A vast amount of little pieces
July 11, 2014 7:03 AM   Subscribe

 
Gilliam came up a while back in conversation with a few friends. Specifically, why did his stuff just feel so immediately fresh and essential when we first saw it as kids in the early Python TV shows? And being 60s/70s kids, we'd grown up gorging ourselves on cartoons and animation of every definition.

The best answer came from the art historian in the crowd. Because Gilliam's stuff was collage, and collage was the only genuinely new art form of the 20th century*. It felt so fresh because it was fresh.



* of course, there were precedents but the term collage wasn't coined until the early days of the century, by none other than P. Picasso (and George Braque).
posted by philip-random at 7:35 AM on July 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


All of his stuff, previously.

The YT clip that comprises the meat of this Gizmodo page, though, was featured here at Mefi before, so this post might be considered a double.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:51 AM on July 11, 2014


I love this video, because Terry Gilliam basically invents Tumblr right before your eyes. It's been posted before, though.
posted by oulipian at 7:53 AM on July 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


As another 60s/70s kid, I've spoken here about how much of an influence Gilliam was and is to my artistic development. (Perhaps in the one previously link that I posted.) I don't care if it's a quintuple, I'm glad it was posted because today I will create.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:05 AM on July 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


Just one more reason why Gilliam is (and will forever remain) my favourite Python. Also, the animated paint tubes, pencils and such in that show's credit sequence - which presumably had nothing to do with Gilliam - bear a very heavy influence from Robert Crumb characters like his Kitchen Kut-Outs.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:14 AM on July 11, 2014


That was a series Bob Godfrey made about animation (at about the same time he was making Roobarb). Another episode had Richard Williams on it, talking about The Thief and the Cobbler. It was fascinating, and only the fact that I couldn't draw, had no access to a film camera and the attention span of a fly stopped me rushing immediately into animation.
posted by Grangousier at 8:40 AM on July 11, 2014 [1 favorite]


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