24 - 1:28To see a vision of the universe that's
more perfect than our own. -
1:28 - 1:32To see God's own plan, in some sense.
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1:32 - 1:36So this, in a sense, was really
what I believed an icon was. -
1:36 - 1:40At about that time, I started talking to Tom Campbell,
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1:40 - 1:42director here of the Metropolitan Museum,
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1:42 - 1:46about what my next move might be.
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1:46 - 1:48The move, in fact, back to an earlier life,
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1:48 - 1:50one I'd begun at the British Museum,
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1:50 - 1:53back to the world of three dimensions --
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1:53 - 1:55of sculpture and of decorative arts --
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1:55 - 1:59to take over the department of European sculpture
and decorative arts, here at the Met. -
1:59 - 2:01But it was an incredibly busy time.
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2:01 - 2:04All the conversations were done
at very peculiar times of the day -- -
2:04 - 2:07over the phone.
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2:07 - 2:09In the end, I accepted the job
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2:09 - 2:11without actually having been here.
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2:11 - 2:13Again, I'd been there a couple of years before,
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2:13 - 2:16but on that particular visit.
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2:16 - 2:20So, it was just before the time that
the Leonardo show was due to open -
2:20 - 2:24when I finally made it back to the Met, to New York,
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2:24 - 2:25to see my new domain.
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2:25 - 2:29To see what European sculpture
and decorative arts looked like, -
2:29 - 2:34beyond those Renaissance collections
with which I was so already familiar. -
2:34 - 2:37And I thought, on that very first day,
I better tour the galleries. -
2:37 - 2:38Fifty-seven of these galleries --
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2:38 - 2:43like 57 varieties of baked beans, I believe.
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2:43 - 2:49I walked through and I started in my comfort zone
in the Italian Renaissance. -
2:49 - 2:51And then I moved gradually around,
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2:51 - 2:54feeling a little lost sometimes.
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2:54 - 2:57My head, also still full of the Leonardo exhibition
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2:57 - 3:01that was about to open, and I came across this.
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3:01 - 3:09And I thought to myself: What the hell have I done?
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3:09 - 3:13There was absolutely no connection in my mind
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3:13 - 3:16at all and, in fact, if there was any emotion going on,
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3:16 - 3:18it was a kind of repulsion.
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3:18 - 3:21This object felt utterly and completely alien.
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3:21 - 3:27Silly at a level that I hadn't yet
understood silliness to be. -
3:27 - 3:29And then it was made worse --
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3:29 - 3:31there were two of them.
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3:31 - 3:34(Laughter)
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3:34 - 3:37So, I started thinking about why it was, in fact,
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3:37 - 3:40that I disliked this object so much.
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3:40 - 3:43What was the anatomy of my distaste?
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3:43 - 3:47Well, so much gold, so vulgar.
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3:47 - 3:51You know, so nouveau riche, frankly.
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3:51 - 3:54Leonardo himself had preached
against the use of gold, -
3:54 - 3:57so it was absolutely anathema at that moment.
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3:57 - 4:02And then there's little pretty sprigs
of flowers everywhere. (Laughter) -
4:02 - 4:06And finally, that pink. That damned pink.
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4:06 - 4:09It's such an extraordinarily artificial color.
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4:09 - 4:12I mean, it's a color that I can't think of
anything that you actually see in nature, -
4:12 - 4:15that looks that shade.
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4:15 - 4:19The object even has its own tutu. (Laughter)
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4:19 - 4:22This little flouncy, spangly, bottomy bit
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4:22 - 4:24that sits at the bottom of the vase.
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4:24 - 4:26It reminded me, in an odd kind of way,
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4:26 - 4:28of my niece's fifth birthday party.
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4:28 - 4:33Where all the little girls would come
either as a princess or a fairy. -
4:33 - 4:34There was one who would come as a fairy princess.
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4:34 - 4:37You should have seen the looks.
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4:37 - 4:39(Laughter)
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4:39 - 4:42And I realize that this object was in my mind,
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4:42 - 4:45born from the same mind, from the same womb,
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4:45 - 4:50practically, as Barbie Ballerina. (Laughter)
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4:50 - 4:54And then there's the elephants. (Laughter)
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4:54 - 4:56Those extraordinary elephants
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4:56 - 4:58with their little, sort of strange, sinister expressions
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4:58 - 5:04and Greta Garbo eyelashes, with
these golden tusks and so on. -
5:04 - 5:06I realized this was an elephant that had
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5:06 - 5:11absolutely nothing to do with a majestic
march across the Serengeti. -
5:11 - 5:17It was a Dumbo nightmare. (Laughter)
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5:17 - 5:20But something more profound
was happening as well. -
5:20 - 5:21These objects, it seemed to me,
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5:21 - 5:25were quintessentially the kind that I
and my liberal left friends in London -
5:25 - 5:28had always seen as summing up
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5:28 - 5:31something deplorable about the French aristocracy
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5:31 - 5:33in the 18th century.
