A sharp contrast with the arts of a hundred years before: movement, psychological tension, expression and a sense of drama. Alastair Sooke, Treasures of Ancient Greece II
The classical style had arrived, and would become the bedrock of Western art. ibid.
The art of the ancient Greeks has dazzled the world. With their mastery of technique and their fascination for the human form they reach new heights of beauty and sophistication. Alastair Sooke, Treasures of Ancient Greece III
The Renaissance saw Greek art rediscovered, celebrated and reborn through a new generation. ibid.
In its place he [Hitler] commissioned state-sponsored Greek-style art. Most have now been destroyed. ibid.
We were seeing the future and we knew it for sure ... [Andy] Warhol and his fellow pop artists created some of the most memorable images of the twentieth century. Alastair Sooke, Soup Cans and Superstars, BBC 2015
Pop seemed tacky and lightweight, a vacuous fad ... Pop offered modern art to the masses. ibid.
Johnson ... created some of America's earliest pop art. ibid.
Oldenburg ... quickly became an influential figure in the downtown avant-garde performance art movement known as the Happenings. ibid.
In fact Pop Art was invented not in America at the start of the sixties but ten years earlier in Britain. ibid.
Richard Hamilton: for years his brainy take on Pop Art was neglected. ibid.
The art of Peter Blake is a riot of working-class entertainment. The pleasures of rock music, the fairground, the circus. ibid.
[Allen] Jones ... gave Kubrick his blessing to copy his work in A Clockwork Orange. ibid.
There were female Pop Artists who attacked the chauvinism of popular culture and were than side-lined for years. ibid.
Nichola L made this furniture when she arrived in New York in 1967. ibid.
Paris: new [poster] designs appeared in their hundreds. The posters were the work of ... the People’s Studio ... 1968 Pop Art finally connected with the workers on the street. ibid.
Behind the Iron Curtain where from the beginning of the seventies Pop became a means of political subversion. ibid.
From towering temples to gorgeous galleries, from traditional tunes to contemporary creators, every great city offers a dazzling mix of world class artistic treasures and hidden delights. Alastair Sooke & Janina Ramirez: Amsterdam: An Art Lovers’ Guide s1e1, BBC 2017
It’s been credited with creating a new kind of society, dominated not by kings but by citizens. ibid.
90 islands, 1,500 bridges they put in. ibid.
These homely looking canal houses became its best-known landmark … Amsterdam’s houses are tall and thin because they were taxed by width. ibid.
Tulip vases … inspired by the porcelain they are importing from China … their own solution: Delftware. ibid.
From towering temples to gorgeous galleries. From traditional tunes to contemporary creators … We’re selecting our must-see sites … Barcelona’s known as the city of inspired artists like Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso and it’s home to some of the most enchanting architecture on Earth. Alastair Sooke & Janina Ramirez: Barcelona: An Art Lovers’ Guide s1e2
Antoni Gaudi designed some of the city’s most famous buildings. ibid.
Where culture has always taken centre stage as a means of enhancing power and control … Everywhere you look there are these enormous buildings. Alastair Sooke & Janina Ramirez: St Petersburg: An Art Lovers’ Guide s1e3
After seizing territory in this area in 1703 Peter decreed that a new capital city be built here. ibid.
St Isaac’s cathedral … built to hold up to 14,000 worshippers … It’s breathtakingly lavish. ibid.
The Winter Palace is still a symbol for St Petersburg as it’s the heart of the city’s cultural showstopper the Hermitage museum. Its collections are so vast some say it would take eleven years to see everything properly. ibid.
Lisbon: today’s it’s an increasingly fashionable city but with layers of rich culture and history. Alastair Sooke & Janina Ramirez: Lisbon: An Art Lovers’ Guide s2e1, BBC 2018
Manueline Gothic – that incredible flourishing of Portuguese architecture that really peaks around the beginning of the 16th century. ibid.
Beirut: This stunning Christian cathedral … built in 1968 … an Arab/Christian sect … Art and architecture take on a key role … brutalist building. Alastair Sooke & Janina Ramirez: Beirut: An Art Lover’s Guide s2e2
Some of Beirut’s most precious art found itself on the front line of the war. ibid.
Its contemporary art scene which is generating a genuinely exciting international buzz. ibid.
The art and culture of Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, the land of fire. Home to the oldest oilfields on Earth … modernising at breakneck speed … Europe meets Asia. Alastair Sooke & Janina Ramirez: Baku: An Art Lovers Guide s2e3
The tradition of carpet-making is fundamental to Baku. ibid.
There is a certain magical stretch of the Thames in London that was at the centre of an 18th century cultural movement that changed our British landscapes for ever. At the heart of it was a fascination with the ancient concept of Arcadia, where man and nature lived in perfect pastoral harmony. A radical group of writers and artists completely overturned the idea of what comprised a beautiful landscape. Janina Ramirez & John Bailey, In Search of Arcadia, BBC 2017
Et In Arcadia Ego: Nicholas Poussin 1638. ibid.
I’ll be on the trail of a cast of remarkable archaeologists each a product of their era: from a self-taught amateur to a pair of charismatic adventurers. And an academic driven by a dark political agenda. They are fascinating tales of intuition, eccentricity and luck. Janina Ramirez, Raiders of the Lost Past II
I come to the caves of southern Germany where just a week before hostilities began, an ice-age treasure from our distant past emerged from the gloom … Carved from a single piece of mammoth ivory, this half-human half-animal is a modest work of art by modern standards, but it makes a revolution in the human story. ibid.
Numerous chance discoveries across eight decades, discoveries that at times seem to defy belief … The oldest known representational work of art in human history. ibid.
Volgelherd Cave 1931 excavation: It seems we were brilliant artists from the very beginning … There are exquisitely carved mammoths, and powerful muscular lions, an array of tiny masterpieces. ibid.
In the late 1950s as Germany rebuilt after the War, Robert Wetzel was back at the Stadal cave … He completely ignored the exciting find made by his team in the summer of 1939. ibid.
What would become known as the Lion-Man … It caused a sensation … It required a high degree of technical skill. ibid.
In the caves of the Swabian Jura archaeologists have uncovered not only the earliest examples of representational art but the first evidence we have of music. ibid.