Isle of Jura: An extraordinary combination of fire, stone and water, what Julie Brooke called her firestacks. ibid.
Humans have made markers on the coast for millennia. ibid.
Richard Long: A Ten Mile Walk, 1968. ibid.
This is a painting by the great 17th century French artist Claude Lorraine. It looks nature but it obeys a strict formula of idealised beauty. ibid.
Alex Pope once wrote that all gardening was landscape painting. ibid.
The Land of the Rising Sun, but we know it by a different name. Japan has fascinated me since I was a boy. It’s always seemed like a parallel universe ... I’ll seek out its greatest art works both old and new. But this is also a journey into Japanese life. James Fox, The Art of Japanese Life I: Nature, BBC 2017
These artists continue to work with Nature, to revere it and to draw inspiration from the landscape that surrounds them. ibid.
This is Nachi Falls. It’s one of the tallest waterfalls in Japan. ibid.
Ritual is at the heart of Shintoism … Nature itself is being venerated … Its influence can be felt right through the history of Japanese art. ibid.
This is The Splashed Ink Landscape. Sesshu painted it in 1495. ibid.
Another art form that combines nature and culture: these are of course Bonsai. ibid.
The preoccupation with cherry blossom is part of a broader set of interests: Japanese culture celebrates all of the seasons, not simply the spring. ibid.
Irises: a pair of six-panel screens dating back to 1710. ibid.
Hokusai’s success came slowly; he’s best known for his woodcut prints … the diversity of his output was breathtaking. ibid.
At exactly 8.15 an American bombadier above them pulled a lever. The commuters may have seen a flash of light but within seconds they and the city of Hiroshima were engulfed in the largest man-made explosion in history. James Fox, The Art of Japanese Life II: Cities
The history of Japanese cities is the history of their destruction. ibid.
Some of the most dynamic places in the world. ibid.
They helped mould the very idea of Japan itself. ibid.
Kyoto was the blueprint for a utopia. ibid.
Utamaro was a master of understatement. ibid.
As Japan changed the West so the West changed Japan. ibid.
Tokyo was changing in other ways. A huge programme of construction and industrialisation was underway. ibid.
Japan and Tokyo in particular has become a creative hub of food, fashion, film, consumer electronics, computer games and many other forms of popular culture. ibid.
Kusama has been creating her own brand of pop art since the 1960s. ibid.
This little bento box is almost like a work of art … almost too beautiful to eat. James Fox, The Art of Japanese Life III: Home
In Japan much of domestic life is informed by aesthetics. ibid.
Rinshunkaku is a lesson in domestic design. ibid.
Many Japanese people are obsessed with flower arranging. ibid.
The Pacific Ocean is the world’s biggest feature covering 60 million square miles, a third of our planet’s surface. And is larger than all seven continents combined. James Fox, Oceans Apart: Art & the Pacific I: Australia, BBC 2018
An historic encounter between Oceania and the West, between indigenous people and those who went on to colonize them. ibid.
A complicated story and not always a happy one. ibid.
Extraordinary creativity endured, flourished and is today famous around the world. ibid.
These barramundi started being painted here 8,000 years ago and in a uniquely perceptive way … As I continue my journey through the rocks I find yet more paintings. ibid.
George Stubbs: This is the first painting of a kangaroo in the history of modern art. ibid.
Of course indigenous Australians had been painting such creatures for millennia, and in a distinctive style that is still practised today. ibid.
Thomas Watling: This is his depiction of Sydney Harbour in 1794, painted just 6 years after the arrival of the first fleet. But perhaps the most interesting of these convict artists was Thomas Bock. ibid.
One painting in particular captured the new Australian optimism, Arthur Streeton’s Golden Summer, Eaglemont. This is Australia’s Hay Wain. ibid.
But Streeton’s paradise had come at a cost. ibid.
By 1900 Aboriginal people had been written out of the story of modern Australia, and certainly out of its art. But in the 20th century that would begin to change. ibid.
These amateur artists who had never worked with such materials before possessed almost limitless creativity, working not in the Western style but with indigenous motifs. One extraordinary image after another. ibid.
Some dot paintings commanding astronomical sums. ibid.
For centuries we have projected our fantasies on to the south seas, imagining this remote corner of the world as a place only of pristine beaches, perennially ripe fruit and hoola girls in every direction. James Fox, Oceans Apart: Art & the Pacific II: Polynesia
A seminal cultural encounter that was both creative and destructive. ibid.
Hawaiian society was as complex as its engineering projects. Communities were highly stratified, run by hereditary chiefs. ibid.
These unforgettable faces belong to Kuka Ilimoku, the land snatcher, the island eater, the Hawaiian god of war. ibid.
Welcome to Paradise: This is William Hodge’s grand vision of Tahiti, and what a vision it is. ibid.
One of these settlers stands out from all others. Someone who reinvented the fantasy of paradise in large part through the objectification of Polynesian women: Paul Gauguin. ibid.
This episode tells the story of the Maori. Their first clashes with Europeans, collaborations of exchange that followed, how many Maori resisted colonisation and went on to stage an audacious cultural revival that has made its mark on many aspects of modern life. James Fox, Oceans Apart: Art & the Pacific III: New Zealand
Their particular genius was for sculpture. From the 15th century the Maori began constructing large permanent households often adorned with elaborate carvings. ibid.
All around the meeting house are wall panels called poupou that depict ancestral history and myth. ibid.
By the beginning of the 20th century the Maori population had dwindled to 40,000. They now accounted for just 1 in 15 New Zealanders. ibid.