tv on the television

I watched this show on PBS last week and didn't really have time to post about it: Imagining America: Icons of 20th-Century American Art.

Highly recommended if you get a chance to view it -- and you know how PBS stations are about re-running things, so you'll probably get a chance sometime in the next pledge drive. The way they integrate the visuals with the music is pretty great -- "Pet Sounds" goes with Warhol, then when we stray a bit and go back to Stuart Davis we get some jazz, then back to the Beach Boys when we start looking at Warhol again. I could've done without "I'll be your mirror" as the last song, as it was a bit obvious and kind of overkill in my eyes, but on the whole the musical choices definitely got my approval.

My favorite part is when de Kooning says:

Everything is already in art - like a big bowl of soup
Everything is in there already:
And you just stick your hand in, and find something for you.
But it was already there - like a stew.

Right on, Willem. Just . . . if you have an extra spoon perhaps, or a ladle or something, I'd be into using that.