TY  - ADVS
AU  - 14-2-28
TI  - MECHANICAL PARADISE/THE POWERS THAT BE
PY  - 1979///; BBC/Ambrose Video
KW  - Art
KW  - Art History
KW  - Modern Art
N2  - This series is the sequel to the BBC's "Civilization" series.  It was written and presented by Robert Hughes, art critic and senior writer for Time magazine. Hughes draws on a wealth of materials, including rare footage and interviews with noted artists from le Corbusier, Max Ernst, Francis Bacon, Picasso, Matisse, Jackson Pollock and many others. VOL. 1. - MECHANICAL PARADISE: The period 1870-1914 was one of the hinge points in Western culture.  It's emblem, the Eiffel Tower, symbolized the reign of the engineer, the inventor. Delaunay's work was shot through with images of aircraft, solar disks and the Eiffel Tower. In Italy, the Futurists clamored  against the violence of the modern world. In France, Marcel Duchamp and Franci Picabia made their own iconic jokes and iconoclastic images of life, including sex, seen through the machine metaphor.  Expressionism is played out against the postwar collapse of Germany and the rise of a sharply internationalist intellectual climate.  VOL. 2. - THE POWERS THAT BE: Dada and Expressionism were set against the collapse of Germany after World War 1.  The avant-garde's energies were about to be used in service of real political revolutions. Some of the post-World War I's best art was produced in opposition to all systems, all authorities, with a rancor and ingenuity scarcely imagined before. The political implications of Dada (Ernst, Schwitters, Hoch, Baader) and of German Expressionism were played out against the postwar collapse of Germany and the rise of a sharply internationalist intellectual climate. The nihilistic tradition of Dada dissent continued for years to its last major exponent, Ed Kienholz
ER  -