Museums in Quarantine Episodes 1 & 2

Fascinating series from BBC4 exploring national museum collections at a time of enforced closure.

I thought these were wonderfully produced programmes with a real sense of capturing a moment when two exhibitions I had hoped to visit went into lockdown. I believe the next two episodes will look at aspects of particular galleries and museums collections rather than specific shows and I’ll return to review those once they are shown later this week.

Episode 1 looked at the Andy Warhol show at Tate Modern introduced by Alastair Sooke. I found the eerie shots at the start of the empty turbine hall and static escalators moving and melancholy and liked Sooke’s spin on the show as Warhol as a commented on the 21st century even though he worked in the 20th and parallels he drew to these strange times. I like the fact he was in the gallery walking around it as we would have done and there was a good mix of close up images and of him interacting with the work.

It is interesting to compare the film to the Tate’s own rapidly filmed overview which is shorter and involves the two curators of the show discussing the themes of the show while sitting on a bench discussing it. Again, it has quite an urgent feel to it. As the show is on till September maybe there is some hope of seeing it still.

Episode 2 is Simon Schama talking us through the Ashmolean Museums Young Rembrandt show. I suspect this was filmed later as it seems to combine shots from the gallery’s own video and good stills with an excellent voice over from him. In contrast to the first episode he spends more time analysing specific images than given an overview of the show but each approach works well. I love Schama’s detailed description of the works gradually leading you into the different layers of the image.

Again compare this to the galleries own approach with a charming video by the curator An Van Camp, speaking from home with the now obligatory bookshelves in the background which I found rather poignant. In the written material they give good overviews of the narrative of the show with excellent images.


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