Season 1 • Episode 6
Latest"The Shock of the Now" begins with a feeling of hope. But by now the author himself has doubts and can no longer totally reassure us that all is well in the Modern art department. Could it be indeed that the Modern art "we" have chosen is vacuous or empty? The chapter has lots about Bruce Nauman, good news if you're a fan; some Julian Schnabel, more of Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol. Look out for an original and insightful take on Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Sigmar Polke is mentioned because he's big in America; Salvador Dali appears again with some details of his over-the-top scandalous lifestyle; Peter Davies, who painted various lists (in words) of his top hundred artists; Jeff Koons and his multi-million dollar exhibition-in-progress, Celebration, not completed at the time of going to press; and so on.
This Is Modern Art was a six-part TV series written and presented by the English art critic Matthew Collings. It was broadcast in 1999 on Channel 4. The series won several awards including a BAFTA. It became popular both because of its sometimes jokey and sometimes thoughtful explanations of the work and attitude of a new wave of artists that had recently been publicized in the British mass media, and because of its author's witty and irreverent, though clearly highly informed, commentary style. Collings went on to create several more TV series and programmes for Channel 4, including Impressionism Revenge of The Nice, Self Portraits The Me Generations and This Is Civilisation.
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