Free Thinking

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Free Thinking: Modernism around the World

Modernism around the World

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Modernism around the World

Rana Mitter looks at Bauhaus in Delhi, Japanese and South African novels and Mexican art.

Presenter Rana Mitter and guests put aside modernism’s Eurocentricism and look at pioneering art, writing and architecture from India, South Africa, Japan and Latin America.

Murals which aimed to synthesise the history and culture of Mexico, Japanese novels exploring urban alienation, an exhibition of Bauhaus paintings from Germany which inspired a generation of Indian artists.

Presenter Rana Mitter is joined by Jade Munslow Ong, Christopher Harding, Maria Blanco, and Devika Singh. 

Amongst the Modernist writers and artists mentioned are: 
Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro
Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and poet Manuel Maples Arce
Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral
Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, and painter Wifredo Lam
Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges
Indian writer and artist Rabindranath Tagore, and artist Amrita Sher-Gil
South African writers Olive Schreiner, Roy Campbell, Solomon Plaatje, Rolfes Dhlomo
Japanese theorist Okakura Kakuzō, and writers Edogawa Ranpo, and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Producer: Luke Mulhall 

Image: the Indian polymath and modernist Rabindranath Tagore
Image credit: Keystone France/Getty Images

Originally broadcast as part of the Modernism season on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and BBC Sounds. There is a collection on the Free Thinking programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07p3nxh

And across the Proms season, various interval features are focusing on cultural openings and events from 1922.  You can find those available to download as Arts and Ideas podcasts.

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