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jmetaB02baab89c56a3339078bb4d784bbcdf42668901cba499043467e3954a62ff2cf2d@d320b00f5ee7776cdbd30057eb34ca2013ccb22fbb6daf427c63ae8a6e86cf70rss.itemmetarss.netMF<item> <title>Bill Viola obituary</title> <link>https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/jul/14/bill-viola-obituary</link> <description>&lt;p&gt;Video artist who melded the material and the spiritual and applied modern technology to Renaissance subjects&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/jul/13/bill-viola-the-rembrandt-of-the-video-age-dies-aged-73"&gt;Bill Viola: ‘the Rembrandt of the video age’&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/jul/15/bill-viola-appreciation"&gt;‘He made video art ask the big questions’: Jonathan Jones on Bill Viola&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 1957, on a family holiday, Bill Viola fell in a lake. He was six years old. Sixty years later, Viola, who has died aged 73, recalled the event. “I didn’t hold on to my float when I went into the water, and I went right to the bottom,” he said. “I experienced weightlessness and a profound visual sense that I never forgot. It was like a dream and blue and light, and I thought I was in heaven as it was the most beautiful thing I had seen.” And then … “my uncle pulled me out.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It seemed an unpromising start to an artistic career. However, in 1977 Viola began a series of five works called &lt;a href="https://www.artic.edu/artworks/108765/the-reflecting-pool-collected-works"&gt;The Reflecting Pool&lt;/a&gt;. Four years out of university, this was his first multipart artwork, its constituent films occupying their maker for three years. In the title piece, a shirtless man – Viola – emerges from a wood, walks toward a pond, makes as if to jump into it and freezes in mid-air. The pool registers his entry nonetheless, its surface rippling as though disturbed; the flying man fades slowly away; and, after seven long minutes, Viola emerges, dripping, from the water and walks back into the woods. The Reflecting Pool drew on the near-drowning of his six-year-old self. It was also classic Viola, its most notable features – slowness, water, a numinous spirituality – recurring in his work of the next half century.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/jul/14/bill-viola-obituary"&gt;Continue reading...&lt;/a&gt;</description> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/bill-viola">Bill Viola</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artanddesign">Art and design</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-news">US news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/world/world">World news</category> <category domain="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/video-art">Video art</category> <pubDate>Sun, 14 Jul 2024 16:38:59 GMT</pubDate> <guid>https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/jul/14/bill-viola-obituary</guid> <media:content width="140" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/57b17423b7936bdac635c0e63fab112e99fbac6d/0_51_1917_1150/master/1917.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=8c1fce57747fe6a73a280a9efe7134c6"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian</media:credit> </media:content> <media:content width="460" url="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/57b17423b7936bdac635c0e63fab112e99fbac6d/0_51_1917_1150/master/1917.jpg?width=460&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=1c5d54a15207f25b147074db69d6c218"> <media:credit scheme="urn:ebu">Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian</media:credit> </media:content> <dc:creator>Charles Darwent</dc:creator> <dc:date>2024-07-14T16:38:59Z</dc:date> </item>