Customer Reviews

PBS American Visions The History of American Art and Architecture [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this series to be in a word fascinating. Robert Hughes manages to view the art of America through a historical and cultural perspective - particularly for the international viewer. It explores the cultural and social forces which influenced the artists and I must say that I throughly enjoyed the series. For a non-American I found it an excellent study into the wealth of American Art - which is not especially that well-known outside American itself. Highly recommended!

I was first exposed to Robert Hughes's unique and valuable insights into the world of art & art criticism with his groundbreaking SHOCK OF THE NEW (BBC documentary--which I would LOVE to see re-released on DVD!! Hint! hint!) on the history of Modern Art....there are some points of intersection, obviously, between AMERICAN VISIONS and SHOCK OF THE NEW. But AMERICAN VISIONS encompasses the entire sweep of American art from Colonial and Revolutionary America down to the 1990s, and Hughes does a very good job...perhaps only as outsider (Hughes is a native Australian) can...of demostrating what is uniquely American about the Art found in AMERICAN VISIONS. I refrain from giving Hughes 5 stars because he has grown more curmudgeonly with age, and I find I am turned off by his unsympathetic dismissal of 1990s "multi-culti" (his words) trends in arts & culture. While I'll offer no blanket endorsement of Postmodernism either, I won't, like Hughes, throw the baby out with the bathwater. Whereas Hughes sneers with contempt at contemporary Taos, NM, for example--I find the New Mexico art & cultural scene much more sympathetic, almost an after-echo of the 1960s. Still, one has to admire Hughes's forthright opinions. He didn't get to be the renowned art critic of TIME magazine by being unfailingly nice to everyone either.
Check your local library's video holdings; If they don't have a copy of AMERICAN VISIONS (the complete set), urge them to get it today! If they say their budget won't allow it, donate it to them! (significant library donations are tax-deductible, fyi!!). I would also check with PBS to see if they plan on coming out with this series on DVD. It's a bit steep to buy a personal copy of the whole series, but it'd make a great gift to a starving art student or working artist or art teacher who could not otherwise afford it.

American Visions is a superbly crafted and presented introductory survey of American Art and Architecture from colonial times down to the present day in eight splendidly produced, 60-minute episodes. Articulately narrated by Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes, each program is a fascinating and informative blending of visual imagery with live interviews and spectacular photography. The eight volumes comprising this unique and comprehensive history include: The Republic of Virtue; The Promised Land; The Wilderness and the West; The Gilded Age; A Wave from the Atlantic; Streamlines and Breadlines; The Empire of Sings; and The Age of Anxiety. Told with reference to key artists and architects whose work typified or influenced American art and architecture, and within the broader cultural context of their times, American Visions is an invaluable, informative, highly entertaining, and prestigious addition to any personal, school, and community library collections.

I have seen the entire series of AMERICAN VISIONS and consider it to be one of the best art commentaries ever. I have HUNTED for the DVD version of the series for years and think that it is VERY REMISS of PBS for not releasing AMERICAN VISIONS on DVD. This is an excellent resource for students of art and history - it provides an insight into when specific art styles developed and describing the context in which they thrived. Robert Hughes is a knowledgeable and riveting presenter.

Robert Hughes gives another tour de force tour of art history, this time the American scene from its roots in Thomas Jefferson's classical city plans to the outrageous hype of the recent past. Sometimes, the most accurate assessments of a country are offered by a brilliant mind from another land. I just wish someone would re-issue this series on Blu-Ray or DVD. The VHS format is outdated and doesn't do the subject the justice it deserves.

...that I saw in the portuguese public tv in the late 90's, and, surprisingly I found that there's no DVD edition...
I think, till further notice that this is the best documentary about the american art.