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Rise of the Cities

Art That Made Us Series 1
Episode 6 of 8

With the industrial revolution transforming the British Isles, the cities and country are divided, and artists respond to the upheavals to lives and the landscape.

The 19th century saw a decisive shift in power from the countryside to the cities. With the industrial revolution transforming the British Isles, a divide opened up between the urban and the rural, forcing artists to respond to the upheaval to lives and the landscape. Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson reflects on the inspiration of JMW Turner, arguably the first environmental artist, and we encounter Penry Williams’s attempt to capture the beauty of industry with paintings like Cyfarthfa Ironworks Interior at Night.

Some artists attempt to capture the poverty and squalor caused by the rapid urbanisation around them. Actress Maxine Peake reads from Elizabeth Gaskell’s campaigning novel North and South, architect Fiona Sinclair assesses Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s architecture for the people of Glasgow, and artist Jeremy Deller explores William Morris’s drive to bring nature back into Victorian homes through his hand-crafted wallpaper designs.

As art becomes appropriated by commerce in the late 19th century, some artists fight back with new individuality and flair. Writer and drag performer Amrou Al-Kadhi explores the meaning and inspiration of Oscar Wilde’s writing, and artist Shani Rhys James reflects on the quiet anger that simmers underneath Walter Sickert’s Camden Town Nudes, an unflinching vision of the grimy realities of working-class lives at the turn of the 20th century.

Available now

58 minutes

Last on

Tue 28 Nov 2023 02:50
±«Óătv Four

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Clip

Music Played

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

  • 00:05

    Bălănescu Quartet

    Aria

  • 00:08

    Public Service Broadcasting

    Every Valley

  • 00:13

    Air

    Astronomic Club

  • 00:15

    Leftfield

    21St Century Poem

  • 00:15

    Doves

    Black And White Town

  • 00:17

    Elbow, Richard Jupp

    Loneliness of A Tower Crane Driver

  • 00:18

    Paul Englishby

    ŽĄ±ôŸ±łŠ±đÌę

  • 00:25

    Michael Nyman, The Michael Nyman Band

    A Satire Against Reason

  • 00:26

    The Orb

    No Ice Age (feat. Lee “Scratch” Perry)

  • 00:27

    JĂłhann JĂłhannsson

    Melodia (Guidelines For A Space Propulsion Device)

  • 00:29

    Pulp

    This Is Hardcore

  • 00:30

    Leftfield

    Original

  • 00:33

    Neu!

    Hallogallo

  • 00:35

    Lisa Gerrard

    Celon

  • 00:39

    Bonobo

    Animals

  • 00:50

    Mogwai

    Auto Rock

  • 00:51

    Sons of Kemet

    My Queen is Anna Julia Cooper

  • 00:55

    The Orb

    Makin Love In Dub (feat. Lee “Scratch” Perry)

Credits

Narrator David Threlfall
Director Duncan Singh
Producer Ewan Roxburgh
Series Producer Melanie Fall
Executive Producer Michael Jackson
Executive Producer Denys Blakeway
Production Company ClearStory Ltd

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