Walking around the Twombly exhibition I was struck by an idea for a series of television documentaries. There's a terrific group of canvases, Untitled (Bolsena), that was apparently painted in the summer of 1969 at a time when the artist was fascinated by television coverage of the first moon landing. And once you know that, you can see in the details suggestions of the craft and its path through to the moon and back.
I suddenly thought of making a film that brought together a range of artwork -- and not just painting but poetry, music and more -- that was directly prompted or influenced by Apollo 11. The catalogue references Robert Rauschenberg's Stoned Moon series of lithographs, and now I'm on the hunt for more. It seemed to me at that moment an excellent idea -- and one with a natural tie-in time next summer, when we have the 40th anniversary of the landing.
A hour or so later, I decided on a preliminary title, Inspired, and on the sense that it probably needed two companions to make into a short series (which is always more commissionable than a one-off). So why not apply the approach to two other key post-war post-war events, the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the 9/11 attacks?
I'm going to post occasionally as I develop the notion and see if I can find some funding and bring it to reality.