'Great art has dreadful manners...' Simon Schama observes at the start of his ep
ic exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. 'The hushed reverence of t
he gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things, visions t
hat soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily,
the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure and then
proceed in short order to re-arrange your sense of reality...' With the same dis
arming force, "Power of Art" jolts us far from the comfort zone of the hushed ar
t gallery, as Schama closes in on intense make-or-break turning points in the li
ves of eight great artists who, under extreme stress, created something unpreced
ented, altering the course of art for ever.
