Ever since "discovering" Waldemar Januszczak during quarantine, I've been hungrily gobbling up his art films, devouring them daily. With this channel, I feel I've hit the motherlode! Woohoo!!
"Mount Rushmore is seen by many as a sculptural shrine to American values, but it was actually built to be a tourist attraction" I don't know man, building something massive purely to get people to give you money actually seems like a pretty good representation of American values to me
How I wish you had been one of my art professors way back when. You have so many gifts, your knowledge, your passion, your charisma, and your amazing ability to capture people's attention with fantastic stories. I've missed you. Stay safe and happy
As a passionate lover and admirer of sculpture and student of art, this was an homage to the art unlike anything I've ever seen. Bringing forth the contrasting political sides of what sculpture really is, and how it affects people, is a monument to your brilliance as a documentary maker. Bravo Waldemar! When shall we have a monument to you? You deserve one! Maybe we should have an award like the "Oscar" for best documentary, called "The Waldemar"!
I started watching the Perspective channel for the sake of learning about Art around the world, but I was in for a big surprise, one of the best Art History storytellers, Big Waldemar Januszczak!! Now I can't go to sleep without seeing and hearing his charismatic knowledge on some topic that involves Art. -Thanks for the upload, Keep them coming...
I too, love Waldemar’s programs......he is an inspired teacher. So I do hope there are more to come..I have to admit to watching them more than once,they are so dense with insights into all aspects of art.
Januszczak is a very engaging presenter. Sometimes far-fetched, but fun. He very confidently "explains" Easter Island religion, culture, and history with theories that are pretty odd (I've seen lots of documentaries and read a fair bit, and no one ever said the statues were slid down a mountainside). He confidently tells us Goliath was over 10' tall, when most scholars do the math and come up with 9'9". So I take his assertions with some skepticism till I can check them, but meanwhile I really enjoy his presentations.
"If you look like him, but you want to come across like him, there's no use relying on nature...she's already let you down." HAhahahhhaaha I love this guy
Regarding the part on Easter Island, there is a great video from the "Fall of Civilizations Podcast" called "Where Giants Walked" that talks about how the civilization of that island once was great and flourishing, but then, as many do, it fell. It also talks more about the big statues and what they meant to the people. Its a little long but well worth it. Link is here, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7j08gxUcBgc.html
Stumbling upon Mr Janusczcak was a stroke of great fortune - this chap is really brilliant - super sharp wit , creative genius of presentation - I find myself laughing on a continual basis - were I had been so fortunate to have had him as a school teacher - he shines in dramatics , humor , brilliant verbal delivery with a delightfully informative societal contextual framewrk of presentation - allways a Bravo to this chap !☺ - he's funnier than Maggie Smith - and she's pretty damned funny 😳☺
Throwing that rock over the don't throw rocks sign at 3:05. I mean i like interesting history but this simple act has really endeared me to this presenter!
He actually hinted that David has the features of Goliath. That, for me, adds the new dimension of David that he may have been a sarcastic reference to us being vanquishers of our own enemy. A very Catholic idea.
Here in the USA of 2020, our petulant juvenile-in-chief unironically says he wants his mug on Mt. Rushmore. The curator told him, sorry, there's no more room.
Brilliant! I had put this “episode” to the side, and reluctantly turned to it months later, not convinced that I had much interest in gigantesque statues of people such as Stalin - but it turned out to be fascinating. Waldemar steps out of his artistic skin and addresses politics, sharply and unforgivingly. From ancient Greece to So. Dakota, humans have never given up their appetite for grandeur, the more undeserved the better. A little humility would behoove us. Perhaps we’ll acquire it by the time we hit a new planet - or do you think it’s inevitable?
There was a crucial error in the story of Rapa Nui. The Moai walked. They were not transported by wooden sleds nor any other vehicular means, they walked. Also Make Make co-existed at the same time. When the island were named "Easter Island", white man had already been there, several times, and brought diseases and maniacs with guns with him. These diseases and bloody encounters had wiped out most of the population within a few years, and the leftover populus turned against their protectors, the Moai, toppling them down for not protecting them from the White Death. Walking the Moai was a group effort, where the whole island, probably all the islands, gathered and worked together. If the walk was successful, it would bring fortune, but if the Moai fell mid-walk, it would bring misfortune. The "Bird Man" Make Make, was a local Hero, an athletic celebrity, and these two events, swim to the bird island and walking the Moai were the key festivals to keep the society united. The difference between western colossuses and Moai is; Colossus is a display of power, a picture of god, the great divider between mortals and the elite, Moai is a group strentghtening exercise. Everyone had to take part to the walking of the Moai. There were no classes in the society of Rapa Nui. There were only elders, who became the Moai after death and the younger generations, who competed in the bird race, and became elders when got old enough. The size of the Moai was a direct comparison to the size of the elder it represented. Because the features were almost identical, the size told to the viewer, which elder was in the statue. I understand that it is hard for a westener to picture a society without ruling class and a slave class, but the great sailing nation of the pacific, which the Rapa Nui and Tahiti are parts of, demanded a full on equal distribution of wealth and power to prosper.
