A documentary series presented by Michael Wood, exploring magnificent masterpieces of the Western world in their cultural and historical settings. The series consists of eighteen episodes, each of which focusses on the artistic contributions of one period in the history of the West, from Ancient Greece to the late 1980s. From the classical ideals in Greek and Roman antiquity, through the Renaissance, to the postmodernism of the later 1980s, the series provides a panorama of 2000 years of architecture, painting and sculpture, and studies the art masterpieces as reflections of the Western culture that produced them.
Two episodes will be presented every week online
INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Episode 15 | Between Genius and the Abyss [26:03 min]
With modernity came new energy and forms in Viennese building and painting. Paris saw the emergence of the Fauves, and of Picasso and Cubism. Kandinsky and others experimented with colour abstraction.
Click here to view Episode 15.
Episode 16 | Between Utopia and Crisis [26:03 min]
Modernism spawned not only Cubism, but also the abstract and the surreal. Le Corbusier and Wright applied the abstract principles to buildings. Dada responded to the devastation of World War One with nihilism; surrealists Dali, Magritte, and Miro showed Freudian influence.
