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Seasons & Episodes

EP1 Second Moment of Creation Apr 17, 2018

Examine the formative role of art and the creative imagination in the forging of humanity itself. Images and artifacts found in Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and South America testify to the urge to develop civilizations. Liev Schreiber narrates.

EP2 How Do We Look? Apr 24, 2018

Explore the many functions of the human image in art. Portraits, paintings and sculptures, both life-size and colossal, perform a role—assuaging loss, expressing strength, inspiring fear—and were instrumental in depicting the human body today.

EP3 God and Art May 01, 2018

Trace the relationship between religion and art, which has inspired some of the most ingenious, affecting, majestic and breathtaking works of art ever made. Yet beneath great works of religious art often lie conflict, intrigue and divine mysteries.

EP4 Encounters May 08, 2018

See how advances in seafaring and a thirst for trade and exploration sent human beings around the planet. Distant and disparate cultures met for the first time, and art became the great interface by which civilizations understood each other.

EP5 Renaissances May 15, 2018

Travel east and west to explore the connections and rivalries between Renaissance Italy and the Islamic empires that experienced their own cultural flowering in the 15th and 16th centuries. Both spheres were open to influences flowing both ways.

EP6 Paradise on Earth Jun 12, 2018

Explore one of humanity’s deepest artistic urges: the depiction of nature. But landscape painting is seldom a straightforward portrayal of observed nature; it's a projection of dreams, idylls, escapes and refuges—the elusive paradise on earth.

EP7 Color and Light Jun 19, 2018

Explore the story of light and color in art—both in the search for greater realism and spiritual ecstasy. Journey from Gothic cathedrals and Indian courtly painting to modern art.

EP8 The Cult of Progress Jun 26, 2018

Examine the rise and fall of “progress” as an ideology, and see how the “civilizing” project that arose from Enlightenment ideas was fraught with contradictions that troubled European artists in different ways.

EP9 What is Art Good For? Jul 03, 2018

Explore art in the age of revolution, war and profound scientific change and consider the question: Should art create a separate realm, a place of escape, or should it plunge into the chaos, transforming the way we see and live in the world?

7.8| 0h30m| NR| en| More Info

Released: 17 April 2018 Ended

Producted By: BBC

Country: United Kingdom

Budget: 0

Revenue: 0

Official Website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05xxp5j

Synopsis

The story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day—for the first time on a global scale. Inspired by Civilisation, Kenneth Clark’s acclaimed landmark 1969 series about Western art, this series broadens the canvas to reveal the role art and the creative imagination have played across multiple cultures and civilizations.

Stream Online

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Cast

Liev Schreiber , Simon Schama , Jamal J. Elias

Director

Producted By

BBC