DIGITAL LEARNING
Refik Anadol , Dvorak Dreams , 2023
results seem like a sanitised Francis Bacon : flashy , eye-catching but without the emotional heft . Screenbased digital art is open to the same criticism . Crowds at Refik Anadol ’ s “ Living Archive ” at the Serpentine Gallery , London , may have been “ transfixed for an hour or more ” by the “ living paintings ” but critics , comparing it to a “ massive lava lamp ”, felt that the work “ had nothing to say .”
Kenneth Clark ’ s 1969 Civilisation TV series is perhaps dated ; Hockney was still fresh out of the Royal College of Art . He opens by asking “ What is civilisation ? I don ’ t know . I can ’ t define it in abstract terms . But I think I can recognise it when I see it .” He was standing in front of Notre Dame , Paris . Perhaps this gut reaction to a work of art is still relevant today when a creative spirit can move the viewer through visual stimulus ? The next generation of artists in our art schools seem to value the “ wobbly pot ” rather than the easy click and giggle route via Silicon Valley . I feel instinctive sympathy for that approach but at the same time , it ’ s hard not to wonder what Vermeer would have made of AI . iPad drawing by David Hockney © Malcolm Park / Alamy Stock Photo
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