''British Masters'' is a three-part BBC television series on 20th century British art, presented by

Dr James Fox James Fox (born February 1982) is a British art historian and BAFTA nominated broadcaster. Fox specialises in 20th-century art and is currently Director of Studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Fox is most notable for pre ...

and first broadcast in July 2011 on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

. The series covers the period from 1910 to 1975. The first programme explored the lives and works of Mark Gertler, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Walter Sickert, Wyndham Lewis,

Lawrence Atkinson Lawrence Atkinson (1873–1931) was an English artist, musician and poet. Early life Atkinson was born at Chorlton upon Medlock, near Manchester, on 17 January 1873.''Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism''. Tate Gallery, London, 1956, p. 27. He began b ...

, David Bomberg, Richard Nevinson, Paul Nash and

Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small ...

. The second programme explored the works of John Nash, Stanley Spencer, Alfred Munnings, William Coldstream, Paul Nash and John Piper. In the third programme, subtitled 'A New Jerusalem,' Fox explored British art in the aftermath of the 2nd World War, and examined the works of Lucian Freud, Graham Sutherland, Francis Bacon, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney and Keith Vaughan. In this final programme of the series Fox explored how the themes of evil, brutality, dehumanisation, consumerism and optimism can be seen in the works of these postwar artists. Fox contends in this programme that the death of Lucian Freud and the emergence of conceptual art have marginalised, eclipsed and brought to an end the tradition of British figurative painting. In each case, the backgrounds, techniques, subjects and interests of each artist are analysed against a backdrop of the social and political events of their day, especially the two world wars, the decline of Edwardian values and traditions, the poverty and economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s and the relative sense of optimism following both wars. The programmes also reflect a personal and national search for security in enduring but elusive British values, beliefs and identity in what Fox depicts as a century of crisis and upheaval, in which much more had perhaps been lost than gained. Fox's provocative approach seems to have divided the critics: '' The Times'' called the series "superb television;" and '' The Observer'' called it "absurdly lucid," but one critic criticised the series for its "grandiose, inflammatory statements," while Fisun Güner described Fox's revisionist case as "ludicrous."Güner, Fisun, ''British Masters, BBC Four/ The World's Most Expensive Paintings,'' BBC One, 12 July 2011
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References

External links

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''British Masters'': My one big chance to get even, BBC blog
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120818173456/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2011/07/british-masters-james-fox.shtml , date=18 August 2012 2011 British television series debuts 2011 British television series endings BBC television documentaries 2010s British documentary television series Documentary television series about art British art English-language television shows