Scandal & Beauty: Mark Gatiss on Aubrey Beardsley

Name: Scandal & Beauty: Mark Gatiss on Aubrey Beardsley
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2020-03-30
Duration: 58 min
Rating: 7.5
Cast: Mark Gatiss, Alex Tankard, Caroline Corbeau-Parsons

2020
58m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

YOUR RATING

Documentary

Mark Gatiss explores the life and career of Aubrey Beardsley, an artist who wielded outrage as adroitly as his pen. A lifelong fan, Mark shows how Beardsley was more than just a genius of se... Read allMark Gatiss explores the life and career of Aubrey Beardsley, an artist who wielded outrage as adroitly as his pen. A lifelong fan, Mark shows how Beardsley was more than just a genius of self-promotion who scandalised the art world of the 1890s. He was also a technological innov... Read allMark Gatiss explores the life and career of Aubrey Beardsley, an artist who wielded outrage as adroitly as his pen. A lifelong fan, Mark shows how Beardsley was more than just a genius of self-promotion who scandalised the art world of the 1890s. He was also a technological innovator, whose uncompromising attitude still feels remarkably modern. The programme follows B... Read all

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IMDb RATING

7.5/10

YOUR RATING

1User review

See production info at IMDbPro

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Featured review

7/10

Unparalled Decadence

Gatiss's obsession with late Victorian/Edwardian gothic is an open secret - perhaps first glimpsed in his lavish Chinnery segment in the League's Christmas special in the year 2000, but also followed across his Lucifer Box novels and christmas horrors. Beyond fiction and adaptation he's always particularly good at elucidating his passion in person for these things and his BBC documentaries are always worth a watch - this latest from March 2020 is no exception.

Here he looks at underrated monochromatic illustrator Aubrey Beardsley whose surreal and seductively simple pictures - part art nouveau, part Edo Japanese, part classical greek - are all arresting at the very least and whose influence can clearly be seen across a lot of pop culture. He's got a good range of guests in as well from Stephen Fry to illustrator Chris Riddell. Beardsley's life was tragically a very short one but quite influential and it's always nice to see a British illustrator getting some serious air-time.