In Art of France, Andrew Graham Dixon takes viewers on a stunning visual journey through French art history in this 3 part documentary.
Part 1 – Plus Ca Change
Art historian and critic Andrew Graham-Dixon opens this series with the dramatic story of French art, a story of the most powerful kings ever to rule in Europe with their glittering palaces and astounding art to go in them. He also reveals how art emerged from a struggle between tradition and revolution, between rulers and a people who didn’t always want to be ruled.
Starting with the first great revolution in art, the invention of Gothic architecture, he traces its development up until the arrival of Classicism and the Age of Enlightenment – and the very eve of the Revolution. Along the way some of the greatest art the world has ever seen was born including the paintings of Poussin, Watteau and Chardin, the decadent Rococo delights of Boucher and the great history paintings of Charles le Brun.
Part 2 – There Will Be Blood
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how art of France took a dramatic turn following the French Revolution that ushered in a bold new world. From the execution of King Louis XVI and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte – a figure who simultaneously repelled and inspired artists of his time – through to the rise of Romanticism and an art of seduction, sex and high drama, Andrew explores artists including Jacques-Louis David – whose art appeared on the barricades and in the streets – as well as the work of Delacroix, Ingres and the tragic but brilliant Theodore Gericault.
Part 3 – This Is the Modern World
In the final episode of Art of France, Andrew begins with the impressionists. He plunges into one of the most wildly creative periods in the history of art, when France was changing at a rapid pace and angry young artists would reinvent how to paint, finding their muses in the bars, brothels and cabarets of belle epoque Paris and turning the world of art on its head. Monet, Degas and friends launched a febrile conversation about the role of painting in the modern world that would pave the way for just about every modern art movement of note, from the cubists to the Fauves, from the surrealists to the existentialists and from conceptual artists to the abstract expressionists.
Andrew Graham-Dixon
Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster.
Graham-Dixon began work as a reviewer for the weekly Sunday Correspondent, before becoming the chief art critic of The Independent newspaper where he remained until 1998. Early in his career (in 1987, 1988 and 1989) he won the Arts Journalist of the Year Award three years in a row. As of 2005 he is the chief art critic of The Sunday Telegraph. Since 2004, he has also been a contributor to the BBC Two’s The Culture Show on a variety of subjects, and is often the main presenter of the programme.
In 1992, Graham-Dixon won the first prize in the Reportage section in the Montreal World Film Festival for a documentary film about Théodore Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa. He has since gone on to present many BBC documentary series on art, including A History of British Art (1996), Renaissance (1999), Caravaggio (2002) The Secret of Drawing (2005), The Battle for British Art (2007), Art of Eternity (2007), Art of Spain (2008), The Art of Russia (2009), Art of Germany (2010), Art of America (2011), British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash (2014), Art of China (2014) and Art of France (2017). He is passionate about the Mona Lisa, appearing in the popular BBC documentary Secrets of the Mona Lisa (2015).
In 2018 he presented a four part series on BBC Four, Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection. He has also presented programmes on subjects other than art, such as I, Samurai (2006) and The Real Casino Royale for the BBC and 100% English (2006) for Channel 4. In 2010, he interviewed John Lydon for a Culture Show special about Public Image Ltd. In 2018, he gave a lecture as part of the Alpine Fellowship symposium in Venice.
Graham-Dixon also wrote and presented the BBC documentary Who Killed Caravaggio?, broadcast on BBC 4 in 2010. The same year, his biography of Caravaggio was published as Caravaggio: A Life Sacred And Profane.
