The Shock of the New is an eight-part documentary television series about the development of modern art written and presented in 1980 by
Robert Hughes for the
BBC, in association with
Time-Life Films. It was produced by
Lorna Pegram, who also directed three of the episodes.[1]
Overview
The series took three years to create and Hughes travelled about 250,000 miles (400,000 km) during the filming to include particular places or people. The series also used archive footage of featured artists.[2]
The series was broadcast by the
BBC in 1980 in the United Kingdom and by
PBS in 1981 in the United States.[3][4] It addressed the development of
modern art since the
Impressionists and was accompanied by a book of the same name; its combination of insight, wit and accessibility are still widely praised. Hughes remembers being directed by
Pegram with her saying, "It's a clever argument, Bob dear, but what are we supposed to be looking at?"[1]
In 2004 Hughes created a one-hour update to The Shock of the New titled The NEW Shock of the New.[5]
Series outline
The series consisted of eight episodes each one hour long (58 min approx).[6] It was re-broadcast on
PBS in the United States. In the three cases, where PBS changed the titles, they are given in square brackets below. Quotations are spoken by
Judi Dench and
Martin Jarvis.
Mechanical Paradise – how the development of technology influenced art between 1880 and end of World War I.
Cubism and
Futurism
The Powers That Be [Shapes of Dissent] – examining the relationship between modern art and authority.
Dada,
Constructivism,
Futurism, architecture of power
The Landscape of Pleasure – examining art's relationship with the pleasures of nature, and visions of paradise 1870s to 1950s.
Impressionism,
Post-Impressionism,
Fauvism
The View from the Edge [Sublime and Anxious Eye] – a look at those who made visual art from the crags and vistas of their internal world.
Expressionism
The Future That Was [End of Modernity] – the commercialisation of modern art, the decline of modernism, and art without substance.
Land art,
performance art, and
body art
The book of the series was published in 1980 by the BBC under the title The Shock of the New: Art and the century of change.[7] It was republished in 1991 by
Thames and Hudson.[8] The book was included by The Guardian in their list of the top 100 non-fiction books and was still in print in 2012.[2]
Video releases
The televised edition of The Shock of the New has been posted on the internet[9][10] and is published as a set of DVDs.[11]