When the Impressionists Discovered Japan

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.

Paris, 1964. The Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, one of the most accomplished and respected artists of his generation, asks his friend, the American writer James Lord, to sit for a portrait, assuring him that it will take no longer than two or three hours, an afternoon at the most.

Paris 1913. Coco Chanel is infatuated with the rich and handsome Boy Capel, but she is also compelled by her work. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is about to be performed. The revolutionary dissonances of Igor's work parallel Coco's radical ideas. She wants to democratize women's fashion; he wants to redefine musical taste. Coco attends the scandalous first performance of The Rite in a chic white dress. The music and ballet are criticized as too modern, too foreign. Coco is moved but Igor is inconsolable.

Paradise Found is a biography about the painter Paul Gauguin. Focusing on his personal conflict between citizen life and his family life and the art scene in Frane. In an incredible imagery montage Gauguin manages to make a successful living in the South Pacific, while being in opposition to France.

John Simm stars as Vincent Van Gogh in The Yellow House, a feature-length drama that tells the moving human story of the most influential and explosive housemates in art history. For just nine weeks, in late 1888, Van Gogh and Gauguin share a home, The Yellow House, in Arles, southern France.

He is both a painter of impressive portraits and an inventor of enigmatic pictorial worlds: Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) was a respected court painter in Spain. The loss of his hearing, the mysterious death of the Duchess of Alba, with whom he was undyingly in love, the reign of terror of the French Revolution, and finally the Napoleonic Wars all left their mark on his work. Against this contemporary historical background, he became one of the first pioneers of modern art, whose pictures still exert a magical fascination today.

Waldemar Januszczak explores the impact of Mary Magdalene's myth on art and artists. In art all Christian saints are inventions but Mary Magdalene has been the subject of more invention and re-invention than any other.

The British sculptor travels across the world to view early examples of art in France, Spain, Indonesia and Australia as he seeks to find out where art first began.

There is an interlinking history of violent European colonialism and the cultural legacy of ethnographic collections in institutions. This documentary traces the progression of colonial history from the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 to the systematic elimination of cultural traditions, religions and lifeways which would occur sporadically through genocides and warfare until the early 20th century throughout the African continent—surveying the inquiries and movements for historical justice, the relationships between European institutions and colonial violence and following enduring struggles against these organisations to regain what was taken.

Throughout the 19th century, imaginative and visionary artists and inventors brought about the advent of a new look, absolutely modern and truly cinematographic, long before the revolutionary invention of the Lumière brothers and the arrival of December 28, 1895, the historic day on which the first cinema performance took place.

The many references in contemporary film to Edward Hopper's works, as well as the widespread reproduction of some of his paintings have made his universe familiar to many. His unclassifiable figurations weave a dialogue between appearances and light, between the unmistakeable and enigma. Focusing on the artist's personal life in the context of 20th century America, "Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas" bears witness to a fiercely independent painter, who was aware of the issues of his era, and who was hostile to the imprisonment that a modern American art opposing realism and abstraction could lead him to. This film brings the artist to life, transposing his realist and metaphysical poetry. It is a subtile and passionate work, which at last unveils one of the most important painters of American modernity.

A documentary about the "The Mystic Lamb" painted at the beginning of the 15th century by the Van Eyck brothers.

Nigel Spivey reveals how the images which surround us today come from the ancient world. It's an epic journey spanning five continents and a hundred thousand years of history.

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

Art writer Waldemar Januszczak explores the revolutionary achievements of the Impressionists.

Sister Wendy Beckett takes a journey through the history of art in this ten-part series.

First broadcast on October 2, 1989, these 18 original 30-minute episodes provide a panorama of 2000 years of architecture, painting and sculpture, and studies the art masterpieces as reflections of the Western culture that produced them.

This 3 part series is presented by the British Art Critic, Andrew Graham-Dixon. He explores the Low Countries of the Netherlands and Belgium and how history has influenced the area's art, architecture and culture. Cloth was used in the area's first expression of art in the making of tapestries going back to the 14 th century. They were the No. 1 luxury item of the day. The Low Countries were well placed geographically for markets for their art.

A history of American art with Waldemar Januszczak

Enjoy a bird's-eye view of Japan's amazingly diverse landscapes, as well as intimate portraits of people leading contrasting lives.

Discover some the most beautiful sites in the Japan, the great spectacle of nature and the subtle balance that prevails between tradition and modernity.

Mary Beard gives a personal and provocative take on the nude in Western art, from Ancient Greece to the present. Just why do artists and viewers seem so obsessed by nudity?

Art historian Waldemar Januszczak uncovers the secret meanings hidden within some of the greatest paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Seurat .

Through a combination of interviews and studio reconstructions, recount the gripping stories behind those who have excavated and stolen masterpieces.

In his most personal project to date, Simon Schama looks back at the dramatic history that has played out in his lifetime. Best known for writing history, he has lived a fair bit of it too. Born in 1945, on the night of the bombing of Dresden, Simon grew up as part of a generation determined to rebuild the world from the ashes of war. In this film, he reveals the stories of artists and writers who have been at the forefront of the fight for truth and democracy, often at great personal cost.

A look into Frida Kahlo's world, revealing an artist driven by politics, power, sex and identity, with her epic love affair with Diego Rivera at the heart of it all.

Nabi, Rafaël and Mona are small but boy can they talk up a storm as they comment, in their own particular way, on all of the masterpieces in the wonderful museums of our lovely country. They will span the ages from classical painting to modern art and Islamic art. It’s a great, hassle-free way of brushing up on your Art and sounding really smart at your next milk and cookies cocktail.