I saw something truly amazing on TV tonight. After the highlights of the Germany/Italy semi-final there was a small piece of film of Ian Wright looking round the art exhibits in the building where the BBC have their temporary studio.
I have a lot of time for Ian Wright, and did even before he moved to West Ham. I think he came to football late in life, having had a proper job first (much like Iain Dowie) so he always seemed to appreciate what he had and seemed to enjoy it more.
I wondered what he would make of some avante garde installations and it turned out to be one of the best things I have ever seen about art on the TV. The BBC should forget about these naff Saturday evening shows he has had and give him a regular slot on an arts programme.
How he was different was that he approached it all with a truly open mind. He did not just assume that anything which is neither a painting nor a statue must be crap, but at the other extreme he did not gush over anything: he just said what he thought.
There was no discussion of what the artists’ aims or intentions were. Possibly he didn’t know and probably he didn’t care. He just said how the pieces made him feel and what they made him think about, regardless of any artistic merit or talent.
He crawled into one installation and said “I don’t like it in here. What’s it got to do with football?” and then went off on a stream of consciousness which ended with him saying “I quite like it in here.” Totally unashamed to have changed his mind.
At the end he more or less said that he didn’t really understand it all but just said how he felt and added that with how you feel there is no right or wrong.
Brilliant. He wasn’t even telling us what to think – just saying what he thought, with the implication that whatever we thought, however different, would be equally valid. What a break from being told that “this is a masterpiece” with the unspoken suggestion that if you don’t like it you must be a philistine.
The programme ended on the slightly surreal sight of Lee Dixon and Ian Wright discussing modern art. Maybe it was always a topic on conversation in the Highbury dressing room…
Shame I missed this, Sounds great. one thing that is missing from traditional Art programmes is the simple fact that Art is about how you react to it not about how its formed or how contraversal it is, if you think it’s art it is, but someone else may not think it is and to them it isn’t. would be good to get some openess in Art without the fear of being seen as uncultured because you don’t agree with everyone else.
I saw it too, and I agree, he was great. All great art is meant to evoke emotion, to connect to what makes us human. Some of the luvvies on the art shows over-intellectualise things too much.
Best of all, Ian Wright made me think about my own reactions to art. When someone like Brian Sewell talks about art I just keep revising my reactions to Brian Sewell.
Brian Sewell is like those people at the National Gallery who stand in the way of a painting so you can’t see it properly while they spend ten minutes spouting bollocks. Wright is like the crowds of school-party kids more interested in what they think themselves than what others think of them.