Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
31	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	1	2	3	4

BBC - American Visions (2002)

Posted By: Polik88

Date: 7 Nov 2013 20:50:12

American Visions, an eight-part series on American art written and narrated by Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes, is both an account of American life and a tribute to American art that will likely propel thousands of the not-yet-converted into museums and galleries, antiques shows and auction rooms to see (and inevitably shop) for themselves. Filmed in 100 locations around the country, covering everything from Quaker to Shaker, George Washington to Bierstadt, Remington to Warhol, and the skyscrapers of New York City, Hughes has applied his considerable wit and imagination to the problem of revealing how art records and preserves both points of view and ways of life. It is American history told through art, not merely a history of art. It offers a perspective that is refreshingly elevating and inclusive. With the same voracious wit and opinionated brilliance that have characterized his criticism for Time magazine, this tour-de-force spans three centuries of events, movements, and personalities that have shaped American society and its art.

Part 1: The Republic of Virtue
Robert Hughes charts the foundation of a national identity that sought architectural inspiration from Greece and Rome. He also looks at America's earliest major painters.

Part 2: The Promised Land
Robert Hughes explains how America was shaped by Europeans - Spaniards in the south west, Pilgrims in the north east and struggling cavaliers in Virginia - who saw the New World as both paradise and hell.

Part 3: The Wilderness and the West
Art critic Robert Hughes looks at America's majestic landscapes, exploring how artists have contributed to the religious and patriotic connotations of nature.

Part 4: The Gilded Age
Robert Hughes considers how the Civil War industrialised society, bringing steam power, the Brooklyn Bridge, plutocrats and an urban underclass. Nostalgia for loss entered the culture and brought the Museum Age.

Part 5: The Wave from the Atlantic
Mass immigration at the turn of the century confirmed America as a multicultural society, but also brought increased poverty and slum life. Robert Hughes examines how this was often reflected in art.

Part 6: Streamlines and Breadlines
Robert Hughes considers America during the 1920s and 30s, including the skyscraper as the image of modernism, the Depression, regionalist art and black art.

Part 7: The Empire of Signs
Robert Hughes examines America's development into the art capital of the West between 1945 and the late 1960s, with the advent of abstract expressionism and pop art.

Part 8: The Age of Anxiety
Robert Hughes focuses on work that responded to the Vietnam War and civil strife. He traces the development of minimalism and ends up on top of an extinct volcano.

MediaInfo:

General
Complete name : American.Visions.1of8.The.Republic.of.Virtue.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 674 MiB
Duration : 53mn 52s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 750 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2013-11-04 11:08:14
Tagged date : UTC 2013-11-04 11:08:14
Writing application : Lavf51.12.1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=12
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 53mn 52s
Bit rate : 1 617 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.156
Stream size : 623 MiB (92%)
Encoded date : UTC 2013-11-04 11:08:14
Tagged date : UTC 2013-11-04 11:08:14

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 53mn 52s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 49.3 MiB (7%)
Encoded date : UTC 2013-11-04 11:08:14
Tagged date : UTC 2013-11-04 11:08:14

Screenshots