BBC Two

New programming from BBC Arts on BBC Two.

Simon Schama’s The Romantic Revolution (3 x 60’)

The Romantics’ century-long incendiary revolution in thought and creativity changed the way we think of art and artists, of the idea of our individuality, but also how the elevation of passion over logic could change the political landscape.

They produced mind-blowing masterpieces - Gericault, Caspar David Friedrich and Delacroix in painting; Chopin and Schumann in music; Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley in poetry. The series will look at how their work gave birth to world changing forces which still shape our contemporary world today. From Mary Wollstonecraft’s feminism, the Brothers Grimm’s dark fairy tales, William Blake’s belief in a marriage of text and image that could transform the world, Shelley’s radical politics and atheist fury, the journey into the caverns of the sub-conscious explored by Coleridge and de Quincey, to the blossoming of national folk feeling in the ballads and poetry of Robert Burns.

• Simon Schama’s The Romantic Revolution is an Oxford Films production for BBC Two. The Executive Producer is Nicolas Kent. The Series Producers are Charlotte Sacher and Melanie Fall. The Producer and Director is Hugo Macgregor. It was commissioned by Mark Bell for BBC Arts and BBC Two.

In 2018 Manchester City Art Gallery took down one of its most popular paintings: Hylas And The Nymphs. A Victorian painting on a classical subject, it shows a clothed man crouching by a lily pond as bare-breasted nymphs rise to greet him.

Its removal caused a furore. The conservative press dubbed it an act of a modish puritanism: the thin end of a wedge which would see masterpieces stripped from gallery walls. The artist Sonia Boyce declared she only wanted to start a conversation, and the removal was temporary - but not before highlighting how the nude in Western Art is now an inflammatory and divisive subject.

In the #metoo era is the artistic nude intrinsically exploitative? What happens to the nude in a time of gender fluidity? From the impact of the statue of Alison Lapper on the Fourth Plinth to nudes being taken down from digital platforms, it’s a richly resonant topic that reaches beyond the art world.

In this timely and provocative series, Mary Beard encounters some of the most famous nudes in art - from the Venus de Medici to Michelangelo’s David - and argues controversy is nothing new. Though fraught with new dangers and anxieties, Mary shows that it has always been argued over and edged boundaries: these are works that people have banned, covered up and fetishized. And she goes beyond issues of sexism and censorship, to demonstrate how it can force us to confront some really big questions about what it is to be human and how we see ourselves.

She talks with experts and members of the public as well as contemporary artists and models about working in such a complex and challenging tradition. Throughout she brings her customary wit and razor-sharp intelligence to bear on the subject, taking the audience beyond the formal constraints of the gallery or museum.

• Mary Beard’s Shock Of The Nude is a Lion Television production for BBC Two. The Series Producer and Director is Deborah Lee. The Executive Producers are Richard Bradley and Denys Blakeway. The series was commissioned by Jonty Claypole for BBC Arts and BBC Two.

Maggi Hambling: The Quick And The Dead (1 x 60’)

In a deeply moving and definitive account, Maggi Hambling’s life story is told by her work and in conversation during breaks between painting at her studios in Suffolk and London. Both canonised and vilified as an artist, the international art world now celebrates the authenticity of her independent vision.

Her art is a profound response to love and loss. Her drawings capture the lives and actual death of her parents and friends, including her - and Francis Bacon’s - muse, Henrietta Moreas, denizen of the Colony Room in Soho.

This frank confrontation with death might imply a bleak story, but deadpan humour is always present. Her notorious ferocity might frighten unwanted visitors, and sometimes that is the intention, but she quickly removes her armour. Jokes and laughing keep her from despair at what she feels is humanity’s tendency to self-destruct. The Quick And The Dead reveals recent paintings from an artist who continues to subvert expectations as to what comes next and for whom life is her work.

• Maggi Hambling: The Quick And The Dead is a Menace Production and Filmwright Production for the BBC. It is produced and directed by Randall Wright with Executive Producer Denys Blakeway. The film was commissioned by Mark Bell for BBC Arts and BBC Two.

Vogue model, artist’s muse, fearless war photographer - Lee Miller had many lives. Built on images of Lee and by Lee, the film explores a pioneering female artist who defied expectations.

Lee Miller is one of the most remarkable female icons of the 20th century. A model turned photographer turned war reporter, this film celebrates a subject who defied anyone who tried to pin her down, put her on a pedestal or pigeonhole her in any way. It tells the story of a trailblazer who refused to be subjugated by the dominant male figures around her.

With interviews from the likes of conflict photographer Lynsey Addario (whose life is currently being made into a Hollywood movie) and supermodel Karen Elson, blended with exclusive access to the Lee Miller Estate and using archive that has never been seen before, her biographical story will be told by her son Anthony who will piece together a picture of a complicated, headstrong, gifted artist.

• Lee Miller is an Erica Starling / Ronachan Films production for the BBC. The film is directed by Teresa Griffiths and produced by Rachel Hooper with Executive Producer Angus Macqueen. It was commissioned by Emma Cahusac for BBC Arts and BBC Two.

International art sensation Keith Haring blazed a trail through the legendary art scene of 1980s New York and revolutionised the worlds of pop culture and fine art. This fascinating and compelling film - told using previously unheard interviews that form the narrative of the documentary - is the definitive story of the artist in his own words.

