Eight films on modern art and a century of change.
Robert Hughes looks at the past 100 years through the lens of its art, from the Impressionists to the present day.
1: The Mechanical Paradise
In 1913 a French writer remarked ' the world has changed less since the time of Jesus Christ than it has in the last 30 years'. This was a widespread feeling. Rapid advances in science and technology radically changed man's view of himself and the world in which he lived. And artists responded with radical new approaches to the new world.
This film shows the optimism with which people in general, and artists in particular, reacted to the machine age.
Written and presented by ROBERT HUGHES
Hughes has gone a long way towards restoring to television the combination of wide knowledge and natural eloquence that has not been seen and heard on this subject since Lord Clark retired from the screen. (OBSERVER) Film editor MARTIN CRUMP
Produced by LORNA pegram