The Bill Viola, Michelangelo exhibition at the Royal Academy London is a wonder to behold. In my own case it didn’t need the sublime Michelangelo pieces as the Viola installations were more than enough for any single human mind to take in fully. To say I was impressed seriously underplays the effect this extraordinary event had on me. To date, most of the video based art I have encountered has underwhelmed, Bill Viola has more than made up for this, his works are sublime, dripping in truths, cutting to the core, mesmerising and, perhaps most of all, very human.
All the works significantly impressed me. However, ‘Five Angels of the Millennium’ and ‘The Ascent of Tristram’ will stay with me for many a day and I would describe them as masterpieces.
Mr Viola is clearly an artist who knows what he wants to achieve and is well able to do so, his art is profound and sits very comfortably, as an equal, along side that of Michelangelo. I am deeply grateful to have had the chance to see this exhibition and I fully intend to return to see it again. I cannot recommend it more highly.