The Shock of the New
The Shock of the New
TV ShowEnded

The Shock of the New

6.0 / 10
1980
1 season
8 episodes
Documentary

The renowned definitive eight part series on the rise and fall of the modern art movement presented by Australian art critic Robert Hughes.

Sign in to add to your list

What critics are saying

Verdicts use the same scale as your list: highly recommended through avoid — plus optional scores and blurbs.

Highly recommended Recommend Give it a go Neutral Avoid

Nobody on Critic, Sir! has logged a verdict for this title yet. The silence is either respectful or suspicious.

Sign in and use Add to My List below to share your own verdict.

Trailer

Robert Hughes & the 'dumb show of modern art' (tailpiece from 'The Shock of the New')

Cast

Seasons

  • Ep 1

    1.The Mechanical Paradise

    21-09-198060m

    The irruption of the machine as a catalyst for the change in the forms and visions of artists in the early twentieth century. Cubism and Futurism as the movement of modern world an...

  • Ep 2

    2.The Powers That Be

    28-09-198060m

    After the WW1 art is not indifferent to the change that the catastrophe had been. A provocative and ironic art, Dadaism was continued by militant leftist artists in Germany. In Rus...

  • Ep 3

    3.The Landscape of Pleasure

    05-10-1980

    Throughout the work of the Impressionists, Matisse or Picasso, the principle of pleasure and harmony are present in the art of the twentieth century.

  • Ep 4

    4.Trouble in Utopia

    12-10-1980

    The architectural utopia of modernity and its aspirations for change and social improvement and its failure.

  • Ep 5

    5.The Threshold of Liberty

    19-10-1980

    Surrealist painters sought extreme freedom through art, exploring the irrational world as well as the world of dreams.

  • Ep 6

    6.The View from the Edge

    26-10-1980

    The interior of the mind, the obsessions and the forces that dominate life, form the work of modern artists from van Gogh and Munch, to the American abstract expressionists.

  • Ep 7

    7.Culture as Nature

    02-11-1980

    In the mid-twentieth century the symbols of modern culture reflect the power of the media. Advertising, radio and television became the subject of artists. Pop art broke into the s...

  • Ep 8

    8.The Future That Was

    09-11-1980

    The end of modernity makes Robert Hughes raise the trajectory of art and its surroundings during the twentieth century and doubts about its future and achievements.

Watching Lists

Sign in to create and edit public lists.

Loading lists…

Purchase & Discovery

Find this title on Amazon

Digital

Prime Video & digital

Amazon mixes rent, buy, and Prime in one place — one search covers the usual options.

As an Amazon Associate, Critic, Sir! earns from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure