Art

Video documentaries about all art forms

Age of the Image episode 3

Age of the Image episode 3

Age of the Image episode 3: James Fox tells the story of how, in the second half of the 20th century, artists, advertisers and film-makers used the power of images to sell us dreams. From the influence of Kodak on our family photos to psychologists persuading us what to buy, he explores how images seduced us with fantasies of a better life.     It’s a journey that takes us from the early days of the Marlboro Man to the radical feminist art of Judy Chicago and the reaction to male-dominated visual culture. Along the way, he celebrates Fellini’s mastery […]

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Age of the Image episode 2

Age of the Image episode 2

Age of the Image episode 2: James Fox explores how mass communication and new technology helped 20th-century image-makers transform society, as films, photographs, TV, art and advertising all became weapons in the ideological battles of the age.     James tells the story of Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, who each used cinema to pursue very different visions of power and freedom. We discover how Jewish comic book artists in New York created superheroes as their act of resistance to the Nazi threat. And we find out why a Muhammad Ali magazine cover is one of the most powerful political

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Age of the Image episode 1

Age of the Image episode 1

Age of the Image episode 1: Documentary series in which art historian James Fox explores how the power of images has transformed the modern world. James starts at the beginning of the 20th century, when an explosion of scientific and technological advances created radical new ways of looking at the world.     From the impact of aerial photography on modern art to our ability to peer inside the body and freeze time itself, the first episode is a dizzying journey of visual invention, which makes fascinating connections between the work of artists, film-makers, photographers and scientists. Revealing Salvador Dali’s

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A Very British Renaissance episode 3

A Very British Renaissance episode 3

A Very British Renaissance episode 3: In the final episode, he explores how the tension between two cultures – one courtly, classical and European, the other home-grown, innovative and vital – helped bring the country to civil war.     Art historian Dr James Fox continues his exploration of a Renaissance that he believes was as rich and as significant in Britain as it was in Italy and Europe. He tells the story of the painters, poets, playwrights, composers, inventors, craftsmen and scientists who revolutionised the way we saw the world.   A Very British Renaissance episode 3   English

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A Very British Renaissance episode 2

A Very British Renaissance episode 2

A Very British Renaissance episode 2: In this episode, he explores the Elizabethans’ love of secrecy, codes and complexity, and the cultural revolution sparked by an age of discovery and exploration.     Art historian Dr James Fox continues his exploration of a Renaissance that he believes was as rich and as significant in Britain as it was in Italy and Europe. He tells the story of the painters, sculptors, poets, playwrights, composers, inventors, craftsmen and scientists who revolutionised the way we saw the world.   A Very British Renaissance episode 2   Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the

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A Very British Renaissance episode 1

A Very British Renaissance episode 1

A Very British Renaissance episode 1: Documentary series. Dr James Fox traces the story of how the arrival of a few foreign artists in the 16th century sparked a cultural revolution in Britain.     We think of the Renaissance as something that happened only in Italy, or in continental Europe. Art historian Dr James Fox believes otherwise – that Britain had its own Renaissance – one that easily measures up to the explosion of art and ideas that happened on the continent. He tells the story of the painters, sculptors, poets, playwrights, composers, inventors, explorers, craftsmen and scientists who

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Sheila Hancock Brushes Up - The Art of Watercolours

Sheila Hancock Brushes Up – The Art of Watercolours

Sheila Hancock Brushes Up – The Art of Watercolours: Watercolours have always been the poor relation of oil painting. And yet the immediacy and freedom of painting in watercolours have made them the art of adventure and action – even war. It has been an art form the British have pioneered, at first celebrating the greatest landscapes of Europe and then recording the exotic beauty of the British Empire.     Sheila Hancock, an ardent fan of watercolours since her childhood and whose father was an amateur watercolourist, sets out on a journey to trace the art form. It takes

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Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 4

Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 4

Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 4: Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how royal collecting has changed since the days of Queen Victoria. This is a story of the British monarchy’s remarkable survival, while elsewhere the crown heads of Europe crumbled in the face of world wars and revolutions. But it is also an age when women took charge of royal collecting; from Victoria to Elizabeth II, queens and queen consorts have used art to steady the ship of monarchy during this uncertain age.     It’s one of the curiosities of the Royal Collection that

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Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 3

Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 3

Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 3: Andrew Graham-Dixon continues his exploration of the Royal Collection, the vast collection of art and decorative objects owned by the Queen. In the third episode he has reached the age of the Romantics – the flamboyant George IV who created so much of the visual look of the modern monarchy, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, for whom collecting was an integral part of their happy marriage.     As Prince of Wales, George was a famously loose cannon – a spendaholic prince whose debts ballooned in

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Art, Passion & Power - The Story of the Royal Collection episode 2

Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 2

Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 2: In the year 1660, something miraculous began to happen. After the execution of Charles I, the Royal Collection had been sold off and scattered to the four winds. But now, with the restoration of Charles II, the monarchy was back. And with it their driven, sometimes obsessive, passion for art. Slowly but surely, new pieces were acquired, as others were returned out of fear of reprisal. The Royal Collection had sprung back to life.     Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of the Royal Collection’s remarkable resurrection,

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Art, Passion & Power - The Story of the Royal Collection episode 1

Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 1

Art, Passion & Power – The Story of the Royal Collection episode 1: In a major four-part series, Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the history of the Royal Collection, the dazzling collection of art and decorative objects owned by the Queen. Containing over a million items, this is one of the largest art collections in the world – its masterpieces by Van Dyck, Holbein, Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer and Canaletto line the walls of Windsor Castle, Hampton Court and many other palaces, museums and institutions around Britain.     Andrew argues that on the surface, the Royal Collection projects permanence, but within

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Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas

Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas

Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas: Griff Rhys Jones reveals how Dickens created the idea of a traditional family Christmas through one of his best-known books, A Christmas Carol. From the moment it was published in 1843, the story of miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge captured the imagination of Victorian Britain.     Santa Claus, Christmas cards and crackers were invented around the same time, but it was Dickens’s book that boosted the craze for Christmas, above all promoting the idea that Christmas is best celebrated with the family. Interviewees include former on-screen Scrooge, Patrick Stewart, and writer Lucinda Hawksley, great-great-great-granddaughter

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