The film also includes exclusive, unprecedented access to the Haring Foundation’s archives, capturing the wild, creative energy behind some of the most recognisable art of the past 50 years.

Following Keith Haring’s diagnosis with AIDS in 1989, he asked writer and art critic John Gruen to write his biography. For five days in the summer of 1989, Keith gave Gruen the intimate and candid story of his life and these interviews are included in the film.

Haring’s closest friends, family and collaborators - from the sleepy Pennsylvania of his youth to the mythic clubs of gay New York - share their revelatory encounters, touching poignantly on the AIDS crisis, which made a tragic icon of this life-affirming artist.

• Arena: Keith Haring is a BBC Studios Production. It was commissioned for BBC Arts and BBC Two by Mark Bell. Ben Anthony is the Director. Alice Rhodes is the Producer. Janet Lee is the Executive Producer.

Henri Matisse is one of the most beloved painters of the 20th century. Best known for his cut-outs - childlike images that he cut directly from sheets of blazing colour - Matisse wanted his art to transcend the darkness and violence of the modern age. This alone has often seen him written off as a populist crowd-pleaser, not really a serious artist.

Yet Matisse was a rebel and a revolutionary. He became the first avant-garde artist of the 20th century and was considered so shocking that he was ridiculed by everyone from the critics to the public, and even by many of his fellow artists.

With interviews, animations and using Matisse’s own words (taken from his diaries and letters), Matisse’s great-granddaughter, Sophie Matisse, tells the tumultuous story of his early life. Matisse turned his back on the bourgeois aspirations of his parents and teachers. He suffered extraordinary financial insecurity and family drama and created a series of such notorious public scandals that he came to be known as ‘the wild beast’, an artistic savage whose work threatened the very values of Western civilization.

Retracing key places and moments in his early artistic life, Sophie looks closely at how this period affected his work: how the Matisse we’ve come to know – the master of colour and light - was forged in response to the adversity and public humiliation of his early life.

Pictured: Genevieve Taillade and Sophie Matisse

• Matisse is a Brook Lapping production for the BBC. The director is Hugo Macgregor with Executive Producer is Emma Hindley. The film was commissioned by Emma Cahusac for BBC Arts and BBC Two.

In this unique series, Secrets Of The Museum invites viewers into the hidden world of the Victoria and Albert Museum, going behind the scenes at the world-famous home of art, design and performance.

Following the V&A’s specialist teams, Secrets Of The Museum will reveal the tricks of their trade: the painstaking craftsmanship and expertise involved in conserving, cleaning, loaning, acquiring and displaying some of the museum’s two million and more amazing objects. From Christian Dior gowns to Queen Victoria's coronet, and from Kylie Minogue’s travelling wardrobe to the handlebars of Bradley Wiggins’ record-breaking bike, the staff of the V&A handle it all.

Told through the day-to-day lives of the V&A’s dedicated and world-class team, the hidden history of each object will be uncovered: from how it was made and why it matters, to the important work of the museum in keeping these stories alive for future generations.

• Secrets Of The Museum was commissioned by Emma Cahusac for BBC Arts and Catherine Catton for BBC Popular Factual and Factual Entertainment. It is produced in partnership with The Open University. The academic consultants for the series are Dr Leon Wainwright and Dr Clare Taylor. Executive Producers for Blast! Films are Alistair Pegg and Ed Coulthard. Rob Farquhar is Series Director and Series Producer is Vari Innes.

The Turner Prize

BBC Arts is collaborating with the Tate and Turner Contemporary to bring the Turner Prize 2019 from Margate to audiences everywhere in December. As part of its commitment to the prestigious prize, BBC News will cover the action from the ceremony live from Dreamland, Margate and across BBC networks the art and artists on this year’s shortlist will be explored in a variety of ways. Activity for the prize includes:

• A special BBC Two documentary will profile Margate, see how the Turner Contemporary has impacted the town and meet the Turner shortlist artists.
• BBC News will broadcast from the ceremony at Dreamland, Margate, as the winner of the Turner Prize 2019 is announced. It will also cover the prize and the artists on BBC News Online.
• BBC Radio 6 Music’s Art Is Everywhere with Mary Anne Hobbs will come live from the Turner Contemporary in Margate -asking listeners to create their own pieces of art inspired by music featured on Mary Anne Hobbs’ programme.
• Coverage of the Turner Prize award ceremony will be broadcast live on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News Channel.
• Specially curated playlists by the shortlisted artists will be created for BBC 6 Music and BBC Sounds to accompany the prize.

Margate And The Turner Prize (1 x 30’)

This year the Turner Prize comes from Margate for the first time and BBC Two takes the opportunity to profile the seaside town.

Since the painter JMW Turner came to Margate and marvelled at “the loveliest skies in all Europe,” newcomers have arrived, drawn to the seaside and also the sense that they might be able to find a new beginning here.

The documentary shows how these influxes of incomers - and the arrival of the Turner Institute - have impacted the town. The programme hears from Tracey Emin (herself a Margate girl), the Turner Prize shortlist artists and some of Margate’s residents.

• Margate and the Turner Prize is a BBC Studios Production. The Director is Jack Cocker with Executive Producer Debbie Christie. The film was commissioned by Lamia Dabboussy for BBC Two.

Related Media Centre Links

• BBC Arts and Arts Council England announce first New Creatives commissions