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Wars and Peace

Art That Made Us Series 1
Episode 7 of 8

The world wars force artists to grapple with destruction and savagery, challenging conventions and the old imperial order, while those fleeing war bring new ideas to Britain.

Art goes to war during the first half of the 20th century: war with the old imperial order, war with convention and war with the very idea of what it means to be human. This is a story of artists grappling with the destruction, fighting back and transforming the culture of the Isles.

Actress Michelle Fairley performs WB Yeats鈥檚 poem Easter 1916, with its resonant phrase 鈥榓 terrible beauty is born鈥� marking a turning of the tide against the British Empire. Contemporary war photographer Oliver Chanarin traces the story of William Orpen鈥檚 subversive protest image, To the Unknown British Soldier in France, picturing a lone draped coffin amid the magnificence of the Palace of Versailles, where peace delegates met in 1919.

Some artists rejected war with their bohemian lifestyles or their utopian visions of a better future for the people. Artist Lachlan Goudie explores the great interwar shipbuilding project, the Queen Mary ocean liner, with its fusion of Glaswegian engineering and art deco luxury.

As refugees flee Germany in the 1930s ahead of a new war, comedian Eddie Izzard appreciates the radical modernist vision of the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, designed by German and Russian Jewish 茅migr茅s, and photographer Hannah Starkey reflects on the outsider鈥檚 point of view photographer Bill Brandt brought to his images of 1930s poverty, including the seminal Coal-Searcher Going 主播大秀 to Jarrow.

With the Second World War bringing new horrors, artists grappled with Nazi atrocities. Film director Andrew MacDonald explores the controversy sparked by The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a highly original take on the British war effort written and produced by his grandfather Emeric Pressburger. Artist Ryan Gander examines how sculptor Barbara Hepworth tried to make sense of war by reaching for beauty in abstract human forms, and Denzil Forrester looks ahead to the postcolonial aftermath of war, signalled by Indian artist FN Souza鈥檚 suffering black Christ in his 1959 painting Crucifixion.

Available now

59 minutes

Last on

Tue 5 Dec 2023 02:45
主播大秀 Four

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Clip

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Agnes Obel

    Fivefold

  • 00:02

    Giuseppe Verdi

    Nabucco: Va Pensiero (Chorus of The Hebrew Slaves)

  • 00:05

    Sigur R贸s

    Ba Ba

  • 00:07

    Air

    Astronomic Club

  • 00:07

    Jon Hopkins

    Open Eye Signal

  • 00:09

    Charles Trenet

    Boum

  • 00:10

    Massive Attack

    Future Proof

  • 00:11

    Nils Frahm

    More

  • 00:17

    Caribou

    Bowls

  • 00:19

    Mogwai

    I Know You Are But What Am I?

  • 00:21

    Lisa Gerrard

    Celon

  • 00:22

    Faithless

    Sunday 8pm

  • 00:30

    David Holmes

    The Story Of The Ink

  • 00:32

    The xx

    Chained

  • 00:32

    Nils Frahm

    Kaleidoscope

  • 00:34

    Seinabo Sey

    Pistols At Dawn

  • 00:36

    Bonobo

    狈辞肠迟耻补谤测听

  • 00:39

    Sandy Nelson

    In Beat

  • 00:44

    Gy枚rgy Ligeti

    Atmospheres (Excerpt) (2018 Remastered)

  • 00:45

    Brian Eno

    In Dark Trees

  • 00:46

    The xx

    Fantasy

  • 00:48

    Leftfield

    Melt

  • 00:51

    Ghostpoet

    Run Run Run

  • 00:52

    Aphex Twin

    Jynweythek

  • 00:58

    Pulp

    Disco 2000 (7" Mix)

Credits

Narrator David Threlfall
Director Kate Misrahi
Producer Helena Hunt
Series Producer Melanie Fall
Executive Producer Russell Barnes
Executive Producer Denys Blakeway
Production Company ClearStory Ltd

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