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Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art?

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

19/09/2016

BBC Four - Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art?

Dr James Fox embarks on an open-minded guide to conceptual art for the perplexed.

Dr James Fox embarks on an open-minded guide to conceptual art. He examines a selection of the most influential conceptual ideas and artworks and meets today's movers and shakers.

Dr James Fox has never really got conceptual art. And he's not alone. Conceptual art has been treated with suspicion and incredulity by virtually everyone outside the art world for nearly a hundred years. Ever since Marcel Duchamp first displayed a signed urinal and claimed it was art in 1917. So was he taking the piss? Or was he on to something, creating a whole new approach to art that has now lasted a century? 

Dr Fox embarks on an open-minded guide for the perplexed and asks 'What is conceptual art?', 'How should we approach it?' and crucially, 'Why should we care?'. Roaming between the past, present and future he examines a mind-bending selection of the most influential conceptual ideas and artworks, alongside meeting the leading movers and shakers of today. And who knows? In the end, Dr Fox might find himself unexpectedly seduced by this trickiest of art forms.

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