Sickerts London

Star Review

‘London is spiffing. Such evil, racy little faces, and such a comfortable feeling of the solid basis of beef and beer.' So said Walter Sickert about the city and its people, whose everday lives he constantly sought to capture in his paintings. Notwithstanding a recent exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of his ‘Camden Town Nudes’ series – paintings of nudes on iron bedsteads in the bedrooms of cheap lodging houses in ther area – and the 1914 painting ‘Ennui’ that is always associated with his name, Sickert’s career of constant, challenging reinvention as a painter is largely unknown. Testament to this are his late paintings based on news photographs. Dismissed at the time, we are finally catching up with the spirit of their creation now. Auerbach’s documentary, with contributions from artists Howard Hodgkin and Frank Auerbach, who discuss his work, is an extremely good introduction to the methods and haunts of ‘one of the undiscovered heroes of modern art’, whose aim it was ‘to render the magic and poetry’ of everyday life in his art.

Graeme Hobbs on 6th May 2008

View all 228 of Graeme Hobbs’s reviews

[ Show Film Description ]

Film Description

Although Walter Sickert is considered the father of modern British painting, he was born in Germany. He became Britain’s most famous artist but after his death he drifted into obscurity, ironically rejected for the same inventive spirit that had first made his name. He remains one of the undiscovered heroes of modern art. With music by Jools Holland and Sickert’s writings read by Alan Bennett this film manages to conjure up the spirit of one of Europe’s greatest artists.

[ Show Star Review ]

Ratings for this DVD

Average Rating
Log in to place your vote!

Film Details

Cast

Alan Bennett

Technical Details