We are not amused…
Last week saw the passing of Lucian Freud, often described as one of Britain’s greatest painters.
Freud, the grandson of Sigmun Freud, as famous for being unrelenting to showing absolute realism in his paintings.
Fat people were fat, but not in the “Rubensesque” way, but rather in the real way – fat.
Old was old, wrinkled was wrinkled.
One of Freud’s most controversial paintings was that done of the Queen, shown above, in 2001.
The Daily Telegraph reviewed the paining, to somewhat mixed reviews:
“The newspaper concedes that the Queen “is no longer the heart-breakingly beautiful young woman she was”, but maintains she is still “easy on the eye”.
Yet the Telegraph added Freud has captured the Queen’s strong sense of duty and Hanoverian roots, and concludes that the work is “thought provoking” and “every bit as good” as previous efforts.
The chief art critic of The Times, Richard Cork, described the image as “painful, brave, honest, stoical and, above all, clear sighted”.
The Sun called the portrait “a travesty”
Robert Simon, editor of the British Art Journal, told the newspaper: “It makes her look like one of the royal corgis who has suffered a stroke.”
The Independent, however, says Freud’s portrait is being hailed as the most honest representation of the monarch to date.
Under the headline “You’re no oil painting, Ma’am”, the Mirror says Freud could have saved the Queen the trouble of sitting for him by copying her Spitting Image puppet.
But the paper added that the picture is “unmistakably his own”, and says the Queen “should have known what to expect”.
Meanwhile, Adrian Searle, the Guardian’s art critic, hailed Freud’s picture as the best royal portrait for 150 years, and said: “Portraiture is meant to get beneath the skin.
“Freud has got beneath the powder, and that itself is no mean feat.
“Both sitter and painter have seen too much, are easily, stoically bored. They know the shape they’re in.
“This is a painting of experience”.
Freud was no less ‘honest’ or powerful when he did his own self-portrait.
Now, (at last) we come to video and television.
What made Freud’s painting so powerful was that they were brutally honest.
Had Freud made everyone look like they were wrinkle-free, the paintings might look like out-takes from Vogue, but they would stay with us for less than a minute and make no impression whatsoever.
All of which brings us to television and the people we see on TV, particularly (but not limited to), the people we see on the news.
They are all of a kind- young, smooth skinned, smiling with perfect teeth.
They lack character.
They lack flaws.
They lack what Freud found so compelling in himself, the Queen, or just average people. He captured and honored their flaws. It was that which gave them their humanity, and what made his paintings so profound.
We could use a Freud of video.
