Bill Viola: The Passions
The National Gallery, London 22 Oct. 2003 – 4 Jan. 2004

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LONDON, Dec 10, 2003/ FW/ --- Viola’s visual haiku of the emotional spirit of facial expressions is artistic and visceral, academic only in subtext.

Today’s leading authority on facial expressions is Paul Eckman, Ph.D. He follows in the academic tradition of Charles Darwin who published The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1873, and Sir Charles Bell, author of Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression in 1806.

The French artist Charles Le Brun gave an illuminating lecture in 1688 about facial expressions that influenced discussion on the subject throughout Europe.

The Passions may be seen as study of human expressions such as those by Eckman, Darwin, Bell and LeBrun, yet it also follows the tradition of centuries of portraiture; a step in the evolution of human portraits.

Eckman explores the similarity of basic emotional expression throughout humanity. He also explores the social rules for expression or lack of in different societies.

Viola touches on the basis of human expression allowing the social rules to go by the wayside.

Dolorosa

Viola, Bill; Dolorosa, 2000

Viola translated the weeping sorrow of saints past to saints present. In Dolorosa the portable folded LCD flat screens draw inspiration from the Virgin and Christ.

Though they are portraits of two contemporary people, this red haired Virgin and deeply brooding Christ expressing tearful human suffering in slow motion transported me to the devotional art in the 13th century Cathedral of Barcelona I visit yearly.

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