Brian Sewell -- The real achievements of Anthony Blunt (72/90)
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- Опубліковано 19 вер 2017
- To listen to more of Brian Sewell’s stories, go to the playlist: • Brian Sewell - John Si...
Born in Britain, art critic Brian Sewell (1931-2015) wrote for the "London Evening Standard" and made numerous television appearances throughout his distinguished media career. He was known for his outspoken and erudite reviews of art. [Listener: Christopher Sykes]
TRANSCRIPT: I had a close friend called Joe McCrindle... an American and a very considerable collector of drawings, a man to whom I owe a great deal, and Joe had also known Anthony, and one day we decided that we would, come what may, take him to the Italian restaurant a hundred yards away from where he lived, where he very often had just sort of slipped… Anthony was a lousy cook, and so it was easier to go into an Italian restaurant and have some spaghetti.
And I went to the restaurant first, and said, we propose to do this. 'If it’s going to upset you, we won’t, because we… we don’t want to spoil things for you'. And they said, 'Oh, oh, oh', you know, 'wonderful, bring him back', and so on. And so when the door opened and the three of us came in, they welcomed him as though he was a long-lost brother. And that was the beginning of getting Anthony back into normal life, the feeling that he could actually go out on the street himself, he could be brave and get on a plane and go to Rome to look at Roman baroque architecture.
And so… and I think the whole espionage thing has never been satisfactorily and in any way detailed... proved. It’s all assertion. And it may be that there are proofs, and they haven’t come out because, you know, things are held back for 50 years or whatever, and so not even in my lifetime will this come out. But nobody who has written about it, nobody who was researching, nobody who was writing those awful articles in the “Daily Mail” and other papers, “The Daily Telegraph” was the worst of the lot. None of them really knew anything, because there was nothing to know. There was nothing to prove. There were indications here and there, but there was no proof. And I’m very surprised that now, more than 30 years after the event, people are still capable of whipping themselves up into a froth about it.
For me, the fundamental thing is not what Anthony may or may not have done during the war, but what Anthony did, as I said earlier, talking about The Courtauld when I was there, is how he had managed to make, miraculously, without the expenditure of huge amounts of money or anything, he’d managed to turn No 20 Portman Square, an 18th century house, into a real olive grove of academe. Nothing in ancient Greece can have been as intensely philosophical and argumentative and enquiring and speculative as The Courtauld Institute was within five years of Anthony’s taking over as its director.
That is where his fame lies. His secondary level of fame lies in his treatment of the Royal Collection, because it was Anthony who brought it out into the open. Anthony set up, as it were, a pantheon of scholars who were the greatest of their kind to write about various aspects of Old Master drawings and paintings and so on. Everything eventually was catalogued. It was Anthony who persuaded King George to lend the Academy 700 paintings for an exhibition, the King’s Pictures, immediately after the war, in 1946. It was Anthony who persuaded them to adapt some rooms at the end of the palace into an exhibition space, and constantly show their pictures. And that, of course, has developed into the gallery we now know as the Queen’s Gallery, where some of the best exhibitions in London occur, usually twice a year. That was Anthony’s real achievement, not what some, sort of, people intent on vilifying him for espionage have constantly said and still maintain. - Розваги
Sewell does not have the right or authority to bestow forgiveness on Blunt on behalf of the nation. How will Britain ever know the level of damage that Blunt did by giving many thousands of confidential documents to the Soviets.
I've always liked Brian Sewell, but his naivety in this interview is breathtaking.
He comes over as any true believer does, and reminds me of those who say that their dog could never have bitten anyone in such a way despite the evidence of all that blood.
Just because Blunt enjoyed respected and appreciated pretty things does not forgive him
Sewell’s attitudes are exactly why the Cambridge Five got away with treachery.
Yep, Blunt was clearly an awfull person as was Sewell
Accomplishments ? Anyone could answer that in 1 word... TRAITOR
A pathetically weak defence by a friend with an obvious bias. And fundamentally dishonest, since Blunt made a full confession of his crimes (for which he was given immunity from prosecution).
Brian Sewel sums up so much of the core of England and the rot at its center after the war. Cultured, privileged and entitled as he was and he certainly knew what he was about, but ultimately venal, nebulous and without substance.
Great comment, and true... oh so true.
Have you watched any of this series of interviews? Sewell did not grow up "privileged" at all and his measure of art was far from being "without substance".
You clearly know nothing of this man.
What more proof do you need?
Blunt confessed to espionage.
Not sure when this interview was recorded, but it seems likely based on the age of Sewell that it was after Blunt had confessed.
It amazes me someone as smart as these people are can not see the danger of what Blunt and people like him did.
It really just goes to show how arrogant and self important they are and on how little they value common people's lives.
"How little they value common people's lives."
You know what's a solution to that? Communism. xD
Adolf did some absolutely delightful pictures dear boy, especially in gouache and watercolour! Such a sweet and sensitive man!
BRIAN SEWELL SHOULD JUST ADMIT THAT ANTHONY BLUNT WAS A TRAITOR AND STOP DEFENDING HIM BECAUSE HE WAS A FELLOW ART CRITIQUE . IT'S ALWAYS THESE PEOPLE WHO LOOK OUT FOR THEIR FRIENDS FROM THE SAME CIRCLE OF LIFE .
Agreed, he was, however, more than a fellow art critic. A fellow fellow…