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Antony Gormley: How Art Began

Duration: 1 hour, 13 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Two HDLatest broadcast: on BBC Four

Why do humans make art? When did we begin to make our mark on the world? And where? In this film, Britain's most celebrated sculptor Antony Gormley is setting out on a journey to see for himself the very beginnings of art.

Once we believed that art began with the cave paintings of Ice Age Europe, tens of thousands of years ago. But now, extraordinary new
discoveries around the world are overturning that idea. Antony is going to travel across the globe, and thousands of years back in time, to piece together a new story of how art began. He discovers beautiful, haunting and surprising works of art, deep inside caves across France, Spain and Indonesia, and in Australian rock shelters. He finds images created by hunter-gatherers that surprise him with their tenderness, and affinity with the natural world. He discovers the secrets behind the techniques used by our ancestors to create these paintings. And he meets experts making discoveries that are turning the clock back on when art first began.

Finally Antony asks what these images from millennia ago can tell us - about who we are. As he says, 'If we can look closely at the art of our ancestors, perhaps we will be able to reconnect with something vital that we have lost."'. Show less

Contributors

Presenter:
Antony Gormley
Expert:
Adam Brumm
Interviewed Guest:
Adrian French
Interviewed Guest:
Augustine Unghango
Director:
Morag Tinto
Production Manager:
Laura Miller
Executive Producer:
Alistair Pegg
On-line editing:
Tristan Lancey
Production Company:
Blast! Films
Consultant:
Paul Bahn
Executive Producer:
Edmund Coulthard

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