Wot! No Art

Synopsis

A film about art and architecture during the post-War Labour administration of 1945-51. It was a time of austerity during which the dreams of a democratic society and promises of universal access to the cultural heritage were, in spite of the setting up of the Arts Council in 1946, gradually dissipated by economic failure and the influence of the Cold War. The film criticises the often misdirected attempts to bring together art and the people and suggests that, despite state patronage, the gap between artists and the public is still widening.


The film uses contemporary newsreels, which were not always generous in their coverage of the arts, to explore the contradictions between the exigencies of industrial production and the wish to bring art to the public. The film traces the history of the deteriorating economy and international relations, and the continued dedication of education and housing to maintaining a working, ‘useful’, population. In the meantime artists became more concerned with formal questions, alienating themselves further from all but a small, cultured elite.


Innovations, such as Britten’s ‘Peter Grimes’, the BBC’s Third Programme and the provision of sculpture and paintings in public places, despite their aim to bring culture to the masses appealed primarily to a middle-class audience. The Festival of Britain in 1951, epitomised the split between art and the public, for despite the high hopes associated with its inauguration it failed to produce anything permanent. The film argues that this gap will continue to exist for as long as people’s role in society is seen in purely economic terms: with leisure merely a consolation for work, education and preparation for a trade, and art a barely affordable luxury.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of production

1978

Subjects

Architecture; Art; Economics; History

Keywords

history; newsreel films; public art; economic history

Online availability

URI

http://artsonfilm.wmin.ac.uk/filmsuk.php?a=view&recid=0

Price

free to UK HE

Delivery

Streamed

Credits

Director

Christopher Mason

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 2 PAL

Price

£50.00

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

55 minutes

Year

2010

Production Company

Name

Mason Bruce Film Associates

Sponsor

Name

Arts Council England

Distributor

Name

Arts on Film Archive, University of Westminster

Notes

Arts on Film Archive offers on-line access to a large range of films on art produced in the United Kingdom since the 1950s, and is a unique record of British and international post-war art, as well as of documentary film-making in the UK. In its first phase, the archive offers a complete database and an on-line video streaming of all 450 films made by the film department of Arts Council England between 1953 and 1998 and several films produced till 2003 by the dance Department of ACE. The collection is only available streamed to ac.uk domain addresses.