Loving Vincent

Art appreciation is an acquired taste, don’t you agree?

Art was not included in my you’re-going-to-college-oriented high school curriculum. Supposedly, the powers-that-be felt, we, the attention-limited students, didn’t have the time or, perhaps, the brains to take subjects like art or woodshop/metalshop while also taking chemistry, trig, English, etc.

So, my art appreciation remained stunted until I entered my freshman year at the University of Akron. Then the lights came on. I took Western Cultural Traditions, a required class at the University of Akron, taught by Dr. David Riede.

Dr. David Riede taught Western Cultural Traditions for a bazillion years to thousands of students. He was the master at overcoming years of mind-numbing high school history classes and opening eyes to the fascinating worlds of art and architecture.

In fact, right with the first hour of his class he had me hooked. That was no small accomplishment because Western Cult was one of those pre-recorded video class which were delivered to hundreds of students sitting in lecture halls around campus watching TV screens.

One of the ways Dr. Riede made history exciting was his ability to weave the personalities of historical figures into his lectures. So, for me, winter semester 1967 was the “ignition and liftoff” of my never-ending learning quest.

While Dr. Riede passed a few years ago, he lives on today.

My brother, Gary, sent me a link to a BBC video report by Alex Stanger, about Dorota Kbiela, Co-director, of Loving Vincent, the first fully painted film. Kbiela is the artist behind this beautiful film-making technique and through it she breathes new life into one of the world’s most famous Post-Impressionist artists, Mr. Vincent van Gogh.

No doubt Dr. Riede would find Loving Vincent fascinatingly useful for making history come alive and… for planting the seeds that inevitably bloom into a “taste for art” in the hearts and minds of countless college students.

Loving Vincent: The first fully painted film
Over a hundred painters came together from all over the world to make this animated film about Vincent van Gogh. After shooting the scenes as a live action film with Saoirse Ronan, Chris O'Dowd and Douglas Booth, each frame was recreated as a painting in the style of van Gogh.
Video journalist: Alex Stanger