Art

The painter’s studio: at once an open forum for exchanging skills with other artists and a private retreat for experimenting with technique. Beginning with the Renaissance and concluding with the 20th century, this program covers an assortment of studio-related topics, including life as a painter’s apprentice; the birth and growth of art schools and academies; the progress of the painter’s status in society; the development and proliferation of art tools; the use of nude models; the hard-won success of women in gaining acceptance for female painters; and the continually evolving creative space known as the studio. (27 minutes)

In this three-part series, art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon journeys across America to explore themes and styles in American art from the 17th to the 21st centuries. Beginning with the early Puritans, he examines a persistent paradox in American history—an ideology rooted in God and nature, but a reality seeped in blood and the destruction of the natural world. Next up is the rise of mechanization, modernism, and Abstract Expressionism, and then Graham-Dixon takes a look at the age of capitalism and beyond, including Pop Art, a return to pantheism, and the “filthy money” versus “pure art” divide. A BBC Production. 3-part series, 50 minutes each.

Introduction to Art is a six-part series. For more information refer to the individual episodic descriptions.