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Front Row: The Aesthetic Movement at the V&A, and Kylie's Show Director

The Aesthetic Movement at the V&A, and Kylie's Show Director

25/03/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The Aesthetic Movement at the V&A, and Kylie's Show Director

The Aesthetic Movement at the V&A and director of Kylie's Aphrodite-Les Folies Show.

Kirsty Lang discusses The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 at the V&A, and talks to William Baker, Kylie's Show Director for her Aphrodite-Les Folies Tour.

'Art for Art's sake' was the mantra of the 19th century Aesthetic Movement and Oscar Wilde was probably its most famous disciple. A major new exhibition The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement in Britain 1860-1900 includes work by Aubrey Beardsley, Burne-Jones, Whistler and Oscar Wilde, displays of sculpture, furniture, fashion and literature, and explores how the idea of the 'house beautiful' became a touchstone of cultured life. Author and art historian Lucinda Hawkesley reviews.

Kylie Minogue's new stage spectacular, the Aphrodite-Les Folies Tour, is directed by William Baker, who is also Director of The Hurly Burly Show, a burlesque review in London's West End, staring Miss Polly Rae. William Baker discusses his work on both projects.

Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Philip Hensher discusses his new novel King of the Badgers, a contemporary slice of life set in a small English town. Following the disappearance of an eight-year-old girl, a search for the missing child exposes deep cracks and divisions in a small community keen to maintain its privacy.

And as Britney Spears releases Femme Fatale, her seventh studio album, we ask Rowan Pelling, journalist and former editor of Erotic Review, to assess the modern femme fatale. French for 'deadly woman' the femme fatale flourished in popular culture through the success of the film noir during the 40s and 50s, and became synonymous with dangerous sexuality. Is Britney Spears a convincing modern femme fatale? 

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

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