Exhibition Introduction with Getty Director Timothy Potts
Transcript
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Female Narrator Welcome to London Calling: Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Andrews, Auerbach and Kitaj. These six artists, referred to as the School of London, forged a new path in the mid-twentieth century, a time when abstraction dominated the art world.
Director of the Getty, Timothy Potts.
Timothy Potts They were very aware of these traditions which have pushed artists away from representing anything like the literal representation of figurative reality. Yet they wanted to paint their world.
The figure was central to their work. And that puts them in the tradition of painting going right back through the centuries to the Renaissance and before, where the focus, by and large, was on narrative painting in which figures took the center stage.
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Female Narrator They painted their families, their lovers and each other– and they painted London itself, its landscapes and bombed-out buildings destroyed in World War II.
Timothy Potts It was important to who they were, where they'd come from; London was this place that had given them, in some cases, haven and was deeply important to them.
Female Narrator And, as you'll witness today, though they were all working in the same place, during the same time, addressing the same subjects, they each saw – and expressed – something different.
Timothy Potts My hope for this exhibition is that visitors come away amazed. [tone setting jazz music] It's a strong word, but I think it's the right word ... amazed by the quality and interest and power of these works. Many of these images are the sorts of paintings that once you've seen them, you really never forget them.
Female Narrator Timothy Potts will be one of your guides on this tour, along with Elena Crippa, Curator of Modern and Contemporary British Art at the Tate Britain, and Julian Brooks, Curator in the Department of Drawings at the Getty.
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