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5:33 - 5:36The label had told me that these pieces were made
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5:36 - 5:38by the Sèvres Manufactory,
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5:38 - 5:42made of porcelain in the late 1750s,
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5:42 - 5:45and designed by a designer called
Jean-Claude Duplessis, -
5:45 - 5:47actually somebody of extraordinary distinction
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5:47 - 5:49as I later learned.
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5:49 - 5:54But for me, they summed up a kind of,
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5:54 - 5:58that sort of sheer uselessness of the aristocracy
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5:58 - 6:01in the 18th century.
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6:01 - 6:04I and my colleagues had always thought
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6:04 - 6:07that these objects, in way, summed up the idea of,
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6:07 - 6:09you know -- no wonder there was a revolution.
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6:09 - 6:13Or, indeed, thank God there was a revolution.
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6:13 - 6:15There was a sort of idea really, that,
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6:15 - 6:18if you owned a vase like this,
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6:18 - 6:22then there was really only one fate possible.
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6:22 - 6:26(Laughter)
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6:26 - 6:30So, there I was -- in a sort of paroxysm of horror.
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6:30 - 6:34But I took the job and I went
on looking at these vases. -
6:34 - 6:38I sort of had to because they're
on a through route in the Met. -
6:38 - 6:40So, almost anywhere I went, there they were.
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6:40 - 6:43They had this kind of odd sort of fascination,
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6:43 - 6:46like a car accident.
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6:46 - 6:49Where I couldn't stop looking.
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6:49 - 6:51And as I did so, I started thinking:
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6:51 - 6:56Well, what are we actually looking at here?
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6:56 - 6:59And what I started with was understanding this
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6:59 - 7:03as really a supreme piece of design.
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7:03 - 7:04It took me a little time.
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7:04 - 7:05But, that tutu for example --
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7:05 - 7:08actually, this is a piece that
does dance in its own way. -
7:08 - 7:10It has an extraordinary lightness
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7:10 - 7:12and yet, it is also amazing balanced.
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7:12 - 7:16It has these kinds of sculptural ingredients.
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7:16 - 7:18And then the play between --
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7:18 - 7:22actually really quite carefully disposed
color and gilding, and the sculptural surface, -
7:22 - 7:24is really rather remarkable.
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7:24 - 7:27And then I realized that this piece went into the kiln
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7:27 - 7:31four times, at least four times
in order to arrive at this. -
7:31 - 7:34How many moments for accident can you think of
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7:34 - 7:35that could have happened to this piece?
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7:35 - 7:38And then remember, not just one, but two.
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7:38 - 7:42So he's having to arrive at two exactly matched
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7:42 - 7:45vases of this kind.
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7:45 - 7:46And then this question of uselessness.
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7:46 - 7:51Well actually, the end of the trunks
were originally candle holders. -
7:51 - 7:55So what you would have had
were candles on either side. -
7:55 - 7:57Imagine that effect of candlelight on that surface.
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7:57 - 8:00On the slightly uneven pink, on the beautiful gold.
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8:00 - 8:03It would have glittered in an interior,
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8:03 - 8:06a little like a little firework.
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8:06 - 8:09And at that point, actually,
a firework went off in my brain. -
8:09 - 8:12Somebody reminded me that, that word 'fancy' --
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8:12 - 8:15which in a sense for me, encapsulated this object --
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8:15 - 8:19actually comes from the same
root as the word 'fantasy.' -
8:19 - 8:22And that what this object was just as much in a way,
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8:22 - 8:24in its own way, as a Leonardo da Vinci painting,
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8:24 - 8:27is a portal to somewhere else.
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8:27 - 8:31This is an object of the imagination.
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8:31 - 8:38If you think about the mad 18th-century
operas of the time -- set in the Orient. -
8:38 - 8:44If you think about divans and perhaps even
opium-induced visions of pink elephants, -
8:44 - 8:48then at that point, this object starts to make sense.
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8:48 - 8:52This is an object which is all about escapism.
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8:52 - 8:55It's about an escapism that happens --
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8:55 - 8:57that the aristocracy in France sought
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8:57 - 8:59very deliberately
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8:59 - 9:03to distinguish themselves from ordinary people.
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9:03 - 9:05It's not an escapism that
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9:05 - 9:09we feel particularly happy with today, however.
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9:09 - 9:12And again, going on thinking about this,
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9:12 - 9:15I realize that in a way we're all victims
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9:15 - 9:17of a certain kind of tyranny
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9:17 - 9:19of the triumph of modernism
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9:19 - 9:22whereby form and function in an object
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9:22 - 9:25have to follow one another, or are deemed to do so.
