Henry Moore

John Read's father was Herbert Read, the renowned poet, art critic and founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, who was knighted despite his anarchist views. He was an early champion of Moore at a time when reaction to the artist's work was generally unfavourable.

Influential abstract artists discuss their work in this selection of archive programmes.

Abstract Art Collection

Programmes are selected, in part, for their historical context and reflect the broadcast standards and attitudes of their time, which may not accord to some current BBC editorial guidelines. We aim to select programmes which can be shown in their entirety but in some cases edits are required.