Ruskin's Journey: Teaching People To See (review)

Ruskin's Journey: Teaching People to See produced for Lancaster University Television, U.K. VHS color video, 48 min. Available from Films for the Humanities and Sciences: (tel.) 800-257-5126 (in U.S.A.); or <www.films.com>.

Few people read art criticism today, not even many artists, but the nineteenth-century British art critic John Ruskin was one of the most famous, widely read authors of his time. His writing is admired not only for its clarity and resonance, but also because he was not just interested in art, but in the larger, more important issue of "the art of seeing." "Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think," he wrote, "but thousands can think for one who can see." In this rich, fascinating film biography, expertly written and narrated by Michael Wheeler, we are offered a breathtaking virtual tour of the natural and architectural landmarks (the Swiss Alps, the Gothic cathedral at Rouen, Venetian architecture and Brantwood, Ruskin's secluded home) that shaped his core beliefs on art, life and industrialization. The film argues convincingly that the digital revolution is comparable in scale to the industrial revolution, and that Ruskin anticipated a surprising number of today's social problems when he warned of the long-term collateral harm of mass production.

Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
2022 X Avenue, Dysart, IA 52224-9767, U.S.A.
E-mail: <ballast@netins.net>.

Roy R. Behrens is a professor of art at the University of Northern Iowa, where he teaches graphic design, illustration and design history. He is editor of Ballast Quarterly Review, art director of the North American Review, contributing editor of Print, and he serves on the board of advisors for Gestalt Theory. His published books include Life of Fiction (with Jerome Klinkowitz), Art and Camouflage, Design in the Visual Arts and Illustration as an Art. E-mail: <ballast@netins.net>.

(Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 16, No. 1, Autumn 2000.)

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