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9:25 - 9:28And the extraneous ornament is seen as really,
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9:28 - 9:31essentially, criminal.
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9:31 - 9:34It's a triumph, in a way, of bourgeois
values rather than aristocratic ones. -
9:34 - 9:36And that seems fine.
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9:36 - 9:44Except for the fact that it becomes a kind of
sequestration of imagination. -
9:44 - 9:46So just as in the 20th century, so many people
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9:46 - 9:48had the idea that their faith
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9:48 - 9:51took place on the Sabbath day,
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9:51 - 9:52and the rest of their lives --
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9:52 - 9:56their lives of washing machines and orthodontics --
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9:56 - 9:58took place on another day.
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9:58 - 10:02Then, I think we've started doing the same.
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10:02 - 10:06We've allowed ourselves to
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10:06 - 10:08lead our fantasy lives in front of screens.
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10:08 - 10:12In the dark of the cinema, with the
television in the corner of the room. -
10:12 - 10:16We've eliminated, in a sense, that constant
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10:16 - 10:21of the imagination that these vases
represented in people's lives. -
10:21 - 10:25So maybe it's time we got this back a little.
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10:25 - 10:27I think it's beginning to happen.
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10:27 - 10:29In London, for example,
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10:29 - 10:31with these extraordinary buildings
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10:31 - 10:34that have been appearing over the last few years.
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10:34 - 10:36Redolent, in a sense, of science fiction,
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10:36 - 10:38turning London into a kind of fantasy playground.
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10:38 - 10:43It's actually amazing to look out of
a high building nowadays there. -
10:43 - 10:45But even then, there's a resistance.
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10:45 - 10:49London has called these buildings the
Gherkin, the Shard, the Walkie Talkie -- -
10:49 - 10:52bringing these soaring buildings down to Earth.
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10:52 - 10:57There's an idea that we don't want these
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10:57 - 11:01anxious-making, imaginative journeys
to happen in our daily lives. -
11:01 - 11:05I feel lucky in a way,
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11:05 - 11:07I've encountered this object.
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11:07 - 11:10(Laughter)
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11:10 - 11:13I found him on the Internet when
I was looking up a reference. -
11:13 - 11:16And there he was.
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11:16 - 11:19And unlike the pink elephant vase,
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11:19 - 11:21this was a kind of love at first sight.
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11:21 - 11:24In fact, reader, I married him. I bought him.
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11:24 - 11:28And he now adorns my office.
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11:28 - 11:31He's a Staffordshire figure made
in the middle of the 19th century. -
11:31 - 11:36He represents the actor, Edmund Kean,
playing Shakespeare's Richard III. -
11:36 - 11:39And it's based, actually, on a more
elevated piece of porcelain. -
11:39 - 11:41So I loved, on an art historical level,
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11:41 - 11:46I loved that layered quality that he has.
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11:46 - 11:48But more than that, I love him.
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11:48 - 11:50In a way that I think would have been impossible
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11:50 - 11:52without the pink Sèvres vase in my Leonardo days.
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11:52 - 11:56I love his orange and pink breeches.
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11:56 - 11:58I love the fact that he seems to be going off to war,
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11:58 - 12:03having just finished the washing up. (Laughter)
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12:03 - 12:05He seems also to have forgotten his sword.
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12:05 - 12:08I love his pink little cheeks, his munchkin energy.
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12:08 - 12:11In a way, he's become my sort of alter ego.
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12:11 - 12:13He's, I hope, a little bit dignified,
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12:13 - 12:18but mostly rather vulgar. (Laughter)
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12:18 - 12:22And energetic, I hope, too.
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12:22 - 12:27I let him into my life because the Sèvres
pink elephant vase allowed me to do so. -
12:27 - 12:28And before that Leonardo,
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12:28 - 12:34I understood that this object could become
part of a journey for me every day, -
12:34 - 12:36sitting in my office.
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12:36 - 12:39I really hope that others, all of you,
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12:39 - 12:41visiting objects in the museum,
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12:41 - 12:43and taking them home and
finding them for yourselves, -
12:43 - 12:48will allow those objects to flourish
in your imaginative lives. -
12:48 - 12:49Thank you very much.
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12:49 - 12:53(Applause)
- Title:
- How I learned to stop worrying and love "useless" art
- Speaker:
- Luke Syson
- Description:
-
Luke Syson was a curator of Renaissance art, of transcendent paintings of saints and solemn Italian ladies -- serious art. And then he changed jobs, and inherited the Met's collection of ceramics -- pretty, frilly, "useless" candlesticks and vases. He didn't like it. He didn't get it. Until one day … (Filmed at TEDxMet.)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:11
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