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The Cult of Progress
Examine the rise and fall of “progress” as an ideology, and see how the “civilizing” project that arose from Enlightenment ideas was fraught with contradictions that troubled European artists in different ways.
Episode Clips
Capturing Unspoiled Landscape
Thomas Cole regarded the US landscape as being what he called the undefiled work of Gods.
Manet Twists the Conventions of Art
Edouard Manet created a masterpiece famed as a masterclass in visual subversion.
George Catlin's Indian Portraits
Despite his interest in portraiture, Catlin he said the Native Americans must perish.
Otto Dix's Definitive Artistic Statement
Otto Dix and his generation had borne witness to the horrors of World War I.
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