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The High Art of the Low Countries: Daydreams and Nightmares

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

The High Art of the Low Countries

20/09/2014 GMT

Daydreams and Nightmares

BBC World News - The High Art of the Low Countries, Daydreams and Nightmares

How the Low Countries rose again to become a cultural leader in the modern age.

Andrew Graham-Dixon shows how the Low Countries rose again to become a cultural leader in the modern age, with artists like Van Gogh, Mondrian and Magritte.

Following a brief period of decline, the entrepreneurial and industrious region of the Low Countries rose again to become a cultural leader in the modern age. Despite its small and almost insignificant size it produced important forward-thinking artists like Van Gogh, Mondrian, Magritte and Delvaux, who changed the face of art forever. Andrew's journey takes him to a remote beach in north west Holland that inspired Mondrian's transition to his now-renowned abstract grid paintings. Andrew digs deep into the psychology and social history of the region, exploring how the landscape of the past has informed the culture and identity of the Low Countries today and the impossibility of the Dutch drive to turn the philosophy of Mondrian's geometric order into a way of living.

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Exploring how history has influenced the Low Countries' art, architecture and culture.

Series in which Andrew Graham-Dixon tours the Low Countries, exploring how history has influenced the area's art, architecture and culture.

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