- Actors: Nigel Spivey, David Attenborough, George Miller
- Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language English
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 2
- Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: BBC Warner
- DVD Release Date: 1 Aug 2006
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000FFJYCK
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 205,024 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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As part of BBC's agenda to generate public awareness about art history's relevance to contemporary culture, the documentary series How Art Made the World is a landmark. Host Dr. Nigel Spivey, a Classical Archaeology professor from Cambridge, asserts over five episodes that not only have cultures thrived according to their abilities to communicate visually, but also that, though art, we can historically trace human needs and desires because our minds drive us to create images. Questioning how and why art influences society, Spivey employs art criticism, archaeology, political theory, and anthropology in order to posit theories in each hour-long segment. Episode one, "More Human than Human," traces our obsession with the human body by analyzing the Venus of Willendorf, Egyptian art, and Ancient Greece's preoccupation with athleticism. "The Day Pictures Were Born" discusses the birth of cave painting. "The Art of Persuasion" contextualizes Tony Blair and George W Bush's political communication strategies with those in ancient cultures. "To Death and Back" ponders our preoccupation with death. "Once Upon A Time", the highlight in the series, insightfully connects our fascination with feature films to the cultural beginnings of storytelling. Starting with Mesopotamia's birth of the written tale, the Grecian invention of theater, and the Assyrian invention of pictorial narrative, this episode also stars BBC champion David Attenborough discussing the Australian Aborigine's use of art to trigger ancient cultural memories and myths. Potent, smart, and interdisciplinary, this series, filmed mostly on location for full effect, really does prove that culture dictates art. --Trinie Dalton
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable enough, but a bit silly,
By AdamGreen32 (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How Art Made the World [DVD] (DVD)
This is an enjoyable series that is informative for an audience fresh to art theory. But there are some caveats. Firstly, its contention that the "images in people's minds" led to the development of agriculture, and therefore the modern world, is philosophical idealism of the sort that got shelved in the 19th century.
Secondly, it loves to builds up to absurd dramatic climaxes, wasting a great deal of time in the process. As another reviewer has pointed out, Nigel Spivey puts one rhetorical question after another, leaving the poor viewer begging for him to get on with it. A great chunk of programme five is dedicated to a huge build-up to the 'great storytelling secret' of the Aborigines, only to reveal that they combined stories with music. Oh. Thirdly it makes a number of unfounded assertions, such as, "it was Augustus's use of images that enabled him to maintain his power". Actually no - his political actions did that. The images are another expression of it, but images just don't have that sort of power. Idealism again! Images rarely, if ever, change history, although they may seem to by reflecting the social forces that actually change things. Still, you'll enjoy it so long as you keep a critical mind.
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simplistic but enthralling,
By Marco Polo Mint (Bristol, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How Art Made the World [DVD] (DVD)
This is great television, a real journey. Not since Kenneth Clark's epic televisual history of art, 'Civilisation', has there been such ambition and engagement with art from its inception and archaeological discoveries to the present day. It makes for fascinating television. While serious art students will find nothing new, for the general viewer and those with more than a passing interest in art history it provides arguments and conjectures concerning the 'why' and 'when' of art.A few criticisms: Spivey, the presenter, presents some very personal views and it is clear that his favourite pieces are European, in fact Italian. Uncontroversial. More seriously, the tricksy editing and fancy photography sometimes works but is often too fussy. But it is never offputting, and we must remember this series is designed to have broad public appeal rather than sit in the Open University slot. All in all, a thrilling rollercoaster ride through milennia of art history, one that I will recommend to my (university) students as well as to my family.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
all promise but no delivery,
This review is from: How Art Made the World [DVD] (DVD)
there are three other series that i would like to compare this series to - kenneth clark's 'civilisation', robert hughes' 'shock of the new', and simon schama's 'the power of art'. sadly, i can't make any meaningful comparisions. the gap is just too great. for whereas clark's, hughes', and schama's works are all worth the time of looking, this series simply fails into unsupported thoughts that emerge from nowhere and lead back into nothing. i even looked at the series twice, thinking that I must have missed something. I didnt.
anyone thinking of looking at this programme would be better off looking at other programmes more worthwhile, such as clark's or schama's or hughes (if you can get a hold of it), for in spite of their faults, they still give good value. 'how art made the world' just left me waiting...
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