When I was a boy, I imagined the Moai were a direct product of tribes of central and south Americans who fled to the island escaping the sacrificial death cults that were hunting people for appeasement to the gods. This would have been done on anything from great rafts, canoes or anything that was seaworthy. On their arrival, Easter Islanders erected these statues as a warning to invading tribes from the continent who might think the Moai were giant warriors. The size of the statues might give invaders a second thought partly because of their mysterious appearance and because of their shear size [ie: not transportable by canoe]. As time went by and the land was depleted of resources, a rebellion may have occurred and the looming threat of anihilation, to give the remaining tribe a faint, if not an entirely rational hope of access back to south and or central America. All this, even if it meant capture and even certain death by removing the visual threat to invasion as they may have seen it , in the Moai.....possibly a more preferable option than a slow lingering death from starvation and feuding......but then, I was just a boy.
40:47 The real-life Crazy Horse monument doesn’t appear to match up with the mock-up. The opening in the mountain looks too far over to the right. (Maybe it doesn’t matter because it’s difficult to imagine that the monument will ever be completed.)
Kinda weird that you mixed in the Tourist show dance right out of a Polynesian show you'd see in a Honolulu tourist trap. As if this were some traditional dance they would know about, when they hardy know anything about this culture. The declaration about the reason some statues were broken is sheer speculation at best. I had to laugh when he added all the drama about the Competition to swim a WHOLE mile! With Sharks! I'm quite sure living on an island in the middle of nowhere a mile swim would be a cake walk. And you know about this from...what source? Half this Easter Island stuff sounds made up.
Hi, reformed scholar here. I understood it to be that the trees on Easter Island disappeared during a drought, and the men disappeared to slavers, taking their oral history with them. So I guess I need citations. Thanks though; I love the vids.
At the entrance to all Federal Buildings in the USA, they have huge portraits of the President and Vice President. I found it particularly galling to have to see Bush and Cheney (snarling) in close-up when I lived and worked there as a consultant, often to federal agencies. And these photos were *huge*.
the theory that the people of rapanui deforested their island building the moai has been pretty well debunked; there's compelling evidence that wood was not necessary in the moai's construction and they were "rocked" to move them from place to place by teams of people with ropes in a way that would have resembled walking. the fall of civilizations podcast episode on easter island has a good recounting of the story and the new evidence - there are also literal records of the people of rapanui being kidnapped and enslaved by american sailors in the 1800s so the notion that they obsessed over sculpture to their deaths seems pretty wrong
There are a few examples left of the orignal writings of the Easter Island people. Is that record still so completely mysterious ? Is the theory of disastrous over-poplulation still believed to be their undoing ?
@@joannecarrubba4138 It is not known why they tore down the moais in the ahus (those shrines next to the shore), but the main hypothesis is that it happened in the period of a civil war among the islanders clans. Oral tradition about that civil war has been confirmed by archaeological research.
And you know where David was supposed to go because...? Clearly with the long neck, he would not look right unless put up high where the foreshortening would resolve that issue. Not likely that he was to be placed at ground level where idiots could mess with him, but they did anyway while he was being taken to the museum...he had a part broken off by some idiot who probably had a small dick or got scared of the foreskin.
The founders of the USA never knew Musolinni much less Fascism. Stick to the art and not an artist's political philosophy, sexual orientation, psychological problems, etc.
Another great documentary by Januszczak, but most surprising that he doesn't mention "The Motherland Calls" outside Kiev, that commemorates the Battle of Stalingrad ??
I think what you've got to understand here si he is in fact taking a leak at the level of arrogance and sheer vanity represented by this magnanimous piece of dynamite beauty and not any particular national sentiments. Of course in the very beginning all the Glory hereby celebrated indeed had all spawned out of old England's vices anyways...
@@furrystep I understand exactly what's happening. It's nationalism pounding its chest at the expense of weaker cultures, and America learned how to do it from the best. England was in charge of subjugating the world's brown people until we took over. Brits conveniently forget that the horrible things the U.S. has done as a country are the direct result of events that were set in motion by THEM. I will personally go to Mount Rushmore with a jackhammer the day that this doofus builds a crate to ship back the Rosetta Stone.
